Post by jss on Aug 18, 2006 0:57:29 GMT -5
Hi all,
My name is Joe, and I'm an AT40aholic.
I tripped over this site about four months ago after I got a bug in my head about AT40 and old Billboard charts. It was unbelievable to me to find a bunch of people, seemingly right around my age who listened to AT40 and other countdowns in the 1980s and *cared* so much about them, the way I did. I read about people who tracked the charts, and who liked random songs that peaked at #26 in April of 1984, and who felt themselves disconnected when Casey left, and then when the chart methodology changed in 1991. It's kind of comforting to know that I wasn't the only "chart geek" out there, and that other people also went through some of the changes over the years--losing touch as they went off to college, music changed, chart practices changed, et al. I remember finding an archive of old Billboards in the main college library and spending hours poring over them, to the detriment of my grades.
This is basically one big thank-you to this group, and the people who run this site. I'll get off my duff and buy Rob's book, as much to show support as anything else.
Anyway, I had two questions, one general and one...OK, basically begging. First off, it seems like many of you have lots of AT40s at your disposal. I used to tape songs off of the radio, but I never taped entire shows, and I missed the whole "Flashback" period. It seems like there's an active trading community; how do you get a collection started from a zero point?
Secondly...I missed all but two songs ("Shame on the Moon," "Billie Jean") of tonight's XM broadcast. I listened to a lot of the marathon, and dropped in and out of last Sunday's show. I haven't really internalized the schedule yet; Sunday mornings will be a lot easier than Thursday nights, since we get XM through DirecTV and the latter show will be on when my bride wants to watch TV (we're in the Pacific Time Zone).
As it turns out, tonight's show was March 12, 1983, basically right when I started listening to AT40 "seriously". I have a notebook, in a box somewhere, where I began writing down the top ten each week. (This project later expanded to writing down entire Top 40s, then to tracking my *own* personal Top 40...). I don't know if this was the right week, but sometime in March--right when I started tracking--the entire top 11 on the chart was identical. I'm pretty sure this oddity helped get my number-crunching mind hooked on the charts. I remember listening to the top 100 of 1982, and the weird thing where "Down Under" dropped to #2 and then bounced back to #1, but this week is where I think about my connection to AT40 beginning.
ANYWAY...if anyone has this show squirreled away, I would really love to have it. I wish I had something to offer, but I own nothing top-40 related. I'd happily pay for the file if that's OK; I just would really like to hear this show, because of it's importance to me. (If this isn't the one--maybe it was later?--I'm sorry for my error...I'm 99% certain the top two were those two songs.)
OK, too long an e-mail...thanks in advance for any help, and thanks to the Webmasters for setting up this site. I never would have guessed there were people like me out there, and I'm really happy to learn that there are.
--Joe
My name is Joe, and I'm an AT40aholic.
I tripped over this site about four months ago after I got a bug in my head about AT40 and old Billboard charts. It was unbelievable to me to find a bunch of people, seemingly right around my age who listened to AT40 and other countdowns in the 1980s and *cared* so much about them, the way I did. I read about people who tracked the charts, and who liked random songs that peaked at #26 in April of 1984, and who felt themselves disconnected when Casey left, and then when the chart methodology changed in 1991. It's kind of comforting to know that I wasn't the only "chart geek" out there, and that other people also went through some of the changes over the years--losing touch as they went off to college, music changed, chart practices changed, et al. I remember finding an archive of old Billboards in the main college library and spending hours poring over them, to the detriment of my grades.
This is basically one big thank-you to this group, and the people who run this site. I'll get off my duff and buy Rob's book, as much to show support as anything else.
Anyway, I had two questions, one general and one...OK, basically begging. First off, it seems like many of you have lots of AT40s at your disposal. I used to tape songs off of the radio, but I never taped entire shows, and I missed the whole "Flashback" period. It seems like there's an active trading community; how do you get a collection started from a zero point?
Secondly...I missed all but two songs ("Shame on the Moon," "Billie Jean") of tonight's XM broadcast. I listened to a lot of the marathon, and dropped in and out of last Sunday's show. I haven't really internalized the schedule yet; Sunday mornings will be a lot easier than Thursday nights, since we get XM through DirecTV and the latter show will be on when my bride wants to watch TV (we're in the Pacific Time Zone).
As it turns out, tonight's show was March 12, 1983, basically right when I started listening to AT40 "seriously". I have a notebook, in a box somewhere, where I began writing down the top ten each week. (This project later expanded to writing down entire Top 40s, then to tracking my *own* personal Top 40...). I don't know if this was the right week, but sometime in March--right when I started tracking--the entire top 11 on the chart was identical. I'm pretty sure this oddity helped get my number-crunching mind hooked on the charts. I remember listening to the top 100 of 1982, and the weird thing where "Down Under" dropped to #2 and then bounced back to #1, but this week is where I think about my connection to AT40 beginning.
ANYWAY...if anyone has this show squirreled away, I would really love to have it. I wish I had something to offer, but I own nothing top-40 related. I'd happily pay for the file if that's OK; I just would really like to hear this show, because of it's importance to me. (If this isn't the one--maybe it was later?--I'm sorry for my error...I'm 99% certain the top two were those two songs.)
OK, too long an e-mail...thanks in advance for any help, and thanks to the Webmasters for setting up this site. I never would have guessed there were people like me out there, and I'm really happy to learn that there are.
--Joe
