When was the first time you heard At40?

[redsox]

Thanks Scott, for starting this tribute board in honor of Casey's gig at At40?


So I apologize if I post the first thread on the forum in which I ask this question?

When was the first time you heard At40 with Casey Kasem on the radio?

I know many people who post frequently here have already posted their memories on other threads all throughout the board but I want to know when they first heard the show as in what year, what radio station did they listen to hear the program and did they listen to other countdown before or during Casey's run on At40.

Maybe we will get more new memories from our newbies on this board.

[mrjukebox]

I vividly remember the first time I heard "AT40"-It was in May 1974-One of the stories Casey told was the fact that "Bennie & The Jets" by Elton John wasn't recorded live-Instead,crowd noises were added to give the listener that impression-The #1 song that week was "The Streak" by Ray Stevens-There were two stations I heard "AT40" on:WPIX-New York,NY & WDRC-Hartford,CT-After Casey left ABC-Watermark in 1988,I went back & forth between Shadoe Stevens,who succeeded Casey & "Casey's Top 40".

[vto66]

The first AT40 show I heard in full was the June 14, 1980 show, which aired June 15 on KYA in San Francisco. "Funky Town" by Lipps, Inc. was that week's No. 1 song. I had heard bits and pieces of various AT40 shows throughout the early part of that year, starting with the January 12 show guest-hosted by Mike Cleary ("Rock With You" by Michael Jackson was No. 1 that week), and I can also remember hearing part of one of the shows where Pink Floyd had the week's biggest hit. This was at a swim meet during the spring of 1980.

[mstgator]

The first AT40 I distinctly remember hearing was in the summer of 1978, during one of Andy Gibb's seven weeks on top with "Shadow Dancing" (can't narrow it down any more than that, since the only thing I remember clearly was Casey introducing that song at #1). That was on WGGG-AM in Gainesville, FL, my source for AT40 until I moved to Cape Coral in August 1981.

[laura]

The first time I heard was back in 1999 and haven't stopped listening ever since. It was later on when I got into the classic 70s and 80s shows.

[redsox]

Well, this is my story on how I discovered At40 and Casey Kasem.

I use to listen to Mark Elliott's Weekly top 30 and Charlie Van Dyke's Music Magazine in 1981-82 when I was visiting my Grandmother's House in Boston, MA when my uncle played the show on WROR-FM in Boston around 10/24/81 when I heard Casey Kasem was introducing Billy Joel's "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" at #19 and I thought hmmm is the announcer who does the promos for NBC Saturday morning shows which included the Smurfs after listening to a few more songs I just listen to the program around #15.

Then on 2/6/82, I return to Boston with my mother and my brother and I decided to listen to Casey's show in full and I discovered that I like the show a lot and I came back the following week and the week after just to listen to the show on WROR-FM and I did it again for April of the year but I missed the shows for March and most of May because I didn't know is one of the radio station in the Springfield, MA-Hartford, CT had the show on their lineup but on 5/29/82 while surfing the radio stations I heard the song "Fantasy" by Aldo Nova and as the song started to fade I heard Casey's voice saying that the tune moved up a knotch to #23 on At40 this week and I found out the station that carried it was WHMP-FM in Northampton, MA which was an AC station as the time and kept airing At40 when they changed to top 40 and kept airing it until ABC Watermark pull the show of the US airwaves in 1994.

I also listened to At40 on station WDRC-FM in Hartford, WCGY in Cape Cod, WBZ-AM in Boston, I95 in Connecticut, and WPRO in Providence, RI plus WKSS in Hartford which aired the current version of At40 with Ryan Seacrest.

I also listen to Casey's Top 40 on WTIC-FM as well.

I will try to listen to the the finally of either At20 or At10 on July 4-5 to see if he says goodbye to all the listeners who listened to the show all these years maybe he might do a special of some of big hits that were played on the program.

[BrettVW]

I first heard Casey on AT20 Hot AC in early 2000. I quickly developed an interest in the show, and I followed him on both AT40 and AT20 Hot AC from 2001 to 2004, and then AT20 from 2004-now. I even had the priviledge to board-op AT20 from November 2005 to July 2007.

In February 2008, Casey answered a Question Letter of mine on AT20 and AT10. And perhaps my biggest thrill was meeting Casey in person on April 26, 2008 at Casey Kasem Day in Fenton, Michigan. I still have my picture of the two of us standing together, and will always cherish it.

[Mike Schwartz]

Some random AT 40 memories:

I was at a sleepaway camp in the Berkshire Mts of Mass in 1974. The station which aired AT40 was an album rock station-believe it or not. Instead of commercials, they aired AOR tracks during the breaks. It was quite a train wreck to go from Yes to Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods or from The Band into Paper Lace but late on a Sunday night, it was a taste of home for all the guys in the bunk just to hear Casey's voice. I say home because we were from NYC, Philadelphia, Boston and Houston. We didn't agree much on baseball but to all of us, Casey was the hometown countdown king.

