POLL: Favorite Short-Lived AT40 Feature (1970-1988 Only)

[JMW]

The idea for this thread/poll came about after I listened to the last ten minutes of the 9/1/1973 show on the Classic AT40 station where Casey predicted that Let's Get It On would become next week's #1 song.

If there's a short-lived feature from the 1970-1988 time period that's not listed as a poll choice, feel free to mention it in a post.

[freakyflybry]

Definitely the AT40 Hall of Fame. I feel many other artists could've been featured if it lasted longer.

[mkarns]

I liked it in some of the 1970-72 shows when Casey would play a cut from the top selling album of the week that wasn't necessarily a countdown single, sometimes after noting the top 5 albums of the week. Later he would just mention the #1 album but didn't play an extra song from it (though if that had continued regularly, then everything from Rumours, Thriller, or Purple Rain, and probably some others, would have been featured multiple times.)

Not really a short lived feature as it lasted three years, but the "Archives" #1's of the 60s and 70s could have been resurrected later to cover the 80s or 90s. Heck, it could even be done for the present decade which is nearly over; hit songs lately seem to have gotten shorter enough so that record numbers of extras are featured in current AT40s, leaving plenty of room.

[matt]

I would rank in this order:

1. AT40 Hall of Fame feature - This was a great idea and well executed by Casey and the AT40 staff. Still curious to this day why they didn't choose to do it more than four times? You would think there were plenty of artists they could've spotlighted and they could've done one a month or every few months over time, kind of like they did with the "what ever happened to?" feature for a while there.

2. Stations Mentioning Themselves - This is fun to hear for pure nostalgia reasons, as it's great to hear some of the taglines that were used in the mentions. I get why they discontinued it, but a nice touch to the show, and one that helped connect it with it's subscribers for a few months there.

3. #1 Predictions - This is one where I don't have an opinion one way or the other. I liked hearing Casey say what the predictions were each week and whether they were right or wrong on the previous week's, but I've never missed him not giving a #1 prediction.

mkarns mentions the #1 Archives feature, and I agree. It would've been great to hear them do the #1's of the 80's, even if it had been Shadoe playing those after Casey's departure.

A feature I could've done without: long distance dedications. At least the majority I could've done without, though there were a few good ones here and there. Just listened to the 6/2/84 show, which had two LDD's: one which played "Private Eyes" and one which played "Cat's In the Cradle". The first was a positive story with a fun song, the other, which was played in the top 10, was a downer with a melancholy song that really broke the momentum of the show, and when I was a kid I had little interest in hearing 10-15 year old songs played because someone requested them with a story about a breakup, lost friendship, death of a loved one (or a dog named Snuggles), etc. Just wasn't my bang zone.

[at40petebattistini]

A few other short-lived features not mentioned here:
*1979 AT40 Book Giveaway (1978 Yearbook given to listeners whose question/letter was read on the air)
*1986 AT40 Trivia Test (included inside packages of Tony’s Frozen Pizza)
*1987 AT40 National Rock Contest (requiring listeners to identify the weekly mystery superstar)

Regarding the Hall of Fame, I believe it wasn't around too long because its preparation (research, writing, extra production, etc.) proved to be too time consuming.

[matt]

Jun 20, 2019 11:02:00 GMT -5 at40petebattistini said:

Regarding the Hall of Fame, I believe it wasn't around too long because its preparation (research, writing, extra production, etc.) proved to be too time consuming.

Thanks Pete--makes sense. That's the first time I've heard a reason for why it ended so soon after it began. Maybe I just enjoyed hearing Casey tell the stories of the artists in that echoed voice with the sound effects of the footsteps and the creaking door.

[mrjukebox]

For a brief period in 1974,you heard the various stations identify themselves-I also enjoyed the "AT40 Archives" which featured the # 1 songs of the 60's & the 70's.

