BILLBOARD TO FINE-TUNE ITS MUSIC CHART SYSTEM : CHANGING LISTINGS MAY ALTER WHAT GETS AIRPLAY.

Byline: Michelle DeArmond Associated Press 

Billboard magazine's record charts, a leading measure of musical tastes that can make or break careers faster than a speeding bullet, are being retuned - a move that may affect what you hear on the radio.

Editors at the recording industry bible have discovered that a variety of factors may be skewing their influential charts. Among the concerns: the record company practice of deep-discounting music and Billboard's own method of using radio airplay to gauge the success of some kinds of music, but not others.

Consequently, Billboard is completely revamping how it calculates its charts, including the Hot 100 list. And if the editors succeed in creating more accurate surveys, consumers soon could notice changes in which songs they hear on the radio and which discs they're urged to buy.

The move comes more than six years after Billboard switched to a more comprehensive, high-tech methodology it had hoped would better reflect listeners' tastes.

Broadcast Data Systems tracks airplay in more than 125 markets around the clock, and SoundScan monitors sales in greater than 85 percent of stores.

Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's charts editor, said that while many in the industry will agree the new methodology implemented in December 1991 was an improvement, Billboard executives have determined that changes still are needed to increase accuracy.

``It would be kind of irresponsible to put something into play several years ago and not look at it again,'' Mayfield said. ``There were a lot of different things that prompted it. . . . There were some things that we noticed that we had to ask ourselves about.''

Mayfield said the Hot 100 chart, a listing of the nation's most popular singles, has several opportunities for improvement. The chart places more emphasis on radio airplay, which tends to fluctuate less wildly than sales, although for some songs, airplay isn't considered at all.

``We're playing around with some different things. Namely . . . the chart now has about 60 percent radio (points) and 40 percent sales (points) although that ratio can vary greatly according to song, and we're looking at whether to change that ratio and whether to broaden radio play,'' he said.

Mayfield said Billboard might expand the types of radio stations it follows to more than just Top 40, adult contemporary, modern rock and some rhythm genres. Such a change would limit or eliminate the number of songs whose popularity is calculated solely on sales.

``Is it fair for country singles and certain rap singles to show up only on the strength of sales points and not have any radio play to support them?'' Mayfield said.

Mayfield said he also was concerned about some companies' tendencies to deep-discount their high-appeal artists in an effort to push up their sales points.

``We were concerned about the impact that that can have on the chart,'' he said. ``The record companies are sick of wasting money. It's sort of a galvanizing issue.''

Mayfield said he didn't think the low-ball pricing had dramatically changed any artist's success, but still felt it was an issue that needed to be addressed.

Mayfield said there are an increasing number of singles that never make it into retail stores because the record companies only sell them to radio stations. Those types of singles currently are excluded from consideration for the chart.

``I would say that it's likely that we will continue to require that a single be available on retail to be eligible on the chart, that's one issue we've come close to consensus on,'' Mayfield said.