Vacationing in Hawaii with the family in 1979, we used to go out for ice cream late on a Sunday morning where the store owner or manager hooked up his tuner to a great sounding audio system so that 83 AM KIKI seemed to be broadcasting in stereo. What was awesome was that by about #5 or #4, nobody got out of their seats, so that it was like standing room only as all the customers enjoyed their ice cream treats and the hits from Earth Wind and Fire, Maxine Nightingale, Donna Summer, Robert John, Chic etc.

My senior year in high school was 1982 and 66 WNBC began rebroadcasting the previous weeks countdown on Sat nights with the new countdown on Sunday morning. Since most of us still drove cars with just am tuners, AT 40 was the sound of Saturday night, not to mention a great chart review, before the new countdown debuted 12 hours later.

[shadster]

I have no idea when I first heard Casey counten-em-down, but likely somewhere around 1980, or either side of that year. I wasn't into music or radio at the time so I would only hear him in the car, driving back from my parents beach house, sunday nights. We typically would go down there every other weekend. Needless to say, sunday nights was not very pleasant: A long 2 hour car ride home; usually late at night (9-11, 10-midnite), an of course the thought of having to go back to school the next day was just unbearable. Casey was I guess sort of a bright spot but at the same time, hearing him, you knew it was sunday night, an you were going home an back to skewl......ick. Twas depressing for me at least. I'm sure I never heard a complete show, that would come later. And I now know (didn't know then) that the station I was hearing Casey on was WPGC 95.5. I had no preference as to what station was on in the car, that was left up to either my sis (WPGC) or my Parents (some country station). All I knew for sure was, I hated country.

It wasn't until X-mas of '83 when I got my 1st stereo that I really discovered radio an got hooked. I first latched onto Countdown America w/ John Leader cuz I just really dug his voice. Would typically record the show an listen again later. I of course would find Casey again too an probably the 1st show I would of heared beginning to end was likely somewhere in early 1984, as Casey was kind of everywhere. At that time on sunday mornings in DC on Q107, and I would typically listen sunday afternoons on WRAR 105.5 from 3-7, or saturdays on WMDM All Hit 98, as those stations were local to my folks beach house (yup, we were still going down there every other weekend).

One show I remember specifically listening to was the Top100 of 1985, which I recorded the ending from off of WMDM 97.7, probably heard a lil bit of the show the next day, sunday on BOTH Q107 an WRAR, and then listened to it yet AGAIN!! on the drive home on a lil station I discovered in Fredricksburg, VA, WFVA 101.5. They had a very weak signal back then, it would fade out hard just 20 miles north of the city, but when I got home, I took my boom box, moved all around my house to find a spot where I could just pick it up, an listen to the ending. WFVA has since become WBQB B101.5 an doubled or tripled their wattage.

I didn't start recording Casey till the mid 90s, mainly cuz by then it was a hard commodity to come by. DC didn't have a CHR. Sometimes I would record him from Q94 in Richmond, or WCEM Mix106.3 Easton, MD, which was a HotAC station, yet they still aired CT40 at least until '94. 1994 Casey got as close to DC as he ever would again (CHR countdown that is) on Z104 in Frederick, which could just barely be heard in the dc burbs. They bit the dust in '95 but would return in '96, different owners, slightly different format, an on 2 different frequencys an finally brought CHR back to dc, but not Casey. Casey's countdown eventually popped up on WASH fm but I don't know when......might not of been till after it became AT-20 (AC version). And as some of us know, if Casey is heard on 1 station, none of his other shows can be heard on any other market station. Casey's Hot 20 and later AT-20 would appear on WINC fm, which continues to air it today.

