BT40--"Butchered AT40, only on XM

[donwa001]

My email to Jon Zellner got answered.

My 2 suggestions were:

1) On your Featured This Week page, when I check the Saturday & Sunday listings, I wish you would give us the Date of the American Top 40 show you plan on airing each week (for both the 70's & 80's).

2) I think you are editing the American Top 40 shows too much. You are eliminating most of the intro & exit themes of the show. I would like to truly hear the show as it was aired back in the 70's

Then I gave Jon some specific examples of what I was hearing.

Here is his reply:

Thanks for the feedback, Don. Just the fact that you know the song is called "Shuckatoom" is impressive. We're doing our best to list the episodes on the website. As you can imagine, there is much to do on that front now with two websites and fewer staff. As far as the ins and outs, since we don't air commercials, we sometimes take out one of the jingles to make the show flow better.

Thanks for the e-mail and for being an XM subscriber.

Best,

Jon

I plan to reply back and ask why are the 70's shows being edited and today's 80's show was aired without cuts.

[donwa001]

Here was my email reply to Jon:

I just finished listening to the American Top 40 show for 01/14/1984. The full 4 hr show was aired without edits.
All intro and exit themes were played along with station ids. How come the 70's shows can't be aired the same way? Why is any editing done at all?

His reply:

Thanks, Don. Pretty sure I answered your first question below.


But he didn't answer my question so I got more specific:

Jon,

You said you sometimes take out one of the jingles to make the show to make the show flow better.

Yesterday's show for 01/13/1979 had more than one jingle taken out.

When I listen to a show, I like to follow along with the cue sheets that comes with each American Top 40 show. I found the cue sheets at this website: www.charismusicgroup.com/calendar.htm

So here is what the 1st half hour should sound like:

Opening Shuckatoom theme
#40 - Baby I'm Burning - Dolly Parton
#39 - Love Don't Live Here Anymore - Rose Royce
Logo: Casey's Coast to Coast

Logo: American Top 40
#38 - No Tell Lover - Chicago
Extra - I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Supremes & Temptations
Logo: Hits From Coast To Coast

Logo: American Top 40
#37 - Shattered - Rolling Stones
#36 - Got To Be Real - Cheryl Lynn
Logo: Casey's From Coast To Coast

Here is what you played:

Opening Shuckatoom theme
#40 - Baby I'm Burning - Dolly Parton
#39 - Love Don't Live Here Anymore - Rose Royce
#38 - No Tell Lover - Chicago
Extra - I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Supremes & Temptations

Logo: American Top 40
#37 - Shattered - Rolling Stones
#36 - Got To Be Real - Cheryl Lynn

So this is more than one jingle removed. And if I listed the entire show here, there would be more edits than I was willing to count.

Again why can't the 70's show play without edits since the 80's show today was unedited??


His reply:

Thanks, Don. You remind me of myself when I was younger and followed along too. I am the ultimate music fan and chart buff. Unfortunately, there are more people not like us than like us and many just want to hear the music and Casey's stories...they aren't following along at home and probably won't notice if a jingle is missing. I do appreciate the feedback though.


So at this point, I just think we are going back & he won't tell me why the 80's shows are aired unedited and the 70's shows are edited.

Doesn't sound like next Saturday's show will be any different than yesterday's show. I miss XM before the merger.

[donwa001]

Make that:

So at this point, I just think we are going back & forth and he won't tell me

[laura]

Now those are a bunch of edits! Hopefully all of you can convince them to stop this!

[dougray2]

Does anyone know who is in charge of the 70s on 7? Since the 80s show was unedited, the PD of 70s is probably the one who did all the editing.

[Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever]

I haven't heard of anyone who's in charge of the 70s on 7 since John Clay was laid off in November. Rick Stacy is the PD for 80s on 8

[jdelachjr2002]

I just want to add after listening to the recording of the 1/13/1979 I also noticed Casey mentioning affiliates just once before playing song #5 ("Hold The Line"):

WCGY - Lawrence MA
WCSI - Columbus IN
WCOS - Columbia SC

Other station mentions by Casey were edited out, these were the seven affiliates being welcomed previously mentioned by Rob Durkee:
KAVL - Lancaster CA
KOMW - Omak WA
WEVA - Emporia VA
WHNC - Henderson NC
WHWB - Rutland VT
WSEI/WVLN - Olney IL
DWRT - Manila, Philippines

