What determined where a record was placed in a jukebox?

I always wondered - was there any special determination as to where a song
was stocked in a jukebox, or were new songs just placed wherever an outgoing
song left a hole? Would an operator rotate song placement around from time
to time to keep it looking fresh?

Jon Scaptura

There were (and still are) "popularity meters" in jukeboxes that tell an
operator which records have been getting played the most.
Operators would usually change out the least played records with new
releases no matter where they were located in the juke.
Usually at special times of the year they would do a more thorough change
out and move around, normally at the holidays when they would be taking out
a lot of records to put in Christmas music.

"Jon Scaptura" wrote in message
...
I always wondered - was there any special determination as to where a song
was stocked in a jukebox, or were new songs just placed wherever an
outgoing song left a hole? Would an operator rotate song placement around
from time to time to keep it looking fresh?

Jon Scaptura

John,

We never prioritized placement of records on the jukebox. We would use the strips of color gel to highlight new records that had just been added, though.

However, a lot of times when we replaced the jukebox, we would load the original records in reverse order. Most people thought we had added a slew of "new" records...
This tactic will still work on the CD models!

Most barmaids knew their favorite selection by number and would ask a patron to play "137" or whatever the number happened to be. If their particular favorite did not play, we would get a service call saying that the jukebox was playing the wrong records. ;-)