First time you heard "AT40"

[pzimm7700]

1984 - after church in my dad's car, my sister turned on what I think was Y-103 in Jacksonville and we listened in there. I remember "Thriller" was on.

[rau2]

I am new to the board, but have been a huge AT40 fan for years. I first remember hearing AT40 in 1976 on WTLB AM out of Utica, NY when Starland Vocal Band was #1 with Afternoon Delight. As kids, we loved that song and obviously had no clue what the true meaning was! Every weekend was spent listening to Casey Kasem and every time I hear his voice it brings back nothing but great memories of an awesome childhood and fantastic music.

[redsox]

The first I heard At40 was in Oct 1981 between songs #21 to #15 at my Grandmother's House in Boston on WROR and I heard it from my Uncle's Room and I notice that Super Freak by Rick James on the countdown because that classic tune was not on Weekly Top 30 which was hosted by Mark Elloitt.

[llaves33]

The first time I listened to AT 40 was 1/31/1981. The reason I remember this was because John Lennon had just just been murdered weeks before and I remember hearing his song, "Just Like Starting Over" . That week it fell to number 2. The first #1 I heard was The Tide is High by Blondie. From that week on, up until Shadoe took over for Casey, AT40 was pretty much a Sunday ritual. i listened to AT40 for years on 92 PRO-FM Providence, RI. Today, the still carry the version with Ryan Seacrest.

[MEF]

The first time I heard AT40 with Casey Kasem was around either 1980 or 1981. I remember hearing the show on WJML in Petoskey, Michigan. At that time, cable TV was not available in the rural areas of Northern Michigan. Satellite TV was not availble yet. With only 4 TV stations availble, CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS, there was not much choices of shows to watch.

On Sunday morings on the CBS, NBC, and ABC stations were religious programing. On PBS it was young children programing i.e. Sesame Street, Electric Company, Mister Rogers....

Being only 12 years old at the time, no options for watching TV on Sunday mornings. Thus, it was music on the radio. I found Casey on the radio. I would watch Casey on TV with his America's Top 10 show. When I found out he did a radio show, I tuned into the program. Thus every time when I was in nothern Michigan on Sunday Morning, I would listen to Casey on the radio.

However, when I was back home, I would not listen to Casey. The Detroit station did not air AT40 on Sunday mornings. I'm not 100% sure, but in the early 80s I think AT40 aired Sunday afternoons, and it conflicted with sports. By 1983, Casey was on WHYT by then and it aired Sunday mornings. I've been a regular listener to Casey Kasem since March 1983.

[Mark Johnson]

The first time that I remember hearing AT40 was back in the fall of 1978 when "Hot Child In The City" was heading towards #1. After that, I recall listening to the Top 50 of 1979.

[pizzzzza]

October 21, 1972 - WCFL - Chicago - in the wee hours of the night - I was half asleep listening to the countdown, waking up and hearing a few songs, then dozing off again for a few

#1 was My Ding A Ling by Chuck Berry that particular week.

But as time went along, I discovered a closer station with a stronger signal that played AT on Saturday mornings - I can't remember the call letters, but it was an AM station in Charlottesville, VA - thank goodness, because I could not hear the show in its' entirety without losing sleep!

[UnknownEric]

Early 1983 on WKBW 1520 AM in Buffalo (it was airing 4pm-8pm Sundays at the time). I was 7 at the time. I used to watch Casey on "America's Top 10" and when I found the radio show version, I was blown away. I never missed a week from then until late 1992.

[ckfan]

AT40 (with Casey Kasem) - The Summer of 1999
AT10/AT20 - A bit from 2004, but a lot from 2005

[JessieLou]

A Saturday morning in March 2006 - my friend Adam got me into listening to AT40 every Saturday morning from 6 - 10 AM ever since.

[freakyflybry]

jessielou said:

A Saturday morning in March 2006 - my friend Adam got me into listening to AT40 every Saturday morning from 6 - 10 AM ever since.

Same week for me (the station was WMMX in Dayton, Ohio, which continued airing the AT40 Flashback reruns). After that, I continued listening until WMMX stopped streaming to Canada sometime last year (although I do listen to the 80's AT40's on other stations sometimes, usually Saturday evenings), and also periodically to the XM shows, and last year I also got into listening to AT20 regularly.

Despite being a relative newcomer to Casey Kasem and AT40, I'm no stranger to countdown shows, as I listened to Rick Dees regularly from March 1997 to sometime in 2004.

[drummer1965usa]

My first exposure for just one song -- albeit for just one song -- was 10/30/1976, when Rod Stewart's "Tonight's The Night" was sitting somewhere around #22. Tuned in just a few brief times over the next several weeks (including when "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" peaked at #2), but the first regular listenings for me happened the following February, when KFAB in Omaha aired it at 2:00 on Sunday afternoons, and songs like "New Kid In Town", "I Wish", "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing", and "Year Of The Cat" were riding high on the charts.

P.S.: Does anybody besides me remember "Crackerbox Palace"?

[mycool44]

The first time I remember hearing AT40 was in the fall of '76. My sister had her stereo playing on a Sunday morning and I heard Casey introduce Cliff Richard's "Devil Woman" at #6. Immediately got hooked on the show and stayed hooked until halfway through the Shadoe era.

[ontheair]

I think, but I can't be sure, that the first time I ever heard AT40 was the 1971 version of the All-Time Christmas Countdown over AM 960 KALE.

[tarobe]

May 29, 1976 on WLAP (630 AM), Lexington, KY. The #1 song was "Love Hangover" by Diana Ross.