I would always try an record the end of year shows starting w/ '93 (WCEM), '94 (Z104 WZYQ), '95.......1995 I had some Flu bug. I REALLY wanted to drive down to my folks beach hosue so I could tape Caseys Top100 of '95 from Q94 RIchmind, but I had a 103 fever; just couldnt bring myself to do it, but was able to record Rick Dees 95 of 95 strangely enough from Jammin 99.5 DC. '96 was from Q94 Richmond but I missed week 1, '97 (Q94), '98 (Q101 WQPO Harrisonburg)<--I discovered this station was airing Casey on the weekend in which "Iris" from the GooGoo Dolls dabued. There was a website that would upload the CT40/AT40 chart on saturdays, you can browse thru it here: web.archive.org/web/19990127215736/charter.simplenet.com/pastop40/index.html and when I found out that "Iris" was a dabue, I purposly drove down to Fredricksburg (an hours drive) just to tape that song off AT40 from Q94. I figured it'd be weeks before any DC station would add that song. While there I heard Casey on Q101, which is significant in that I can more easily pick up Q101 near my home, just a 10 min drive away, sit there an tape the show, from my car; twas only really bad in the dead of winter .....so '99 (Q101 again, but they changed to AT-20 in 2000, go figure) so for the rest of Casey's CHR run, I would tape him from Q94, which meant driving down to my folks beach house every so often to tape the show an obviously for 2 weeks at the end of each year . Unless I was out of town or somethin, an then I could tape him there. I didn't have much success w/ the end of year shows this decade though: 2000, I mixed up the weeks an didn't realize till it was too late to drive the hour or so south that Casey was doing part I, but I did manage to catch an internet broadcast of part I via my dialup internet connection . 2001 thru me for a loop: Q94 aired part I as normal, but in week 2 they aired part I AND part II back to back. Needless to say I got that show covered. but I figured they'd do the same in 2002, nope, so again I ended up missing part I as they ONLY aired part II in week 2. And then came 2003 and as some of us know, a LOT an I mean a LOT of stations never recieved part II an Q94 was one of em. To this day, I still dont have part II.

Sadly I didn't even know Casey was leaving AT40. I hadnt discovered this or any other music message board. I dont even think I got into ANY message board until 2004 even though Ive been on the internet since 1994. SO I had no clue 2003 was Caseys last top100. I had even made the trip down to Fredricksburg on that 1st weekend of 2004 hoping they would air part II but nope they aired instead, Caseys final Top40 countdown, un-beknownced to me, I just figured it was just another weekly survey, an even thoug I started taping it, my disapointment that it wasn't part II made me stop an turn the car around an go home. It wasn't until the next week when I found out, hearing Ryan Seacrest (Expecting to hear Rick Dees) as AT40 FINALLY returned to DC on Hot99.5. I got on the internet an did some searching about it after that an quickly found some postings on message boards about it from a month earlier. Boy was I bummed. Flash forward to today an I can see parallels to 2003/4. Think about it......there are probably a millions of folks who have no idea Casey is quiting in a few weeks. I was one of em in '03. Fortuntly, since we have THIS here fine message board, I am one of the few 'informed' people on the planet, that know Casey is calling quits. Its still a sad, sad day to come but at least we won't be blind sided on July 12th.
I'm thankfull that at least I know about it, an have time to record his last few shows (allthough it really bites that Mike is filling in for him this week)

[mrjukebox]

Red Sox-WINE-AM & FM in Brookfield,CT used to simulcast "AT40" on Sunday afternoons between May 1975 & December 1976-On Christmas Eve of that year,WINE-FM morphed into WRKI-FM aka:I-95-That station plays album oriented rock & has done fairly well in the Arbitron ratings.

[UnknownEric]

I don't remember the exact date, but it was early 1983 on WKBW 1570 in Buffalo. I had been watching America's Top 10 on TV for a few months and when I came across a radio version with 40 whole songs in it, I was floored (I was also 7, so everything floored me). I had a new Sunday obsession for the next 10 years.

[Shadoe Fan]

My first real memory of hearing AT40 was back in 1982. According to Pete's book, the station I listened to AT40 on started in 1978, so I was probably hearing it then but just don't remember it.

[mkarns]

I don't remember the first AT40 I heard; probably sometime around 1985-86. Not until 1987 did it become a real commitment for me, writing down the countdown weekly and all. It reemerged as a commitment once I started hearing old countdowns rebroadcast, with Casey's familiar voice and style. Soon I was again planning my schedule around AT40 and similar shows, old and new.

[redsox]

Jun 10, 2009 11:57:19 GMT -5 mrjukebox said:

Red Sox-WINE-AM & FM in Brookfield,CT used to simulcast "AT40" on Sunday afternoons between May 1975 & December 1976-On Christmas Eve of that year,WINE-FM morphed into WRKI-FM aka:I-95-That station plays album oriented rock & has done fairly well in the Arbitron ratings.

Thanks for the info, mrjukebox

In the words of Casey Kasem, Now, back to the thread.

[pizzzzza]

My first memory of listening to AT 40 was on WCFL-AM Chicago in the fall of 1972 - I stumbled upon the show late, late one night - I remember it came on around 1 or 2 am, and I would struggle to stay awake to listen to it on my small, red transistor radio - it would come in and out, but I could still hear most of the show.

Fortunately, a local station in Charlottesville (VA) - WINA - picked up the show a few weeks later, and I was able to listen at a decent hour - Saturday mornings.

The first #1 I remember hearing was "My Ding A Ling" by Chuck Berry.