Top 40 Satellite Survey

[mrjukebox]

Here's another countdown show that I vaguely remember from the mid-80's-It was called "Top 40 Satellite Survey"-It was distributed by CBS Radio & hosted by NYC broadcast legend Dan Ingram-It premiered in 1984 but I'm not sure how long it was on the air-Would anyone else happen to know?

[MEF]

I think it started in April 1984 and lasted until December 1986.

[hothitzdj]

Here's what I wrote in a previous post:

"I will add that 1984 also saw the debut of another CHR/Pop countdown, Dan Ingram’s Top 40 Satellite Survey. This show lasted 141 weeks ending December 26-28, 1986. I have found the #8 show dated June 8-10, 1984, so we can safely assume the debut date based upon that show. I also found December 13, 1986 with guest host Bob Shannon with cue sheets that state end date of the show. This was a three-hour Top 40 show with a self-produced chart. Thus, it is an incredible chart study if you can find these shows. I have run across less than 10 shows so far."

[mrjukebox]

I'm pretty certain that "Top 40 Satellite Survey" aired in the NYC area on WHTZ (Z-100) & in New Haven/Hartford,CT on WKCI (KC 101).

[pandy]

Mar 3, 2012 20:45:26 GMT -5 mrjukebox said:

I'm pretty certain that "Top 40 Satellite Survey" aired in the NYC area on WHTZ (Z-100) & in New Haven/Hartford,CT on WKCI (KC 101).

, It must of been before KC101 started airing Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 I know they did around the late 80's.

[ronnie21]

actually sattellite survey debuted in april of 84..

[hothitzdj]

Please post what dates of this show you have found:

Here's the ones I have run across:

June 8-10, 1984 #8/84
May 11, 1985 #56/85
September 7, 1985
October 12, 1985
August 23, 1986#123
September 26, 1986
October 18, 1986 #131
October 25, 1986 #132
December 13, 1986 #139 guest-host Bob Shannon

[mkarns]

I've never heard this countdown, but was it three hours with commercials? If so, then many of the songs must really have been butchered, judging from the later three hour AT40s. Hit songs of the 1980s weren't getting any shorter.

[Hervard]

Yeah, lots of the songs were butchered. Either that, or they were faded out extra early.

One instance of the former was on a fall, 1986 show. When they played "Don't Forget Me" by Glass Tiger, they started it out with the second verse. In the musical intro, they were all of a sudden singing, "Oooh, if you could see what I could see". (Actually, the "oooh" was from the word "true", the last word in the first verse).

Yeah, I listened to the show religiously from May, 1986 through the last show in December. I was quite disappointed that they didn't end the show with a Top 40 of 1986, but I guess that's the way it is. I wonder what the number one song would have been? (My guess is "Higher Love" by Steve Winwood, which spent more time on the chart than any other song that year - 17 weeks. Plus, I think it was number one for two or three weeks.

[statenislandfan]

Actually the show aired in NYC on 92.3 WKTU after the disco craze was over on that station and something we weren't used to was to hear Dan on FM in stereo...then the station made a come back when WYNY switched formats from country to dance and changed their call letters to 103 5 the new KTU.

[snarfdude]

I have show 49 from March 23rd, 1985.....bought it off Ebay a couple years back. Once in awhile you see them turn up.

I never heard it. I was addicted to Billboard's syndicated programming column in the 80s and used to go to the library to read it. The trade ads for Top 40 SS turned up now and then, so I was aware of the show, but never had a chance to listen to it until I bought the discs off ebay.

It's probably as obsecure as The Soupy Sales Moldy Oldies Show from NBC that was around the same time and lasted about a year. They do show up, but not very common.

[Hervard]

I liked listening to this show, but the chart was kind of weird, with songs, in some cases still moving up the chart that were either gone from the Top 40 of the R&R charts or moving down. which I also followed at the time. Gavin Christopher's "One Step Closer To You", for instance, moved 25-18 the week that it was moving down to #27 on R&R, and would drop off the chart the following week. Well, it fell to #39 on the Top 40 Satellite Survey chart. I'm wondering if the charts were made several weeks ahead of time (since "One Step Closer" had made a seven-spot move on the R&R chart about a month earlier.)

In some cases, a song would mysteriously move back up the chart. "I Can't Hold Back" by Survivor had hit the Top Ten in November or early December, 1984. Then, I came across an aircheck of the December 22 show and the song was moving back up nine spots to #8. The year-end show was the following week, so who knows - the song might have fallen clean off the chart by the first weekly show of 1985.

[snarfdude]

I personally don't closely follow the charts outside the show, so differences don't matter to me.

I would expect certain "mistakes" to potentially happen anyway with the tight timeline for the any weekly countdown show production. One mistake can throw the whole thing off track and its not always practical to fix it and make the air date. Most listeners won't necessarily pay attention too closely, especially industry trade publication charts. It may not necessarily be the purist right thing to do, but being in radio production for years at the radio station level, I can surmise a reasonable explanation.

[palmer7]

Hey. If anyone wants to listen to a T40SS episode, I have one from August 1985.


I found this off a box.net link from another music forum, put it together, and then posted it on YouTube. The copyright police caught up to it, so I had to take it down. But now, it's up on ZippCast! Enjoy!

www.zippcast.com/video/1db1ef270a4e513b6d9

[davewollenberg]

Dan liked to call 'top 40 SS' the 'all-thriller, no filler' countdown.