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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2005 20:11:12 GMT -5
After my vent the other day over AT40 Live and reactions to the show, I began to question something. In the beginning 20 years or so of AT40, how popular was it? I believe in this last 16 months there has been a ressurgence of popularity somewhat with the new format and more modern host. Some choose to ignore this claiming Seacrest will be gone before Casey retires, while others accept it and move on as they realize the show needed to be freshened up to make it more appealing to todays CHR generation. However, the general feeling of music oriented radio shows, countdowns in particular, remains that it is more of just being there to fill time with no real push from stations to make it anything more.
So back to my questions, how popular WAS AT40 in the 70's and 80's? Whether the show was aired on said station or not, did that define how influential the station was considered to be in that market? Was there a perception that if your particular CHR radio station didn't have the show, they truly weren't a true big time station? Also, did the mass audience flock to listen to the show? I am sure there were more listeners to the show then than now, but is it a REAL difference? Today if you tell people you are an avid listener to AT40, they look at you in bewilderment, what would it have been like then? Was the shows radio listenership a radio equivolent to the big TV shows of the day like "Cosby Show" "Cheers" or "Dallas?" I am not asking if it got ratings EQUAL of those on TV. I am asking would it be equivolent to those for radio. Just curious for anyone who would know the answers to these questions.
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Post by BrettVW on May 4, 2005 22:23:19 GMT -5
While I have no evidence to support anything, I believe the show was much more well known in the 70's and 80's. I know several people who I have discussed music with know that Casey Kasem counted down the hits back then...but many are shocked to know he still counts down the hits every week.
And I blame this on the affiliates. Back in the day, it was considered an honor for a radio station to be an affiliate of American Top 40 with Casey Kasem. The show had timeslots like Noon-4pm on Saturday or Sunday afternoon...at absolute earliest the show ran from 8am-Noon, which now is considered a prime time slot. Today, Casey and Ryan's shows general begin anywhere between 5 and 9am, or 8 and 10pm. Rarely is the show broadcast on weekend afternoons, when radio listenership is highest on weekends. The 6-10am timeslot is one of the most prime slots Monday-Friday, but is nothing but filler on Saturday and Sunday.
And this is because Program Directors and radio stations feel the need to have a such narrow playlist and such a strict, consistent station sound....specialty programming like a Casey Kasem countdown is not always welcome. Which is why Premiere basically shoves the shows down many Clear Channel stations' throats - and they respond by running American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest from 5:00am-9:00am on Sunday morning or American Top 10 from 9pm-Midnight on Sunday night, so that 95% of the station's regular listeners never hear the show, and never hear the station break from its traditional sound.
Back in the 70's and 80's, stations loved the opportunity to sound different and sound cutting edge....and American Top 40 was right there. Maybe there were 15 songs in the countdown that a station wasn't playing on their rotation....they loved to play them during AT40. Nowadays, if 15 songs on American Top 40 were not on the majority of the CHR/Pop playlists....PD's would be calling Premiere left and right demanding the show eliminate songs that the majority of CHR/Pop stations are not playing. And this gets into the whole Long Distance Dedication controversy that was an issue during Casey's final year or so on American Top 40.
So yes, I feel AT40 was much more popular back in its "prime." Do I think it held as wide of an audience as some TV shows? Not necessarily, but I bet at some point in time, nearly everyone has heard at least a small part of a countdown hosted by Casey, Shadoe or Ryan.
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Post by Matt Cameron on May 5, 2005 11:53:02 GMT -5
I don't see any way the show wasn't more popular back in the glory days (late 70's-early 80's). Like Brett stated, the timeslots were way better, thereby increasing your potential audience, not forcing people to get up before dawn to listen to it. It seems these days the show is viewed by PD's as nothing more than a timeslot filler, thereby saving them from paying a deejay for 4 hours (or 8 if they replay the show) during the weekend.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2005 12:49:11 GMT -5
I have thought a lot about that point. First off, I know the time slots were considered better but that wasn't really my question.
Anyway, was an afternoon timeslot all the more better than ones today? I mean, given the choice of watching college or pro football/baseball on Saturday & Sunday afternoons or kicking back and listening to AT40, I am taking the game! At least in the morning hours it doesnt compete against those.
Plus, American Country Countdown runs in a lot of those same time slots and from what I gather anyway the show remains a very popular country radio program and one most markets want to have.