[bobbo428]

Jun 19, 2019 23:58:33 GMT -5 mkarns said:

I liked it in some of the 1970-72 shows when Casey would play a cut from the top selling album of the week that wasn't necessarily a countdown single, sometimes after noting the top 5 albums of the week. Later he would just mention the #1 album but didn't play an extra song from it (though if that had continued regularly, then everything from Rumours, Thriller, or Purple Rain, and probably some others, would have been featured multiple times.)

Not really a short lived feature as it lasted three years, but the "Archives" #1's of the 60s and 70s could have been resurrected later to cover the 80s or 90s. Heck, it could even be done for the present decade which is nearly over; hit songs lately seem to have gotten shorter enough so that record numbers of extras are featured in current AT40s, leaving plenty of room.

If Casey stayed as host of AT40 after Summer 1988, I would have been hoping that he'd resurrect the Archive feature for the 1980s.

[djjoe1960]

Two of my favorite short lived features during the original (pre-Shadoe days) run of the show were--

1)Whatever happened to...(always enjoyed hearing about an artist that hadn't had a hit in quite awhile)--this probably stopped due to the time and effort put into finding the artist.

2)Guess the biggest hit an artist had (of course, this could have been up for debate). However, Casey usually announced the three biggest hits and then played their biggest hit (in part or in full; depending on the length of the song and the timing of the current countdown.

[jlthorpe]

Jun 20, 2019 15:26:52 GMT -5 bobbo428 said:

Jun 19, 2019 23:58:33 GMT -5 mkarns said:

I liked it in some of the 1970-72 shows when Casey would play a cut from the top selling album of the week that wasn't necessarily a countdown single, sometimes after noting the top 5 albums of the week. Later he would just mention the #1 album but didn't play an extra song from it (though if that had continued regularly, then everything from Rumours, Thriller, or Purple Rain, and probably some others, would have been featured multiple times.)

Not really a short lived feature as it lasted three years, but the "Archives" #1's of the 60s and 70s could have been resurrected later to cover the 80s or 90s. Heck, it could even be done for the present decade which is nearly over; hit songs lately seem to have gotten shorter enough so that record numbers of extras are featured in current AT40s, leaving plenty of room.

If Casey stayed as host of AT40 after Summer 1988, I would have been hoping that he'd resurrect the Archive feature for the 1980s.

The only problem I see with that is that songs had gotten pretty long by the late 80s, so there wouldn't have been a lot of time in the countdown for extras. By then, Casey stopped playing last week's Top 3 in full and only mentioned the names of the songs. Even LDDs were chosen from songs currently in the countdown, I'm guessing because they tried to cut down on extra songs being played. Playing (at most) three Archives songs a week might have led to the show editing songs like they did in the late 70s, unless they cut down on Casey's banter between songs.

[cachiva]

In the spring of 1979 there were a few "AT40 Mini Quizzes."

I remember one was about RIngo Starr's real name, and
another was about Elton John's real name.

This feature came and went without much fanfare!

[matt]

Jun 20, 2019 15:26:52 GMT -5 bobbo428 said:

If Casey stayed as host of AT40 after Summer 1988, I would have been hoping that he'd resurrect the Archive feature for the 1980s.

Hard to say...I would've guessed that they would have started doing the #1's of the 1980's had Casey stayed, but then again, Casey could've done the #1 archives on Casey's Top 40 and never did. And Shadoe could also have done the #1's of the 80's, but never did. So maybe that's an indication that it wouldn't really have happened even if Casey had still been on AT40 for another few years?

[Hervard]

Jun 20, 2019 15:31:46 GMT -5 djjoe1960 said:

2)Guess the biggest hit an artist had (of course, this could have been up for debate). However, Casey usually announced the three biggest hits and then played their biggest hit (in part or in full; depending on the length of the song and the timing of the current countdown.

I seem to recall hearing that this was a way of filling up excess time soon after the countdown was extended to four hours. I believe this wasn't done quite as often during 1981 - in fact, at one point, it may have stopped completely (especially after they found that they usually did not have time to recap the entire LW Top Three), but when they were done with the Archive feature, this feature was brought back, but just not used quite as often as it was soon after AT40 had the extra hour added on.