80's on American Top 20

[Radioman]

What about AT10 ? Maybe you should try it and eventually like it better.
Isn't it some kind of obscure crap what they do with this show ( AT10 that is ) ? Playing some forgotten 60's or 70's track right along with a brand new chart song of today ?
If it wouldn't be for Casey, that show would have been almost "unlistenable" . But it seems like a special genre of stations on the AC segments like what they are doing.
At least the clear channel fraction likes it, other's AT20 AC would have been still alive.

I hope they won't touch AT20 in any way, just let it run how it is today. Some things you're now feeling about the extras within the show is the different segment schedule. Longer segments, fewer breaks makes you feel you hear to much extra's, and almost the same again.
The show hasn't changed at all. They do what they do for almost 11 years: Paying tribut to the HOT AC format.
It's a different question if you like that format or not.
If they won't do what they wanted them to do, the show would be dying.

[Deleted]

I DO listen to AT10 and I dont hear any obscure songs on there. I hear big hits from all eras of pop music.

Maybe I wasnt clear in what I meant by extras. I am not referring to extras within the segments. I am referring to the 1 extra song they have added that goes along with the end of each hour (and is right before the final segment of the show) I do not like how they exit those segments at all. That's why I find them annoying.

[BrettVW]

AT20 and Hot AC stations play "Breakfast at Tiffany's." I just heard it earlier this afternoon, and I know it has been an extra on AT20 twice in the last few months.

Backtrax USA does not just play whatever they want. Both the 80's and 90's shows have a very strict listing of what they play - i'd say well over half of the music from both decades has never once been played on the show - and the 80's version has been going since the early 90's. Corporate in essence dictates the show. If you request a song at backtrax.com that is not on their master list - it will not be heard.

Also, going back 30 some odd years on a Hot AC is a gutsy move. While you and I may not mind it, the average listener for a Hot AC station is a 20-30 year old woman. They don't want to hear 70's rock or disco. They want today's new music without the rap and hip hop, and the best music from the 90's and 80's from when they were growing up. And that is shifting now to simply the 90's as the years move on.

While many people are critical of AC, they actually have the most widespread playlists, IMO. They can reach all the way back to the 60's and 70's while keeping up with today's music. Which is why AT10 is able to play John Mayer into Marvin Gaye into early Duran Duran into Kelly Clarkson into The Doobie Brothers. It's the way the format goes.

As for the new program clock on AT20 and AT10. 5 segments with 4 breaks an hour wasn't doing well. Most stations these days take 2, at most 3 breaks an hour. So last year they went down to 4 segments an hour with 3 breaks.

In 2005, Clear Channel introduced a "Less Is More" campaign, where they only play so many minutes of commercials an hour. Since the majority of Casey's affiliates are CC stations, they have remidied the show by extending the first three segments of each hour and then allowing time for an optional 3 and half minute segment to make up for time previously used by commercials. And they make the segment a countdown extra and contains no national spots so that if a station does wish to use the time for more local commercials they show is, in essence, not interrupted.

Because they use these segments at the bottom of the hour for Hours 1 and 2, they have moved the Top of the Hour jingle to the first thing heard at the beginning of Hour 2 and 3's discs, rather than the last thing heard at the end of Hours 1 and 2. This gives those extras a cold ending with Casey's outro - however if your affiliate run the TOH the "correct" way you should not be able to notice. But if they run their own custom TOH liner that does not fit in Casey's jingle bed, it will sound a bit lengthy - yes - but I would much rather hear 15 wasted seconds of an extend TOH ID and then the TOH Casey jingle bed run empty if it means I get an extra countdown extra with a brief story told by Casey rather than 3 and a half minutes of commercials.

As for the placement of the optional segment in Hour 3, it does turn Hour 3 into a 5 segment hour, but it still runs with only 3 breaks an hour. At the beginning of the year, it originally ran in the middle of the hour in Segment 2 with an open jingle, Casey's intro, the song, Casey's outro, and a closing jingle just like any other segment. But in mid-January when they moved the TOH jingle bed to the beginning of the hour rather than the end (after the 1 weird week with the TOH jingle bed at the bottom of the hour and then a jingle opening Segment 1 in Hour 2 and 3 to avoid a cold Casey intro for stations not running the optional segments) they also moved Hour 3's optional segment to Segment 4 of the hour, with an opening jingle, Casey intro, song and then a cold Casey outro, with the assumption the affiliate will go directly to the jingle or sponsorship announcement of the number one song (Segment 5) However many stations use this as another brief local break, making it sound weird.

I'm all for moving Hour 3's optional extra back to the way it orignally was in January, because it is weird to have that extra play after the number one tease - but that is why they have done it this way, and it is growing on me.

[Deleted]

I used Breakfast at Tiffany's for two reasons, #1 Kid Kelley calls it a lost track and #2, other than on that show I have not heard the song on ANY station I have listened to in the last 8 years.

We are all going to agree to disagree. I know CC's new format, but to me the way the extra segment ends just doesnt sound right. That's just me and I am going to think that until the day they end the extra segment or the show ceases existance.