Furthermore, American Top 10 runs at what would be considered a decent time here in Orlando. Saturdays from 6-9pm. So, I am guessing the lack of listenership isnt all about times they air. Thats why I asked about how the radio stations used to view the show in importance and the listeners did also.
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Post by BrettVW on May 5, 2005 13:10:51 GMT -5
While most people would in fact take in a sporting event, etc over listening to a radio countdown - the point is that with a timeslot like Noon-4pm on a Sunday afternoon, there are simply more people casually tuning in and out that may listen to 20 or 30 minutes of the show, therefore gaining exposure. Plus at some point all AT40 fans are born, and I know for a fact that unless it's appointment tune in, I am much more likely to be flipping around the radio stations in my car at 2pm, and much more likely to be sleeping at 7am on a Sunday.
American Top 40/20/10 remain popular, as does American Country Countdown. There are many stations who love to run the show. When Casey left AT40, leaving no Casey in Cleveland, I know my local Hot AC in Akron/Canton was thrilled to pick up AT20. But later on when Premiere decided the show still needed an affiliate in Cleveland, I do not think the station that picked it up was all that excited to run it.
I feel many stations still think the show is important, however this seems to be in the smaller markets. The larger markets seem to run it as filler, mainly because the show isn't making them any money. Remember - unless you overbook the show and make it run long, there aren't nearly as many minutes for local commercials in an hour of a countdown show as there are during an hour of regular programming. So I see both sides of the argument. Plus, some PD's simply don't want to run a national countdown.
But in the end, I believe AT40 had more exposure in the 70's and 80's. Many people who are flipping through the stations will keep it on a countdown to hear who is number one. And there are simply more people flipping through the stations during the day rather than early in the morning and late at night on weekends.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2005 13:21:01 GMT -5
I have a simple solution to make up the extra revenue.....promo the show, see if you get a following, and then if you are and prove you are, charge more for the spots within the show ;D
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Post by TomBest on May 5, 2005 16:26:42 GMT -5
It was more popular in the 1970s and 1980s. It had better timeslots and was promoted more frequently during the week. For example a in week promotion of Casey might go something like this. "Hi I'm Casey kasem, please join me for American Top 40 Sundays from 12-4 right here on WXYZ. and then a local DJ might add "American Top 40 is sponsered by Joe's Auto Parts". The entire promo would promote AT40, the station and the sponser all in one. I don't know if this went away during the era of commercials (1982-) or specific show promotions (1985-).
Back then I would "overhear" the show a lot on poolside radios, beach radios and out the window in college dorms. I remember driving North to South on the East coast on a Sunday in 1977 and later in 1984, looking for the show on the radio and finding it perhaps five different times!
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Post by Michael1973 on May 6, 2005 11:30:39 GMT -5
I think another reason why it's not so popular anymore was that today's audience no longer seems to care about chart trivia, which was one of the major features of the show, at least up until the original run ended in 1995.
The new AT40 doesn't answer "question letters" or tell interesting stories about the artists because listeners don't want that anymore. They just want to hear the music. (I get the feeling that if Ryan just played 40 current hits in random order, only a handful of people would notice.) And Casey's current shows don't have the years of chart history to reference like the old AT40 did. The efforts to make the shows suitable for the PDs seems to have killed a lot of what made the older shows so interesting to listen to.
Just my two cents...
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2005 12:01:12 GMT -5
I dont know if that is true or not, Ryan does his share of talking about the artist and he also does interviews with them that air on the show. Plus, being a true lover of Countdown shows, I the guy who didnt care anything about the artist and only liked the music, when people would question me about other aspects of the artist lives I would always tell them I didnt know and didnt care, and thus they thought I was wierd.
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Post by BrettVW on May 6, 2005 12:23:13 GMT -5
Back then I would "overhear" the show a lot on poolside radios, beach radios and out the window in college dorms. I know that my dad said that when he was in college, Casey was on every Sunday afternoon and everyone on his hall would gather around and listen to the show while doing whatever in the dorms. Now, even though Casey has what is in today's standards a good timeslot here at my college....9am-Noon and a replay 9pm-Midnight, no one but me is awake for the morning airing and by the evening airing it's time to get to work and start preparing for the week. But if it was on Sunday afternoon, I bet more people would get together and listen.
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Post by BROWNJB1 on May 7, 2005 12:39:26 GMT -5
By the way Brett, which station do you listen to Casey's shows?, and which show does that station airs, AT10, or AT20?
