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Post by pgfromwp on Jul 29, 2012 11:59:55 GMT -5
I prepared personal top 20 charts (from listening to each week's AT40 show) throughout the entire year of 1973. While I've no longer retained the charts (typed onto large index cards), I recall the following: "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray was my #1 for 1973; "Photograph" by Ringo Starr spent the most weeks in the #1 pposition; and "Stuck in the Middle with You" by Stealers Wheel debuted at #20 and was "Stuck" there for six consecutive weeks before dropping off.
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Post by michaelcasselman on Jul 29, 2012 13:01:17 GMT -5
I kept looseleaf page notes from May 1982 until the spring of 1983, but then didn't keep track again until the first regular episode of 1986. I used looseleaf again 1986 until late September 1986, when I started my first spiral notebook.
During the Summer of 1986, when AT40 was briefly unavailable in my area, I kept looseleaf records of Dick Clark's Countdown America, and continued that until Fall/Winter 1987.
Like others, I kept track of the AT40 chart trivia in a special section in the back of the notebook, that week's #1's on Other Charts, (didn't keep track of LDDs) as well as notes on which albums spawned which singles, and my own rudimentary chart summary where I tried to figure out my own 'point system' so I could predict a given year's Top 100 of the year.
From 1989 to 1992, I also kept track, as best I could, with CT40 and Scott Shannons Weekly Top 40 Countdown in their own spiral notebooks.
In the Shadoe era, I also kept track of the Sneak Peaks and especially the AT40 Flashbacks, and even have a few tapes-worth of those Flashbacks and the assorted drop-piece/medleys made during his era that I have to transfer to MP3.
I stopped my notebooks in October 1993 when I entered Army Basic Training, however, I did record the Top 100 of 1993 when I was home on my Christmas/New Years leave. I wasn't able to follow AT40 again because I wasn't able to find it on the dial... however, I did find the Augusta, GA affiliate that carried CT40, which I then followed in a notebook from April 1994 until that Fall, when my attention drifted elsewhere.
When I rediscovered AT40 last year, after an over 15 year gap in keeping track of charts, I instinctively grabbed pieces of looseleaf to track the 7/13/1985 and 7/16/1988 shows, until I realized I had a computer and a word processing program or two that would make everything so much easier, not to mention that the charts were easily accessible over the internet.
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Post by pamelajaye on Jul 29, 2012 15:09:21 GMT -5
I haven't finished reading this thread but so far it's fascinating.
I remember wanting to escalate to doing a song by song - positions by week thingie, but then I was lazy and wanted a computer - and I was told there would not be enough "memory" (whatever memory stood for in 1979) in a personal computer for this. So I just didn't bother. I'm impressed by those who did, though. I have 45s in sleeves in my living room where I wrote on the sleeve what day I bought them, so... I'm a little nerdy about things myself. It's always fun to find more nerds in your particular nerddom. I especially liked the color coding.
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Post by pamelajaye on Jul 29, 2012 15:27:27 GMT -5
Pretty much any chart data from AT40 can be acquired online. The reason I was annoyed about the loss of the CT/AT40 charts is that I would write down notes about songs I liked and the info that Casey passed along. I'm far more happy that I still have my notebook from the 70s, but it would be fun to review the other charts to see what songs I really liked (and which ones I didn't) 10-15 years ago. Do feelings about songs really change that much, or was it songs you wouldn't have heard otherwise? I know not all the top 40 was played on my station (WRKO at the time - AT40 was on WMEX) so some I didn't hear.... ever again? Also there are songs you tire of: my friend hated My Heart Will Go On because of the heavy rotation, but I never listened to the radio (gasp) so I didn't hear it (and if not for her, on our vacations, I wouldn't have heard Total Eclipse of the Heart or All The Love in the World. And then there's True. My brother called it a song he could listen to twice a year, sadly for me, I had a cassette where the song was on Both Sides. True Overload... I'm sensing a Songs You Liked Till They Beat Them To Death Thread (probably here somewhere already?) Also - is everyone here male?? (just a strange blip I noticed. I haven't read a lot of the threads as they are huge and I have trouble not starting at the beginning) Thanks for that link, mkarns :-)
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Post by pamelajaye on Jul 29, 2012 16:06:24 GMT -5
After listening to AT40 with varying degrees of devotion for about two years, I began to write the countdown down each week starting in April 1982. By this time I had discovered that I could get AT40 on multiple stations, some of whom ran it more than once per weekend. Besides Worcester (if WFTQ was still running it at that point), I could also get it on WPRO in Providence, RI, as well as various affiliates in Boston that came and went over time. . WPRO! That's what happened to my listening to WRKO! I forgot. I lived between Boston and Providence - though closer to Boston (12 miles) and we got some Providence stations, and wow, how did I forget that? Thanks! I never found AT40 on another station, but back in 74 that might have been harder to do. I also did find it in Norfolk/VA Beach in 1980 when I lived there 10 months, but not sure I listened all the time.
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Post by Shadoe Fan on Jul 29, 2012 20:51:29 GMT -5
AT40...no. I started writing down Dees' chart in 1988 in order to compare it to AT40 (which I had been listening to for years, and eventually got Billboard each week). I kept writing down Dees for a few years then switched to CT40, eventually getting CT40 off the web.
The writing down of Dees started me following the charts in detail. I followed the R&R Pop chart from late 1988-Jan 2004. Now I follow the Mediabase Hot AC chart.
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Post by saltrek on Jul 29, 2012 22:17:58 GMT -5
I was a countdown geek, and wrote lots of countdowns in many notebooks. I only wrote down AT 40 from like 1976 to 1982, then I got a subscription to Billboard. I mostly kept track of local countdowns.