Again, I have my view on what radio should be and that isn't going to change. I also still firmly believe the majority of people would rather have more variety on the radio, be it more newer songs on a CHR station or older songs that WERE HITS AND THEY KNOW from the earlier eras(format appropriate of course). IThe same mentality exist in christian music as well, they play only the things they THINK people want to hear and nothing more. I believe people would love a lot of stuff that WAS popular at one time and they choose not to play. But those songs never get a chance to show whether or not they would be liked because some PD sitting in an office dictates what it aired and what isn't whether that is TRULY what people want to hear or not.t seems amazing to me that HAC people dont want to hear anything from the 70's and seem to now not want to hear anything from the 80's, yet a format like country music can play music from the 70's, several selections from the 80's, as much as they want from the 90's and now, and no one seems to bat an eye. Trying to convince me the same people don't exist on the pop/rock side is a futile effort. That is why I have the view I do.

[Scott Lakefield]

paul said:

the thing that gets me is that a show like Backtrax USA can play pretty much whatever they want and that is ok. It doesnt matter that we havent heard "Breakfast at Tiffany's" since 1996, but if AT20 tries to play a song like that that isnt heard anymore, the same station will gripe!

Exactly. But I think that's a matter of the programmers looking at a "Backtrax" type show as an exclusively "oldies" based program while AT20 is viewed as a "current hits" program. Which brings us to another argument...

What is the main difference between AT40/HAC, Dees' HAC show, and AT20? Simple...the highest number of extras can be found on AT20. My thought is to expand the show to a top 25 or a top 30, and reduce the number of extras. Of course, that presents a small problem from the show name standpoint...

[Deleted]

I actually wish Casey would do shows similar to Backtrax USA. "American Top Hits" versions for the different decades. Make it an hour or two and everyone would be happy. The only question is if they went to that format would a 60's version do well since he is not synonymous with that decade? Also, would a 70's version work? Maybe it's just where I have lived in my lifetime, but I dont really know of any 70's stations. Most of those I have known were mixes with the 80's and 90's, etc.

[BrettVW]

70's basically goes with classic rock. Some of the poppier 70's stuff ends up on classic rock as well, and some of the "Mix" Hot AC stations (such as Mix 106.5/WMVX in Cleveland) has 70's in the mix. Plus all of the new Jack-FM stations.

I too wouldn't mind seeing Casey host that type of show - but the thing is there are way too many of them out there as it is. Perhaps instead of an AC countdown, some type of Music Magazine show wouldn't be out of the question, where he could still talk about the chart, etc. But it will n ever happen. Casey is the countdown king. And I respect that.

[Deleted]

yeah but part of me believes if he were to differentiate his show to maybe counting down a Top 5 or Top 3 of the Hot AC or AC shows stations and played hits from the past, more PD's might pick it up. Not that I WANT him to do that, but it is something that has constantly been in the back of my mind.

The shows I was talking about like Backtrax USA was additional to what he already did. Again, because of that it probably won't happen.

[Deleted]

speaking of American Top Hits from my earlier post, is that daily segment still even produced?

[BrettVW]

Yes it is - although I have never in my life known an affiliate of the countdown to run the show. I also know the ATH segments are no longer a part of the countdown show CD's, and are sent as seperate CD's from Premiere.

[Deleted]

WAPE in redneck capital USA ran it as Casey's Biggest Hits at like 8:45 or 9:45am back in the early 90's, XL106.7 in Orlando ran Caseys Biggest Hits at like 5:50am M-F....early but at least they ran it, followed by an ad for the weekly countdown show produced by the station. And 99.9 Kiss Fm in Daytona Beach actually ran all 5 segments during the weekly show, the show would wind up running about 40 minutes long every week.

[Shadoe Fan]

I believe WCDQ in Crawfordsville, IN plays it. I can barely get the station, but I recently heard them play ATH during the noon hour. It was quite a shock!

I have one cd of ATH including the mailer it came in. If I ever get my scanner hooked back up, I'll add it to my website.

[Deleted]

Does it still use the same opening background music as it did in the late 90's(the same as Casey's Biggest Hits). I assume that music wasn't WW1 copyright or anything?

[Scott Lakefield]

brettvw said:

Casey is the countdown king. And I respect that.

Bingo. I'd imagine that's why there's still a countdown element on AT10 and that they didn't just change it to a non-countdown show entirely. 10 positions in a countdown is better than no countdown at all in my book.

[Scott Lakefield]

brettvw said:

Yes it is - although I have never in my life known an affiliate of the countdown to run the show. I also know the ATH segments are no longer a part of the countdown show CD's, and are sent as seperate CD's from Premiere.

Check the websites of stations that carry the weekend shows. While I've never actually HEARD the daily features on any stations, I do know I've seen it listed as a feature on some radio stations' websites through the years. Maybe you'll find one that streams it.

The discs look just like all the other Premiere discs, basically. There's just a typed line reading "America's Top Hits with Casey Kasem" across the top and the Premiere logo on the bottom. The AC ones are printed in black and the HAC ones are printed in red.