AT40 Flashback - What's the Difference?

[OldSchoolAT40Fan]

I heard tell of a series of rebroadcasts called "AT40 Flashback" that aired from 2000 to 2002. But my question is, what is the difference between "AT40 Flashback" and "AT40: The 80's (or 70's)"? Did "AT40 Flashback" have a lot of editing involved, and were those broadcasts shorter than the "AT40: The 70's/80's" broadcasts?

[Mike]

Jan 10, 2012 13:42:34 GMT -5 OldSchoolAT40Fan said:

I heard tell of a series of rebroadcasts called "AT40 Flashback" that aired from 2000 to 2002. But my question is, what is the difference between "AT40 Flashback" and "AT40: The 80's (or 70's)"? Did "AT40 Flashback" have a lot of editing involved, and were those broadcasts shorter than the "AT40: The 70's/80's" broadcasts?

I'm not sure if 70s broadcasts were included. But for the 80s, the first hour was chopped off. It's the same modus operandi that stations that only air the 3-hour version are doing with AT40: The 80s broadcasts today.

[Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever]

Flashback was limited to the years 1980 to 1988 (the period that Casey hosted AT40). At first, the entire original 4 hour show was broadcast, but some PDs complained of having to play low ranking songs and the show was limited to the last 3 hours. Some PDs also objected to broadcasts from 1980 and 1981 and shows from those years were not played as much as Flashback continued. The series ended in December 2002 but one station in Ohio kept playing AT40 Flashback until 2007 when American Top 40: 80s debuted.

There is a section of this website devoted to AT40 Flashback. Here's the link

www.angelfire.com/music4/at40coc/flashback.html

[Mike]

Jan 10, 2012 15:20:45 GMT -5 Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever said:

The series ended in December 2002 but one station in Ohio kept playing AT40 Flashback until 2007 when American Top 40: 80s debuted.

WMMX.

[shadster]

I liked the production value of AT40 Flashback, than today's version "AT40 the 80s." The reason being, AT40 flashback had liners and jingles, and best of all, Casey would introduce the show featured and close the show at the end. The segments we hear today w/ the closing AT40 jingle, an immediate starting of the next AT40 jingle (what would of normaly been a comercial break in the 80s, essentially 2 tracks back to back) was bumpered by "American Top 40 Flashback, 198--whatever". Or Casey would chime in an give a brief history lesson of what was happening during 198--whatever, example: who won the world series. etc. Every segment would have some sort of liner, jingle or Casey introduction. You knew you were listening to a retro show. With today's format, the only time the Show's name is mention, is at the top of each hour when Larry Morgan chimes in. Unless the station produces their own liners, like WQSR does, a new listener I think would be confused as to why this old countdown is on this station right now. Which is why when I re-edit the shows, I throw in the old AT40 flashback bumpers an liners. The year liner's throughout the show helped the listener know what year they were listening too, if one could't figure it out. Today, we hafta wait till Larry tells us what year it is. Of course we here on this board already know what year it is, I'm speaking for average, or occasional listener. And yes, the major flaw w/ FB was the fact that you only got the Top 30. Top 30 of a show called AT "40". Dumb, but we're just listeners, we have no control over what corporate does. At least there was no editing, it was aired as it originally was aired (minus the 1st hour of course). And there werent any optional extra's.

[bestmusicexpert]

Did they do themes to the end? Thats why I enjoyed it in the early days that XM aired it! Thats when I had XM through Directv. The new thing they have is worse. Basically every station seems to be a continuous loop that I notice repeats at the same timeframes, OFTEN!

[Scott Lakefield]

Yes. Assuming your local affiliate didn't fade them out, the original end of hour and end of show themes were intact on Flashback.

Regarding the current 70s and 80s shows, I guess Premiere's thinking is that local stations will tell you you are listening to a retro show, though I suspect this doesn't happen on many stations.

[Mike]

It mostly doesn't. Mine, WCRZ, has off-and-on liners that give the year, though last week was the first time they've had them in a couple of months.

I like it better that they don't automatically include so many mentions of the year, just because having the year mentioned during EVERY break would get really annoying really quick, IMO. It's different if it's the station mentioning the year on their own, though.