American Top 40 Affilates in the 1980's

[nickle98499]

hello, I am trying to find out what stations carried American Top 40 from 1980-1988 when Casey Kasem left the show. I have a listing of stations that carried AT40 in the 1970's and I have gotten some stations from Casey's station mentions during the XM broadcasts as well as from the internet however I still would like to know what stations carried the show in the 80's. Hopefully somone can help me out with this, thanks in advance.

[UnknownEric]

In Buffalo, NY, AT40 was carried from 1980-early 1984 on WKBW 1520 AM. Then from early '84 until the end of 1988 it was on WMJQ 102.5 FM.

[bandit73]

WKRQ in Cincinnati had AT40 in 1983 or earlier, and kept it at least through 1991. Before 1983 it might have been on WSKS, and I know it was on WOKV in the late '70s (possibly into 1980).

[bandit73]

Also, WGTZ in Dayton got AT40 by the late '80s. (If WSKS in Cincinnati had it, it probably would have doubled as the Dayton affiliate, because WSKS had a weird tower location.)

[Shannon Lynn]

Nickle,
Each year AT40 published a list of affiliates called their "Listening Directory" that was sorted by state and gave the station call letters, day of the week the show aired and time of day of airing. I know I have a couple of these posted of my site, www.charismusicgroup.com under "The Shows" where all of the AT40 cue sheets collected to date have been posted. For example, check 6-26-82.

[nickle98499]

thank you sportgames I will check it out

[coldcardinal]

I don't have any hard data to add, but here's something I'll never forget:

KRQQ in Tucson, who started carrying the countdown sometime in 1982, pulled the nastiest stunt I could ever imagine, from the perspective of a 10-year-old who lived for the countdown: They dropped AT40 the week of the 1983 year-end countdown!

So I never got to hear a 1983 year end, and I had to suffer through imitation countdowns until KRQQ picked it up again in late 1986.

[nickle98499]

sportgames, would you happen to know besides 6-26-82 what dates the other listening directories are under?

[Deleted]

Could I ask a question, and I don't mean this in a mean or rude way either. Why is any of this information important? There are two questions in this thread about AT40 start times, affiliates, etc from years ago. And this isn't the first time it's been asked, it seems like in the last 6 months this question has been asked repeatedly. Are any of you who are asking for this stuff writing a book on it or something? I know personally I couldn't begin to tell you when the shows aired here way back when.

[bandit73]

coldcardinal said:

So I never got to hear a 1983 year end, and I had to suffer through imitation countdowns until KRQQ picked it up again in late 1986.

They didn't have a Tucson affiliate from 1983 to 1986??? That's impossible! I know Tucson still had at least one AM top 40 station back then (because it was on the Hot 100 panel). A market that had at least 2 or 3 top 40 stations total had to have had AT40 on one of them, especially since this was probably at the height of AT40's popularity.

(I know the stations on the Hot 100 panel weren't necessarily the same ones that carried AT40, but I'm just pointing this out to show that KRQQ did have some competition.)

[coldcardinal]

bandit73 said:

coldcardinal said:

So I never got to hear a 1983 year end, and I had to suffer through imitation countdowns until KRQQ picked it up again in late 1986.

They didn't have a Tucson affiliate from 1983 to 1986??? That's impossible! I know Tucson still had at least one AM top 40 station back then (because it was on the Hot 100 panel). A market that had at least 2 or 3 top 40 stations total had to have had AT40 on one of them, especially since this was probably at the height of AT40's popularity.

(I know the stations on the Hot 100 panel weren't necessarily the same ones that carried AT40, but I'm just pointing this out to show that KRQQ did have some competition.)

Hmm. 1360-AM (KHYT, I think) was a top-40 station off and on throughout the '80s, so that may be the one that was on the panel. But to the best of my knowledge, it never carried AT40.

I'm not totally discounting the idea that I could have been oblivious to the countdown in the market -- I was only 10-13, after all. But I still think it's unlikely, unless someone has specific info to the contrary.

[spt72]

WCIL-FM 101.5 in Carbondale, IL. carried the show throughout the 80s and some with Shadoe also.

They also did a cool thing where they would run a "Southern Illinois WCIL-FM Top 40" chart right after it also supposedly based upon a combo of CIL requests and record sales at the mall in Carbondale. So we, in essence, had 7-8 hours of countdowns on a typical Sunday afternoon. What a great time it was to be in junior high and high school in the 80s. We were always at a friends house on Sunday afternoons with CIL on the radio listening to the countdowns. The perfect childhood.

[tacomalo]

What about affiliates in the 1970s? I was hoping to find out when my local station started picking up AT40. I have on old cassette at home with parts of the 2-26-1972 show, but I was really hoping there was a source to find out when KTGR-Columbia, MO started carrying the show--so I could figure out when I started listening to Casey. Any one know a source?

[saintfan]

Our local station carrying AT 40 was KRNQ (Q102) in Des Moines, IA They began airing the show in January 1976 (station welcomed on 1/17/76 show), 9AM to 12PM & 7PM to 10PM Sundays. In October 1977 the 7PM airing was dropped. The show was dropped for good in March 1989 (for Casey), In fact when Casey began airing in Jan 1989, AT 40 had to be aired until its contract expired so they dropped it to 5AM to 9AM, and Casey aired in the 9AM to 1PM time slot where AT 40 had been since 1976.

[tobedawg]

Here in Central California, The old Stereo 104 KHOP carried the show in the mid to late 80's and continued to carry the show after it became FM 104, and moved on to carrying "Casey's Top 40" in 1989, and dropped AT40 until 1991, when it began airing AT40 With Shadoe at night at CT40 Sunday Mornings and did so until they flipped to a Rock format in late 1992.

We also had KBOS B95 in Fresno carrying the show twice once Sunday morning and then again Sunday nights in the mid 80's, interestingly when B-95 went rhytmatic they still carried AT40 at 5 AM on Sunday Mornings before the "American Dance Tracks" countdown.. Also odd in around 1986 another Fresno Market Station, Magic 103.7 Aired AT40 on Saturday mornings at 9am and Magic was one of the first affiliates of CT40 when it debuted in early 1989, but Magic flipped formats later that year to Active Rock which it remains today..

AM 1480 KYOS also carried the show Sunday Mornings from 10 am to 2pm in the mid 80's during the Casey Kasem Era, but dropped the show in early 1988 when the station went in a more rhytmatic direction.. In the late 80's another Merced station carried the AT40 with Shadoe shows Sunday nights from 6 to 10 and that was KSNN Kissin 104.7 who also dropped the show when the station changed to a CHR/Rhytmatic format..

I also know that in the Bay Area K101 in San Francisco carried the show and for awhile, before they went Alternative 105.3 KITS in San Francisco carried the show (as I heard Casey say during one of the affiliate mentions on a 1985 show)..