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Post by blackbowl68 on Oct 6, 2011 10:44:32 GMT -5
Saw this thread and wanted to add my persepective to this.
I think AT40's popularity really took hold when it started gaining international affiliates. Whenever I listened to the show in first run (early 1980s), Casey seemed most excited when he ID'd a non-US or Armed Forces station while doing his "where AT40 is heard segment." It seems many of our servicemen and US tourists heard most of the hits through this show and most of all, Casey himself.
This leads me to believe the show may have also been carried by a sizable number of AM news/talk affiliates until the mid-80s. It would make sense since those stations have no basis for editing the countdown.
For me, AT40 was NEVER on a station I regularly listened to. When my family was living in Wichita Falls, TX in early 1980, it took me five months to find the show...on an AM station out of Lawton, OK! Once back on Long Island in early 1982, the premiere Top 40 station here NEVER carried it (and still doesn't). I heard the show from either a NYC or CT affiliate.
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Post by quatermass on Oct 6, 2011 11:09:33 GMT -5
Modern audiences have no concept of chart following or trivia. They have vapid thinking and only want to hear music, much like modern movie go'ers who have no imagination. AT40 was very popular back in the 70's and 80's and very popular at the station I used to work at back in the day.
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Post by dukelightning on Oct 6, 2011 15:51:56 GMT -5
Interesting stuff. I just read this whole thread for the first time. No one has pointed out that radio was a much bigger medium in the 70s than it is today or back in 2005 when most of the posts on this thread were posted. Simply put, TV was, in most markets in the 70s, still limited to 'free TV' as I like to call it. Now of course you have cable, satellite, and even satellite radio to compete with terrestrial radio for an audience. So back in the 70s especially and to a lesser extent, the 80s, radio was bigger because there were so few choices for radio and TV entertainment. It stands to reason that AT40 would be more popular back then as well. If you were a sports fan and a music fan like I was and am, back in the 70s, the only time you could watch sports on the weekend generally was in the afternoon. And sometimes not even then because there were only 3 major networks(ESPN wasn't even created yet). So there were many occasions when AT40 was the only choice simply by default.
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Post by mrjukebox on Oct 6, 2011 22:20:42 GMT -5
There's no doubt in my mind that "AT40's" popularity was from 1970-1988 when Casey Kasem hosted the show the first time around-I'm 53 years old & I absolutely enjoy listening to the classic countdowns every weekend-Kudos to Premiere for keeping this tradition alive.
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Post by atfanmpls on Oct 6, 2011 23:12:27 GMT -5
When I tell people I collect AT40 shows, they normally say "oh, Casey Kasem, sure"... Often, they did not live my same life. I listened to AT40 on 63 KDWB in Minneapolis every Sunday night. I looked forward to it all week - Casey was a great friend to finish the weekend with as a 6,9, and 13 year old. Many kids I knew (then) loved and listened to the show every Sunday.
Today, as a 42 yr old - I have many people approaching me saying - they LOVE the AT40 70's show that airs (over the air) here on KQQL (ClearChannel) every Saturday morning.
As far as "popularity" of AT40 shows, it was a constant deal - either you are "with it" or you are not. Only so many people will appreciate current content (at any time) or looking back on history with the AT40 shows.
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Post by Josh Joel's Top 40 on Oct 7, 2011 12:50:36 GMT -5
When I tell people I collect AT40 shows, they normally say "oh, Casey Kasem, sure"... Often, they did not live my same life. I listened to AT40 on 63 KDWB in Minneapolis every Sunday night. I looked forward to it all week - Casey was a great friend to finish the weekend with as a 6,9, and 13 year old. Many kids I knew (then) loved and listened to the show every Sunday. Today, as a 42 yr old - I have many people approaching me saying - they LOVE the AT40 70's show that airs (over the air) here on KQQL (ClearChannel) every Saturday morning. As far as "popularity" of AT40 shows, it was a constant deal - either you are "with it" or you are not. Only so many people will appreciate current content (at any time) or looking back on history with the AT40 shows. Did you mean "630 AM " KDWB?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2011 2:37:31 GMT -5
It was with Shadoe Stevens when AT40 got more famous in Latin America and Spain. The show was known in the Casey´s era but it went a little bit massive with Shadoe. In Spain, for example, the show was aired since almost its start in 3 or 4 american military bases and it could be heard in the areas around : Torrejon de Ardoz ( Madrid) www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237866336407 , Zaragoza , Rota ( Cadiz) and Moron ( Seville). See the weekly programme schedule in the station´s FB site. Some Spanish radio network DJs ( just like Jose Antonio Abellan) told several times to his audience he was a fan ( he later will present the Spanish adaptation of American Top 40 in Cadena 40). But the show that really was important and well known by the colateral Spanish audiences of all 4 AFRTS stations mentioned above is American Country Countdown. There is a lot of current Spanish internet blogs that still remember those Sundays broadcasting of ACC and nobody seems to remember AT40 was on Saturdays afternoons.
