Your Favorite Casey Kasem Tag

[laura]

From the modern era:

"We're just 4 hits away from number 1, but first, let's take a moment to check out the tops of the other charts"

And from the classics:

"Details coming up..."

"36 (or whatever number) big ones to number one as the countdown continues!"

"American Top 40 originates in Hollywood".

"And now, on with the countdown (or survey)"

[snarfdude]

"in the 50 states and around the world on great radio stations like....."

"keke, koo koo kaka and radio ganga on the island of trinidad"-from American Comedy Networks' 1984 parody-Not The American Top 40.

[caseyfantwo]

"Dear Casey", "Okay Brian Here's your Long Distance Dedication".

[mstgator]

Jul 5, 2009 23:55:11 GMT -5 jdelachjr2002 said:

WMTX: Don't remember this but mstgator has mentioned they carried AT20 for a few years until 2008.

In fact, they carried AT20 (Hot AC) for about a year early in its AMFM Radio Networks run (1998-99), dropped it for several years as they toyed with their format, then brought it back in the mid-2000s (until 2008).

[BROWNJB1]

Here are my favorite Casey Kasem tags:

"American Top 40 is heard in the 50 states and all over the world in great radio stations like"

"Now it's time for our long distance dedication"

"Now before we hear the one most popular song in the USA, let's see what is on top of Billboard's other charts"

"The new number one song in the USA is"

"You just heard the 40 most popular songs in the USA, and you heard them on American Top 40, my name is Casey Kasem, and this is where we do our countdown every week at this time".

"For the week ending"

[OldSchoolAT40Fan]

I like all of Casey Kasem's taglines equally. As long as Casey Kasem said them, I like them all.

[Big Red Machine]

I especially loved it when he downright just said with force "I'm Casey Kasem" Simple, but I loved it, especially when he said it a second or two after the song began. And in the 70s, I loved how he mentioned the chart date at the end, especially 1975.

And of course, his cuss, I mean, taglines in his dog dedication

[adam31]

...as the countdown rocks (or "rolls") on!

[RCNipper]

Hello, everyone!

I stumbled on this message board, completely by accident, while I was searching for streaming stations outside of the USA, so I could listen to/record AT-40 shows from both 70's and 80's decades.

I'm not only a very big fan of AT-40, but I was also fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on those shows after Watermark's sale to ABC Radio was completed in 1983. Because of the Radio Engineer's Union (NABET), all "outside" pre-recorded productions had to be assembled and finalized (made ready for air) by ABC Radio's Broadcast Engineers in New York City. We were also responsible for AT-40's satellite transmission to affiliates below Radio Market #150.

Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, I listened to "Musicradio 77, WABC", "WMCA, Home of the Good Guys", "WOR-FM, 98.7 In Stereo", and "WPIX-FM, New York." What made the last station so special, was that it ran "American Top 40" in 1972 on Sundays at 12 noon. For the first time, New York finally got to hear what the rest of the country was listening to, instead of a super-tight New York "Top-40" playlist that contained no more than the top 15-20 records, based on record sales throughout the NY-Metropolitan area (which included New Jersey and Connecticut).

After listening to "my" first AT-40 show (in 1972), I was hooked - not only with the music, but with the show host, Casey Kasem. It's like I was going to "Top-40 School," as Casey would tell stories about a song, the band, or the circumstances surrounding either the song or band's creation. Casey gave you both the background and an appreciation for a song - something that no local Top-40 air personality could ever do. And (believe it or not), many of my friends and I actually kept "scorecards" on our favorite song's position and it's activity (performance) on the Billboard Chart.

When Casey would recap the weekly activity, we were, literally, writing down new songs entering the Top-40, which songs dropped off, the highest moving song of the week, and (of course) the #1 song (new, or how many weeks at #1). We used those hard-bound composition notebooks to keep tally on each weekly AT-40 countdown. I'm so sorry to have thrown them away, many years later when I moved to a smaller apartment in 1980!

I have quite a bit more to reflect on American Radio's BEST syndicated show EVER! For now, however, I'd like to contribute my favorite Casey line...
Before Casey would tell a story about an artist, a song, or both, he would always start the first sentence of each story with the words, "You Know?". As soon as Casey started off with those two words (I've attached an audio clip), you knew he was about to tell you something very important (quick, get out that composition notebook!).

I realize that Casey saying "You Know?" may sound silly, but that was your cue to listen carefully, as something Casey was about to say was going to be very important, so you'd better pay attention!

So, for my first post, my favorite Casey line is..."You know?"

Much thanks to the owner for creating this site. I look forward to posting, regularly, and look forward to other members' replies.

Bobby.

[saltrek]

Welcome to the board! You will find a wealth of information here, so happy reading.

I grew up on Long Island listening to WABC and keeping track of their weekly surveys (Tuesday was new survey day!) starting around 1973. When I first got an FM radio, I started listening to 99-x. I didn't discover AT40 on WPIX until 1975.

[RCNipper]

Hello, saltrek...

Thank you very much for your warm welcome!

I'm a bit "off topic," here, so I won't take too much time in my response.

AT-40 would find a home on "99X" (WXLO-FM), beginning in 1979. Prior to being 99X, it was the legendary WOR-FM, and ran the "Drake Format" from 1967 through 1973, before changing over to 99X. Currently, the station runs an R&B "KISS" format, and is now known as "98.7 Kiss-FM" (WRKS-FM, actually).

Here in NYC, the 1980's weren't very good to AT-40, as the show was bounced around different FM stations. AT-40 ended its New York run on "Power 95," WPLJ-FM (WABC's FM sister station). Despite the "bouncing around," AT-40 never aired on a NYC AM station.

Although it's an expensive thing to do, thankfully, we can now listen to the original AT-40 shows on streams across the US. I use the "intune.com" web site to get the list of stations streaming AT-40. From that list, I've picked the best sounding ones to record the shows from. I say "expensive," with respect to streaming, because of the station's additional cost to air these shows in another medium (streaming). The RIAA, BMI and ASCAP licensing fees to stream these shows is quite costly, in addition to their on-air "blanket agreements" with these music licensing organizations.

I have some (very negative, but civil and polite) observations on how Sirius/XM delivers AT-40. Do you know of a good place within this message board where I can post on this subject?

Again, much thanks for the welcome!

Bobby.

[dukelightning]

You have a lot of company in those views on SiriusXM. The best place to post on that subject is probably the AT40 on XM thread. You can look back over previous posts to see what some of our views are about its AT40 broadcasts.

I am not quite as negative as others about SXM and this week is one of the reasons. They play the whole 4 hour show from 1/20/79. You won't get the whole 4 hours on Premiere. And there are a lot of posts about that too...lol

[at40petebattistini]

Jan 18, 2012 21:29:00 GMT -5 RCNipper said:

Despite the "bouncing around," AT-40 never aired on a NYC AM station.

Actually, that's not true. AT40 was heard on WNBC-AM from 1980 to 1983.

[Scott Lakefield]

And for a while, twice a week!

[RCNipper]

Hello, Peter...

My apologies for the omission!

With so many changes going on at WNBC between 1977 and 1988, I just couldn't listen to it anymore. Also, in the early 1980's, I had moved to Hollywood, California, working for ABC-TV. By the time I came back to NYC, I had completely missed AT-40's run on WNBC, which is why I was unaware.

Much thanks for the correction!

Bobby.