These other affiliates (looked up Pete Battistini's book to find these) were likely mentioned by Casey during the first three hours:
KDXT - Missoula MT
KEDD - Dodge City KS
KERN - Bakersfield CA
KFJB - Marshalltown IA
KFKA - Greeley CO
KIIS - Los Angeles CA
WDNH - Honesdale PA
WDXY - Sumter SC
CKBI - Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

I don't know exactly when Casey mentioned these stations and in what order. I think based on the edits Casey may have mentioned these affiliates (three apiece) before songs #35 ("Home And Dry"), #25 ("Time Passages") and #17 ("New York Groove"). Can somebody with an original, unedited copy please confirm?

[dadetim]

WCSI - Columbus IN


funny this station was mentioned on the 1979 countdown, heard on sxm.... and the 1978 countdown heard on the over the air stations

[jdmatthews]

This is a bunch of bull crap, and Zellner's only response is "ha ha, only radio geeks care, so screw off."

Of course, I shouldn't be surprised that some egghead know-it-all PD doesn't know what the people want. It seems like the only qualification for running a radio station these days is to not know what the heck it is you're doing.

I was considering renewing my subscription to XM, but I have seen more and more reasons to save myself the money. Heck, I could put whatever money I was going to spend into buying more original AT40 LPs. At least that way I know I'm getting the real deal.

[Shadoe Fan]

While I really disapprove of editing the shows down and think they should leave things alone, I think I understand the person's thinking about certain deletions (who's obviously not an AT40 fan!):

- Since the show airs without commercials, there's no need for outro or intro jingles.
- This leads to the next deletion...since there's not going to be a break, there's no need to "tease" upcoming stories.

- The deletions of the themes goes with the first comment above, since there's no breaks, there's no need for themes in between.

- This AT40 is not airing on terrestrial radio stations, so why would listeners what to hear what stations AT40 was heard on over 30 years ago?

[Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever]

At the same time, there are a considerable number of people who subscribed to XM for the opportunity to hear unedited and unbutchered versions of AT40. Add to that people who had already subscribed and also enjoy hearing Casey and AT40. From the comments I've seen here and on other message boards, there are many AT40 fans who are XM subscribers.

Jon Zellner bases his excuses for playist cuts and show editing on the preferences of the Sirius listeners he is supposedly considering. However, at the time the XM and Sirius decade channels merged, there were lots of Sirius fans who were counting on hearing AT40 and, from what has been posted here and elsewhere, Sirius listeners are as happy to have the opportunity to hear unedited AT40 shows as XM subscribers have been.

If anyone on this board is a Sirius subscriber and an AT40 fan, please get involved and write to Zellner if you haven't already. Also please get other Sirius AT40 fans who are not members of this board involved too. Zellner's email address is [e-mail]

Together, we form a significant base of XM and Sirius listeners who could vote with their subscriptions should things not change for the better.

[mrjukebox]

Prior to the XM-Sirius merger,you could hear the countdowns unedited-Why management is doing this is incomprehensible.

[Dale Latimer]

Wouldn't Casey, or at least someone from Premiere Radio, have something to say about this?

[mrjukebox]

You would think so!-In my opinion,Premiere should air the four-hour shows from the latter part of the 70's-XM/Sirius has no business running them.

[shadster]

What they're doing is almost exactly what I do to Casey shows. well almost.....I take 2 shows (maybe 3) an edit them together (deleting the songs I don't like) and create a full 40 countdown that lasts around 3 hours w/ no commerical breaks. So I too edit out some of caseys outro's and teasers, but I usually leave a break or 2 in each hour to insert one of those old AT40 "Flashback" jingles. But I do leave in the Top of the hour theme, just that since I'm editing it down to 3 hours, theres only 2 Top of the hour themes. I try to avg about 13-14 songs per hour and usually, not allways, don't have room for the LDD's/R&D's (of course I still retain the original shows for trading, I just like editing stuff and make something I wanna listen to again an again). So I can completely understand why the 70s channel is doing what they are doing, it is after all a comercial free service, no need to have those breaks in there. They could still leave in the top of the hour ones though...

I know this sucks for those who are trying to record these shows. On the flip side, esentialy what they are giving you a useless show, for trading purposes, thus making the show more valuable (rare) on the trading circuit. Remeber 8 years ago, when they only way you could hear these shows is to trade w/ others or buy them on ebay??