I no longer have any notebooks with AT 40 or any of the following: - WABC from 1973 to 1978 - 99x New York Music Count in 1978 - WPIX top 10's in 1976 & 1977 - WNBC top 25 in 1977 - 96 TIC Hartford top 15 (and later top 10) from 1978 to 1982 - JB 105 Providence top 35 from 1978 to 1982 - WDRC-FM Hartford top 30 in 1981 & 1982
I do have a notebook from the 1983 to 1986 timeframe - no AT40, but it has the following: - WKPX - High School station near Ft. Lauderdale that signed on as a CHR - Top 30 from the 1st half of 1984 - 97 A1A Miami - (Hot AC station) top 30's from 1983-4 - Y-100 Maimi's Top 40 countdowns from Oct 1985 through 1986 - 96x Miami's Super 16 from Nov. 1985 through April 1986 - I-95 Miami top 10 also from Nov. '85 to Apr. '86
I know I must have had another notebook after that one, because I remember tracking: - Y-100's top 40, which became a top 30, through the end of the decade - AT40 after I dropped the Billboard subscription in the early 90's - Power 96 Miami's countdowns from 1989 to 1991 - MTV top 20 video countdown
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Post by donwa001 on Jul 29, 2012 23:01:45 GMT -5
When I first found American Top 40, I wrote down each week's show on notebook paper. Then my Mother got a job at the local Top 40 station and she would photocopy the HOT 100 each week for me. That continued throughout college as I photocopied each weeks chart when Billboard came into the School of Communications resource center. So I started keeping track of each artist's song on index cards (essentially matching Joel Whitburn's Top 40 Singles book). The only difference was I was keeping track of the weekly movement of each song. Someday I would like to store that information in a database on my computer.
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Post by SFGuy on Jul 29, 2012 23:09:36 GMT -5
I did for a few months in 1981 or so. I got lazy and skipped a week here and there so I eventually stopped.
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Post by pamelajaye on Jul 30, 2012 7:06:21 GMT -5
...So I started keeping track of each artist's song on index cards (essentially matching Joel Whitburn's Top 40 Singles book). The only difference was I was keeping track of the weekly movement of each song. Someday I would like to store that information in a database on my computer. I was headed for the index cards when I realized that just 5 years was going to be a monumental task. Hence the wish for a PC (though I think at the time TRS-80 was the only choice). To everyone I called a "nerd" -- I consider it a positive term :-) Everyone's nerdy about something (said a Trek fan to a Reporter who was a Sports fan and could spout stats at the drop of a hat) Also, I love databases. Sadly, my database of my VCR tapes never quite made it off the ground. Obviously, I finally got that computer. When I did, it was to use a home design program, make a database of coupons, and stop running my complicated budget on vertical lined paper with a pencil (I love spreadsheets!) I wonder about that database, though... The Charts Are Out There...
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Post by 80sfan on Jul 30, 2012 11:36:53 GMT -5
Here is my story. After listening to the Top 100 countdown for 1978 & commercials for the 1979 countdown, I thought to my self that if I have the chart data, I could do a ranking myself. At the time, the only options for me for getting the chart data was either to listen to AT40 each week, subscribing to Billboard magazine or going to the record store that has the Top 100 singles poster on the wall and write everything down. Since subscribing to Billboard magazine which cost $110 a year was out of the question for a poor kid and going to the record store weekly was too much of a pain, listening to AT40 every week was the only option. I was listening to AT40 each week anyway, so that wasn't too much of a problem. I really wish the internet & billboard.com was around back then - it would have made the data gathering so much simpler, and save me 4 hours every week!!! I wrote down each week's chart positions between Nov 1979 and Oct 1980 so I could tabulate the top 100 songs of the year for 1980 two months before Billboard did. The top 10 of the year that I came up with that had Blondie's Call Me at #1 was comparable to Billboard's ranking even though I gave each song only 1-40 points each week with no bonus points. The toughest task was to enter all that chart data into a teletype terminal at school and writing a program to do the summing and sorting. Unfortunately, a PC with database and spreadsheets were not available back then.
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Post by pamelajaye on Jul 31, 2012 7:05:24 GMT -5
I am envious of the school computer! The only time I saw ours was in 6th grade and I only had one session with it :-( As for Billboard, my vague memory of its price is $70 but that was probably in 74, so yours sounds right. I was thinking database. Are spreadsheets better for the purpose? I'm guessing that with Access - which I can never afford, I could pull all the info for one artist or whatever. There is no way I'd write it in SQL - non gui. I can just see Select * in AT40.singers....
Whoever (please don't make me go back - probably wasn't even this thread) affirmed the cost of the Whitburn book in the early/mid 70s was a help. I had no idea how much it cost back then except that it was a lot but I thought it was more and wondered how I ever afforded it at all! I was 15 when I found AT40 and I didn't "get a life" till, oh, 79 or 80. ;-)
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Post by at40petebattistini on Jul 31, 2012 20:34:16 GMT -5
I was 15 when I found AT40 and I didn't "get a life" till, oh, 79 or 80. ;-) Wow, pamelajaye! You found AT40 at age 15 and got a life at 79 or 80? If you don't mind me asking, how old *are* you? Just kidding! ;D
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Post by pizzzzza on Jul 31, 2012 20:39:35 GMT -5
I was 15 when I found AT40 and I didn't "get a life" till, oh, 79 or 80. ;-) Wow, pamelajaye! You found AT40 at age 15 and got a life at 79 or 80? If you don't mind me asking, how old *are* you? Just kidding! ;D And just to be fair, Pete's age is "22".....
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Post by at40petebattistini on Jul 31, 2012 20:55:11 GMT -5
pizzzzza, Anything to keep AARP marketing at bay. lol
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