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Post by BrettVW on May 7, 2005 14:04:36 GMT -5
When I am at home in Northeastern Ohio, I have a choice of 2 different stations for American Top 20. 98.1 WKDD Akron/Canton runs the show every Sunday morning from 9am-Noon. They also run the Hot AC version of Dees Sunday nights from 8pm-Midnight. www.wkdd.com Mix 106.5 WMVX/Cleveland runs the show every Sunday morning from 7am-10am. They also run Backtrax USA every Sunday night from 8pm-Midnight. www.wmvx.comWhen at college, I catch AT20 on 104.5 and 99.3 "The All-New Kiss FM" WXXO/WOXX Meadville-Cambridge Springs-Franklin, PA. They run the show Sunday mornings from 9am-Noon and replay it Sunday nights from 9pm-Midnight. They also run the Saturday Night 80's with Todd Michaels Saturday nights from 8pm-3am. www.mykissfm.comFrom both home and college I can pick up American Top 10 on Star 97.1 WREO/Asthabula, OH. They run the show from 9am-Noon on Saturday morning and 7am-10am on Sunday morning. They also run John Tesh weekend, Dick Clark's US Music Survey and Nina Blackwood's Absolutely 80's every weekend. www.star97.comAs for American Top 40 with Ryan, from home I get the show on 96.5 Kiss FM WAKS/Cleveland every Saturday from 6am-10am. They used to run Casey's AT40 in this same timeslot from November 2001-January 2004. www.kisscleveland.comUp here at college, if the signal wants to make it, I can get American Top 40 on Star 104 WRTS/Erie every Sunday from 9am-1pm. They also run the Fox All Access Countdown and the TRL Weekend Countdown - and up until about 2 months ago ran the CHR version of Dees which they dropped for Open House Party on Sunday nights. www.star104.comGenerally, I listen to AT20 on WKDD when I am home and the morning airing of AT20 on WXXO/WOXX when at college. I will listen to bits and pieces of the Saturday airing of AT10, but the show does not interest me nearly as much as AT20. I will also listen to bits and pieces of AT40 at home if I am up early enough, but have never listened to AT40 up here on Star 104, mainly because it coincides with AT20.
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Post by Scott Lakefield on May 9, 2005 22:44:29 GMT -5
The entire promo would promote AT40, the station and the sponser all in one. I don't know if this went away during the era of commercials (1982-) or specific show promotions (1985-). In New York City (where, we no longer get ANY Casey show...even on the "fringe" stations like Long Island and Connecticut, both of whom have dropped AT10 within the past year or so), the last time I heard a promo for a Casey show on the air was in the mid-90s when WMXV ("Mix 105," a now-defunct radio station) carried "Casey's Hot 20" on Sunday mornings from 8am-11am. They would play the specific promos that were included with each week's show, then add a tagline voiced by Casey...something along the lines of "...so go out and grab the papers and the bagels and join me for Casey's Hot 20, Sunday morning at 8 right here on Mix 105!" (Yes, he really did say something about bagels.) Back then I would "overhear" the show a lot on poolside radios, beach radios and out the window in college dorms. I remember as a kid a woman living next door who would either be out sunning herself in the yard or doing yardwork and I'd occasionally overhear the countdown on her radio. (Please keep your comments to yourself, there...<g>) I also remember hearing the countdown blaring from radios along the Jersey Shore as a kid during the 80s...and even into the early part of the Shadoe era in the very early 90s. So yes, the shows definitely used to be more popular and got more exposure (which is what bred that popularity). Today's listeners don't know these shows as well for the reasons pointed out by other members above...lousy timeslots, lack of promotions, etc. It's sad, but I think it's just a matter of the whole "live and local" thing on radio stations...programmers feel that their listeners would much rather hear a locally-produced program than some syndicated show out of a "far away" place like Hollywood, CA. So, as pointed out above, when Clear Channel "force feeds" the shows to the stations, those are the ones that resist and put the programs on at lousy times. Of course, in the department of possibly contradicting my own argument...it was nice to hear Casey welcome a total of 6 new stations over the course of both of his shows during the weekend of April 30-May 1 (3 new stations per show).
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Post by Michael1973 on May 16, 2005 11:28:21 GMT -5
It's sad, but I think it's just a matter of the whole "live and local" thing on radio stations...programmers feel that their listeners would much rather hear a locally-produced program than some syndicated show out of a "far away" place like Hollywood, CA. Then why has "voicetracking" become so popular?
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Post by BrettVW on May 16, 2005 12:34:40 GMT -5
Because voicetracking sounds live and local.
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