Radio programmer Bill Drake has died

[mrjukebox]

Bill Drake,who is responsible for changing the sound of top 40 radio in the 60's & 70's,has died at the age of 71-Drake coined the phrase "Boss Radio" & came up with the memorable line:"The hits just keep on coming"-Two of the many stations he programmed were 93KHJ in Los Angeles & WOR-FM in New York City-Along with his partner Gene Chenault,Drake eventually found his way into the world of radio syndication-If you listened to top 40 radio in the late 70's,you might have heard the 52-hour documentary "The History Of Rock & Roll"-Drake-Chenault also created the "Weekly Top 40",which was the first weekly countdown to go head to head with Casey Kasem's long established "American Top 40"-The host of "WT40" was Mark Elliott,who sat in frequently for Casey on "AT40"-More info on the "WT40" can be found in Rob Durkee's "American Top 40-The Countdown Of The Century".

[Karstens]

It should be correctly pointed out that the name of the show was Weekly Top 30 as not to be confused with Rick Dees Weekly Top 40. Hopefully, this didn't go to print as Weekly Top 40.

The Weekly Top 40 and Weekly Top 30 have no connection. The Weekly Top 30 became Weekly Music Magazine, hosted by Charlie Van Dyke starting on 1-9-82 and still a Drake-Chenault production. The Weekly Top 30 show ran from 6-30-79 to 1-2-82 which is slightly different date than Rob wrote in his book as a copy of the last show was found after Rob wrote his book. This copy came directly from Bill's collection and in now in the hands of a radio countdown collector (not me).

Weekly Music Magazine went dark after the Top 60 of 1982 (broadcast date 1-1-83). This is where Drake's connection as Executive Producer ended.

RKO picked up the countdown torch for Drake-Chenault and debuted Countdown America with John Leader the first week of January 1983. I can verify the exact date until a copy of this show is found. My best guess is 1-8-83.

Also in 1983, Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 debted; however, no collector has any copy of any 1983 show done by Rick, so his history remains a mystery. Rick has always had a four-hour show while all Drake-Chenault countdown productions were three hours long. I can verify that Rick show was a United Stations production in 1984, I can assume it was started under that umbrella not Drake-Chenault.

[mrjukebox]

Thanks,Karstens,for correcting my error-I remember hearing the "Weekly Top 30" in the late 70's-early 80's-In my opinion,it was a feeble attempt to imitate "AT40"-Let's face it,no one counts down the hits better than Casey Kasem.

[Karstens]

Here's a comment about Bill that I run across that I found to be very interesting...Bill said it didn't matter what you did 40 years. This is the only time that he was wrong...Then, writer went on the mention his success with developing "Boss Radio".

By the way, here's a link to his last project www.top40timeclock.com/