AT40's Year end/Decade end countdowns

[shadster]

This weekend marks the beginning of AT40's year enders. Ryan's doing part 1 of the Top 100 of 2009 this week, part 2 next week, and then the Top 40 of the 21st century (so far) on Jan 2nd.

[mkarns]

I'm guessing that this chart was compiled on basically a strict ranking of points based on chart positions or "audience impressions", without trying to "impute" a song's future chart performance as was often done in the past to boost songs that were hits late in the year, and therefore were still on the chart at the time the year end charts were compiled. In the lower part of the chart I'm hearing a lot of big current hits (such as "Replay", "3", and "Fireflies") whose chart runs are far from over; they will probably be back and much higher on next year's list.

One pleasant surprise was Green Day's "21 Guns", ranked at #93, which never made AT40 at all. I guess it hung in the 40s for several weeks, peaking around #41 or 42.

[tacomalo]

Since Oz FM stopped streaming AT40, I haven't been keeping up with the show online. I'd like to record the year end shows--any ideas as to the best stations for recording the stream?

[upland1425]

I will recommend the following stations with good stream:

For Top 40/CHR version:
WKSE-FM Kiss 98.5 in Buffalo, NY - Saturday at 6 am EST
KDND-FM 107.9 The End in Sacramento, CA - Saturday at 9 am EST
KLAL-FM Alice@107.7 in Little Rock, AR - Sunday at 8 am EST
WHTZ-FM Z100 in New York - Sunday at around 8 am EST
WPRO-FM 92 PRO in Provicence, RI - Sunday at 9 am and repeat at 8 pm EST

* List of Part 1 (#100-#51)
www.at40.com/rest_chart.html?format=chr&

For Hot AC version:
KIMN-FM Mix 100 in Denver - Sunday at 9 am and repeat at 7 pm EST
KIOI-FM Star 100.3 in San Francisco - Sunday at 11 am EST

You may find the affiliate stations from this "WHERE TO LISTEN" page, not fully updated, though.
www.at40.com/affiliate/affiliate.html

[upland1425]

Ryan Seacrest recapped, before announcing the Top 2 songs of the 2000s, the No.1 songs of the American Top 40 Decade-End countdowns of the preceding 3 decades as follows:

1970s: You Light Up My Life - Debbie Boone
1980s: Every Breath You Take - The Police
1990s: I Love You Always Forever - Donna Lewis

[Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever]

I guess since AT40 didn't do a Top hits of the 80s special at the end of 1989 or beginning of 1990 (Casey did countdown the Top 40 of the 1980s So Far in July 1987), they must've used one of the Casey's Top 40 shows that counted down the top hits of the 1980s. That's probably why Ryan said that "Every Breath You Take" was #1 for the 1980s, instead of "Physical" (which was #1 on the Top hits of the 80s So Far).

[pzimm7700]

I thought Ryan was pretty funny on this show. The comment about the arrests, shaving off the head, and that was just the staff was good. And I LOVED IT when he pretty much dissed "I Love You, Always, Forever."

[mkarns]

Jan 2, 2010 16:04:59 GMT -5 pzimm7700 said:

I thought Ryan was pretty funny on this show. The comment about the arrests, shaving off the head, and that was just the staff was good. And I LOVED IT when he pretty much dissed "I Love You, Always, Forever."

Yeah, and I agreed somewhat. "I Love You Always Forever" was pretty random for a megahit, by an artist with no previous chart track record and not much of a further one, and yet it was #1 for 12 weeks (as per Casey's and Rick Dees' countdowns). Interesting how both the 70s and 90s biggest hits were essentially by one-hit wonders. Both songs are pleasant but it's somewhat hard to see, at least in retrospect, why they got so huge.

I liked Ryan's signoff, in which he thanked Casey Kasem and Don Bustany, without whose creation of AT40 "we might be counting these forward"!

[Scott Lakefield]

Jan 2, 2010 15:24:34 GMT -5 Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever said:

I guess since AT40 didn't do a Top hits of the 80s special at the end of 1989 or beginning of 1990 (Casey did countdown the Top 40 of the 1980s So Far in July 1987), they must've used one of the Casey's Top 40 shows that counted down the top hits of the 1980s. That's probably why Ryan said that "Every Breath You Take" was #1 for the 1980s, instead of "Physical" (which was #1 on the Top hits of the 80s So Far).

When AT40 returned in 1998, they went by R&R for all of the current and past chart data. So I guess that continued with the Ryan era.

[snarfdude]

I thought chart data was from Mediabase 24/7, which is part of Premiere's umbrella of services for radio...

I should be having all 3 shows come in to me at some point...should be an interesting listen from what's been said here so far. I don't want to say for sure, until I have them in my hand.

[mkarns]

I think that chart data references on AT40 today come from Mediabase for as long as that's available, then Radio and Records before that (R&R and Mediabase had similar, though not identical data.) Pre R&R data would presumably be Billboard?

There is some inconsistency regarding historical chart data here; while, as noted above, "You Light Up My Life" was said to be the biggest hit of the 1970s, twenty years ago Casey gave that distinction to Elton John & Kiki Dee's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", noted and included as an extra in the CT40 1980s decade end show. However, this chart history material is much less used on AT40 now than during the Casey (or Shadoe) era, and most listeners probably don't follow it as avidly as we do; in any event the many and changing charts offer a number of different statistics that could plausibly be used.

(BTW, if I heard right, near the end Ryan flubbed a statistic about his own AT40 tenure. I recall him saying he's been host for the last five years; in fact it's been six.)

[gford]

I just caught the last few minutes of the song - maybe I'm wrong - but Ryan announced we just heard Nelly with City spud and Ride Wit Me, and I never heard that song before, it sounded like Nelly, but it was not the familiar Ride Wit Me. I wonder if they put the wrong song in that place.

[shadster]

Apparently it was a remixed version. At40 is famous for using different versions of songs on its year end chart than were EVER heard on the regular surveys.

[Hervard]

Jan 4, 2010 16:15:00 GMT -5 mkarns said:

I think that chart data references on AT40 today come from Mediabase for as long as that's available, then Radio and Records before that (R&R and Mediabase had similar, though not identical data.) Pre R&R data would presumably be Billboard?

Actually, I believe they use Billboard as a reference up to Casey Kasem's first show in 1989 (as I seem to remember, when referencing past #1 songs, they mentioned "My Prerogative", which never hit #1 on R&R.)

Of course, that might have changed once Ryan took over the mike.

[Hervard]

Jan 4, 2010 23:49:09 GMT -5 shadster said:

Apparently it was a remixed version. At40 is famous for using different versions of songs on its year end chart than were EVER heard on the regular surveys.

Yeah, that version seemed to sample "No Such Thing" by John Mayer.