Looking back on the last year of the show

[Deleted]

I have not heard any of the latter year shows since they aired. Having gotten some that were from radio stations I took the time over the last few days finally to split them into segments. Listening to them it hit me, the signs were all there but obviously without knowing Casey had a health problem we probably all wouldn't have noticed. Three really stuck out:

1.) I noticed as I am sure many of you did, his voice began to show its age in the mid-late 90's. That's expected. He was old. However, if you aren't listening week by week and thus lulled slowly into the way he sounded and just put on a show in 2009 you hear just how terrible things had gotten. His voice inflections were off at times. It's like he was just "there" on some occasions.

2.) Anyone remember that created liner for the extras on the show? The one most of us thought was an attempt to just modernize it and keep the show moving? Maybe that is partially why they did it. But hearing it so often I can't help but wonder if they did that to keep him from having to speak as much as he would have otherwise. Even the outros were a lot like the Christmas shows "that's x moving up 3 with x2 and before that we heard y with y2 as the countdown rolls on"

3.) From the time he ceased doing AT40 in 2004 we were all impressed by how few times he took off. In 2004, he took off twice both near the beginning of the year, 2005 - 1, 2006 - 2, 2007 - 2, 2008 - 1. In 5 years he took 8 weeks off. Then in 2009 which there are only 6 months worth of shows for, he was out 4 times, including mid-June. Seems there may have been more to his being out than just "I'm busy."

It just really adds up now years later when we know what's happened.

[mkarns]

I didn't think Casey's voice changed all that much in the 1990s, from what I've heard from that era, or even early 2000s. I think he sounded noticeably older after he left AT40; from what I've read about his conidtion recently, the Parkinson's disease was starting to develop a couple of years before his retirement, though it probably wasn't too noticeable at first.

While we didn't know it at the time, and didn't want to speculate, one could reasonably think something was wrong health- or voice-wise by 2009; not only was his voice sounding thinner and raspier than just four years or so earlier, but there were the more frequent absences and the fact that he decided to leave in 2009, when 2010 might have been a more symbolic date to do so, after 40 years of countdowns. But he may have thought it appropriate to at least continue to the July 4 anniversary, and so did the best he could even though, being the perfectionist he's always been, it must have been frustrating to have increasing difficulty enunciating properly, likely resulting in long sessions with lots of retakes.

[Deleted]

On the Facebook message board someone was told by a friend of theirs who worked on the shows that the final edition of AT20 took him 11 hours to record. This person who used to work on the old AT40 said it would normally take him 4 to voice track the 4 hour show back then. And I asked if that was both AT10 and AT20, he said no just AT20.

[dukelightning]

And when you add in the time it likely took to record the last AT10 show that same week, it is probably more than the 18 hours it took to record the first ever AT40. So it came around full circle. But the last AT20/10 recording has to have been more tedious and frustrating than that first show.

[Deleted]

I don't know. I could see it either way. If you were having to say and listen to the same songs over and over until every segment was perfect that might get real frustrating really quick. Then again, this taking 11 because he didn't understand what he was reading (that's what the person said) at times with no music or filter to break it up could have been even more.

[mkarns]

Dec 10, 2013 19:01:58 GMT -5 @paul said:

On the Facebook message board someone was told by a friend of theirs who worked on the shows that the final edition of AT20 took him 11 hours to record. This person who used to work on the old AT40 said it would normally take him 4 to voice track the 4 hour show back then. And I asked if that was both AT10 and AT20, he said no just AT20.

In that case, it must have taken two full days to record the final editions of both shows. I'm glad he made the effort to retire with a proper send off. The LDD and farewell segments must have been especially difficult to record, Parkinson's aside: it was not only longer than most of his speaking segments but he probably really struggled with the emotional aspects of saying goodbye to his fans while leaving them on an positive, flawless note.

[Deleted]

I was incorrect earlier, Casey was out 5 weeks in 2009 including back to back weeks (4/25 & 5/2 were subbed by Mike).

[Deleted]

I just listened to the final Top 20 show and it sounded like Casey was getting choked up.