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Post by atfanmpls on Oct 10, 2011 23:15:42 GMT -5
Did you mean "630 AM " KDWB?
Yes. Their promos were always "63, KDWB". True Don Blue, great DJ. Later, WLOL was best top 40 station in Minneapolis for a long run.
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Post by at40petebattistini on Nov 1, 2011 23:35:33 GMT -5
Modern audiences have no concept of chart following or trivia. They have vapid thinking and only want to hear music, much like modern movie go'ers who have no imagination. AT40 was very popular back in the 70's and 80's and very popular at the station I used to work at back in the day. Here's how much radio popularity overall is changing (or has changed)... One of my high school students asked me a couple of weeks ago if I always wanted to be a teacher. I responded by saying I once wanted to be a radio disc jockey. His response -- "what's that?"
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2011 6:10:41 GMT -5
Modern audiences have no concept of chart following or trivia. They have vapid thinking and only want to hear music, much like modern movie go'ers who have no imagination. AT40 was very popular back in the 70's and 80's and very popular at the station I used to work at back in the day. Here's how much radio popularity overall is changing (or has changed)... One of my high school students asked me a couple of weeks ago if I always wanted to be a teacher. I responded by saying I once wanted to be a radio disc jockey. His response -- "what's that?" That is sad, and I don't get it. If you have lived on this planet in the last 60 years how do you not know what DJ is? I thought that was a term still used regularly to refer to these people
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Post by OldSchoolAT40Fan on Nov 2, 2011 6:19:22 GMT -5
AT40 was probably at its peak during the late disco era (1978-1979) to the point that Shadoe Stevens took over (1988). Top 40 radio was more popular among listeners during most of the 1980s. But the 1990s, it was all about grunge, techno-dance music, country & western, and smooth R&B - but radio wasn't about Top 40 radio during much of that decade. That changed around late 1995 or 1996 when demand for Top 40 radio came back. And look at where we are in popularity of Top 40 radio today.
In another thread I created, about the 1995 original AT40 finale, someone did bring up the possibility that there are 3 phases in a Top 40 radio popularity cycle. The third phase is the doldrums phase, and in 2012, acts such as Rihanna and Lady Gaga are predicted to fall in popularity, in favor of Maroon 5 and Adele, to name two acts.
I remember listening to the beginning of one AT40 with Ryan Seacrest episode, and I was shocked to learn that Black Eyed Peas' Meet Me Half Way was on the top 40 for 80+ weeks! This definitely didn't happen when Casey or Shadoe hosted!
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Post by dukelightning on Nov 2, 2011 6:32:02 GMT -5
The last part of your post sums it up. Songs staying on the charts for months instead of weeks is why a top 40 countdown has lost a lot of its entertainment value. Who wants to hear the same songs month after month after month. As manipulated as the charts may have been in the 70s and 80s, the unpredictability and volatility of the charts during that time made for a much more interesting countdown IMO.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2011 7:30:44 GMT -5
The last part of your post sums it up. Songs staying on the charts for months instead of weeks is why a top 40 countdown has lost a lot of its entertainment value. Who wants to hear the same songs month after month after month. As manipulated as the charts may have been in the 70s and 80s, the unpredictability and volatility of the charts during that time made for a much more interesting countdown IMO. Apparently the majority of their listeners do. It's been getting worse and worse for almost 2 decades and when you take into account that theirs now an entire generation of young people who don't know any different, well this is "normal" to them.
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Post by bestmusicexpert on Nov 2, 2011 8:31:09 GMT -5
My station (WLLW) is behind my new show coming soon, but sponsorship is the holdup. They aren't looking to just "fill time".
As for voicetraking. Its not "popular" its cheaper. But it hurts the audience. I hate that alot of WLLW is voicetracked by people across the country. Only from 3-6pm M-F and my shift Sundays is it live.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2011 9:26:39 GMT -5
My station (WLLW) is behind my new show coming soon, but sponsorship is the holdup. They aren't looking to just "fill time". As for voicetraking. Its not "popular" its cheaper. But it hurts the audience. I hate that alot of WLLW is voicetracked by people across the country. Only from 3-6pm M-F and my shift Sundays is it live. I've heard "On Air" a couple of time. It sounds like what it is...a pieced together, disjointed 3 hours of random talk and interviews. I know there are voice trackers who do them for each station and those sound a little better. But shows like On Air would sound a lot better if they did the show, music included, from Premiere and give dead time between a couple of songs an hour for a station produced ID.
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