When did Casey know he was leaving?

[edhannan]

I'm listening to the show from the first week of June 1988, about two months before he left. Did he know at that point he was leaving? Was it earlier? Later? I'm guessing people on here know the answer, but it's not readily apparent from listening to the show two months before he left that he was about to leave.

[pointpark04]

It's been mentioned on several threads throughout this site that Casey indeed knew sometime in the spring of 1988 that he would not be staying on as host of AT40. His contract was up that summer, and negotiations fell apart, leading to his departure.

So, he knew well before that show that he would be leaving.

[edhannan]

ok, thanks. Saved me a lot of searching!

[jebsib]

Yeah, there was an announcement in Billboard back in May '88 about Shadoe taking over.

[mct1]

Casey probably knew he would be leaving before the end of the year well before he actually left. I think ABC Watermark made the decision to break off negotiations with Casey and start looking for a replacement somewhere around February 1988 (though I don't think they made any public announcement of this until a couple of months later). And he had to know by May or June, by which time his replacement had been named and waiting in the wings, that he would be leaving fairly soon. One thing I'm curious about, though, is when he knew specifically which week's show would be his final turn as the host of AT40. I think the affiliates were only notified of this a couple of weeks in advance. As Casey was recording the 8/6/88 show, he obviously knew it would be his last week. But as he was recording the 7/23/88 show (7/30/88 was guest-hosted, the notorious Hall & Oates show), did he know he had only one more show to go after that one? Or as he was recording the 7/16/88 show, did he know it would be his third-to-last show?

[mct1]

Sept 6, 2013 13:13:42 GMT -5 pointpark04 said:

His contract was up that summer, and negotiations fell apart, leading to his departure.

As I understand it, Casey's contract was actually up at the end of the year. Once ABC Watermark determined that there was no way they would be able to reach an agreement with him on an extension, they decided to find a replacement and put them on the air well before the end of the year. They did this because they deduced (correctly) that as soon as Casey was free of his AT40 contract, he would look to start up a new countdown show that would compete with AT40. ABC Watermark continued to pay Casey through the end of the year so that he would still be under contract until then, and could not start his new show until after the end of the year. Putting his AT40 replacement on earlier, but blocking Casey from starting up a new show until January 1989, would give the new AT40 host a chance to get a head start before they would have to go directly up against Casey and his new rival show.

[mct1]

Sept 6, 2013 12:21:33 GMT -5 edhannan said:

I'm listening to the show from the first week of June 1988, about two months before he left...it's not readily apparent from listening to the show two months before he left that he was about to leave.

I don't think it's readily apparent from any of his later shows that Casey was about to leave. He continued doing the show right up to the end the same as he always had, with no indication that anything was out of the ordinary. I wasn't a regular AT40 listener at the time Casey left, but I've heard that many listeners were unaware he was leaving, and were stunned to hear someone named Shadoe Stevens introduce himself as the new host of AT40 at the beginning of the 8/13/88 show.

[Mike]

Sept 6, 2013 19:58:49 GMT -5 mct1 said:

I don't think it's readily apparent from any of his later shows that Casey was about to leave. He continued doing the show right up to the end the same as he always had, with no indication that anything was out of the ordinary. I wasn't a regular AT40 listener at the time Casey left, but I've heard that many listeners were unaware he was leaving, and were stunned to hear someone named Shadoe Stevens introduce himself as the new host of AT40 at the beginning of the 8/13/88 show.

Starting in July, the only show bumpers between segments would be "The hits from coast to coast", or an instrumental, rather than those alternating with "Casey's coast to coast" - thus, taking that mention of Casey out of the show. Pretty subtle, actually, and easy to not notice if you're not looking for it - but that was in place.

[freakyflybry]

When did Casey start mentioning America's Top 10 in the credits? I know it was sometime in 1988.

[woolebull]

Sept 6, 2013 19:29:11 GMT -5 mct1 said:

Casey probably knew he would be leaving before the end of the year well before he actually left. I think ABC Watermark made the decision to break off negotiations with Casey and start looking for a replacement somewhere around February 1988 (though I don't think they made any public announcement of this until a couple of months later). And he had to know by May or June, by which time his replacement had been named and waiting in the wings, that he would be leaving fairly soon. One thing I'm curious about, though, is when he knew specifically which week's show would be his final turn as the host of AT40. I think the affiliates were only notified of this a couple of weeks in advance. As Casey was recording the 8/6/88 show, he obviously knew it would be his last week. But as he was recording the 7/23/88 show (7/30/88 was guest-hosted, the notorious Hall & Oates show), did he know he had only one more show to go after that one? Or as he was recording the 7/16/88 show, did he know it would be his third-to-last show?

In a letter dated 7/22/88 to the affiliates of, "American Top 40", the official date of Shadoe's first show was given so I'm sure that Casey was well aware that as he was recording the 7/23/88 show, he would have one left.

It's interesting to me, however, that he came back for the 8/6/88 show. I'm sure he was contractually obligated, but they could have worked something out...I'm sure Hall and Oates, or at least Oates could have switched dates with Casey so Casey could have left at the end of July

[adam31]

Sept 6, 2013 23:52:39 GMT -5 freakyflybry said:

When did Casey start mentioning America's Top 10 in the credits? I know it was sometime in 1988.

Along with this, does anyone know when Casey started crediting himself, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and ABC Watermark as co-creators of the show? Another clue unnoticed by many in the end credits forewarning the changes to come.

I am also curious what the arrangement was that Shadoe had to keep mentioning that AT40 was created by Casey Kasem, therefore saying his competitions' name in nearly every show! Although one AT40 I recently listened to from 1993 (don't recall the exact date), Shadoe did NOT mentioned the show was created by Casey Kasem in the end credits. Wonder what the ramifications were of that? Was ABC sued by Casey for not mentioning him in credits? Was ABC pissed about having to say Casey's name in every show?

[Shadoe Fan]

I just listened to the AT40 Book of Records '80s edition from Labor Day '89, and Shadoe did not say "AT40 was created by Casey Kasem...".

[SFGuy]

Speaking of Shadoe, does anyone have his first AT40 show? I have Casey's first and last show plus Shadoe's last show. I want Shadoe's first show to add to my collection.

[OldSchoolAT40Fan]

I think it's possible that Casey's contract may have expired at the end of July, and it's doubtful that Casey's final show was taped during the first week of August 1988. Normally, contracts expire at the end of a month, not in the middle, not early in a month. There may be a likelihood that Casey's final show may have taped at the end of July 1988.

And to whomever requested Shadoe's first show, I do happen to have it in my collection. I'll gladly deliver it whenever I get a chance.

[matt]

Sept 7, 2013 0:43:22 GMT -5 woolebull said:

It's interesting to me, however, that he came back for the 8/6/88 show. I'm sure he was contractually obligated, but they could have worked something out...I'm sure Hall and Oates, or at least Oates could have switched dates with Casey so Casey could have left at the end of July

Sept 9, 2013 11:17:20 GMT -5 OldSchoolAT40Fan said:

I think it's possible that Casey's contract may have expired at the end of July, and it's doubtful that Casey's final show was taped during the first week of August 1988. Normally, contracts expire at the end of a month, not in the middle, not early in a month. There may be a likelihood that Casey's final show may have taped at the end of July 1988.

It's obvious that when ABC decided to terminate Casey's contract early rather than keep him on through the end of 1988, they settled on the end of July. Keep in mind that the shows were typically tracked 10 days in advance of the air date/chart date, so the 8/6/88 show would likely have been recorded on July 27th or so--about four days before he was officially done at ABC. Hence the reason his last show was set for the first week in August.