Seacrest replaces Kasem: Looking back

[laura]

Oh, now I remember! Will he be back next week?

[jedijake]

And is married to Bill Rancic, winner of the first Apprentice with Donald Trump.

[snarfdude]

Recently a friend of mine who works production at a AT40 affiliate burned an episode for me on CDR. I usually hate listening to the radio for syndicated shows, when I have access otherwise. No cue sheet dang, but enough to play on the ipod at lunch time at work, which is all I wanted.

I haven't heard the seacrest version in years. I still have the 1st seacrest show I VHS'd from OZ FM in St John's which was on my satellite TV feed...best way to catch it short of recording right to a computer. I whipped out the tape recently and yes, it's still there....LOL!

I've been listening to the retro stuff on sirius, mainly the 70's, some 80's but I have some of the original 80's show vinyl discs and I grew up straining my ears trying to pull in an out of market station to hear it weekly. some interesting memories.

If I had to say anything about the post kasem era, is that AT40 is forgettable. It's riding on Seacrest's star power, and little else. The guy is out to be the next dick clark and because of it, quality will be lost. Kasem's primary focus was ALWAYS the radio countdown, with the TV show secondary. It showcased the intimacy of the medium, the power of it. with engaging teases and stories. These days, it's same old entertainment stories that everyone is using to death. The 40 biggest hits with forgettable enteratinment fluff and ryan as your host. Is he trying to sound like Dees?

Still, despite my comments, I can see a reason. Premiere needed to do something with the property they own. Top 40 is for the hip, the young and they needed someone like their target demo to host and relate to. Also, as the young seem to be a superficial bunch so focused on the latest goings on of Lindsay Lohan, Miley or Britney, you have to focus again on that info. It's forgettable fluff like most of the music today that lacks real substance and longevity. From a business point of view, they really had no choice.

Classic AT40 with Kasem stands the test of time because of the power of Casey's delivery, the unique style of telling these stories that you're not necessarily going to find on entertainment tonight, and known the power of the intimacy of radio. That's not there with seacrest. How could it be? he's got his hand in too many things and could wear himself thin soon if not already.

[mkarns]

This probably isn't Ryan's fault, but at least at DC's Hot 99.5, someone goofed royally with this week's AT40 show (week of 4/4/09); the last hour was a replay of last week's top 10! Looking at AT40.com, only the #1 song was correct. Did this happen anywhere else?

[mrjukebox]

Snarfdude,your observations on "AT40" in the 21st century are right on target-Ryan Seacrest is a likeable fellow,but he's not Casey Kasem-Casey excells at storytelling a lot better than Ryan & he reads those Long Distance Dedications so well.

[shadster]

Oh yea, Hot 99.5 goofed up the Top 100 or 2007 by playing segments of the show out of order. Thus parts of the show aired twice, other parts never aired.

You really need to listen to both the saturday an sunday broadcasts to hear the whole show correctly. Allthough it doesnt happen all that often but it does happen

[snarfdude]

That's bad music scheduling that usually causes shows playing out of order...

With the show being downloadable through premiere's FTP site, usually what happens is that it's downloaded right into the station automation system by a station production director or assistant. The same audio file #'s in the automation system are usually used week after week, when the new show is downloaded it writes over the old files, so if you only partially download the show, only part of the new countdown is there, and what is left over is likely old audio from the previous week.

Station production directors can easily get overwhelmed producing spots that something like this doesn't surprise me happening. for the most part, long gone are the days of a board op or jock actually running the show off vinyl or CDs.

Thanks for the comments about my analysis......I'm reading the book also again, as it's been almost 10 years....and don't remember that much from it...

[Shadoe Fan]

Well, nearly a year after Casey left the countdown world, I find myself actually enjoying Ryan's AT40 (HAC). I don't know why, but I do. :-)

[your friend]

Apr 4, 2009 20:13:45 GMT -5 snarfdude said:

Still, despite my comments, I can see a reason. Premiere needed to do something with the property they own. Top 40 is for the hip, the young and they needed someone like their target demo to host and relate to. Also, as the young seem to be a superficial bunch so focused on the latest goings on of Lindsay Lohan, Miley or Britney, you have to focus again on that info. It's forgettable fluff like most of the music today that lacks real substance and longevity. From a business point of view, they really had no choice.

Classic AT40 with Kasem stands the test of time because of the power of Casey's delivery, the unique style of telling these stories that you're not necessarily going to find on entertainment tonight, and known the power of the intimacy of radio. That's not there with seacrest. How could it be? he's got his hand in too many things and could wear himself thin soon if not already.

For the most part, I agree. However, I really did like the direction the show was taken in the Shadoe Stevens' years. They kept what was best about Casey's show, but gave it more of a sophisticated edge with Shadoe's smooth and purring voice.

Shadoe was also an incredible star in his own right at the time.. but they didn't change the formula of the show, and to this day I find Shadoe's shows to be exciting and fun to listen to, whereas I can't say the same for Seacrest -- it's turned into a lot of fluff and is currently based on the exact opposite principles of what made AT40 great to begin with.

[Adrian]

Apr 4, 2009 20:13:45 GMT -5 snarfdude said:

Classic AT40 with Kasem stands the test of time because of the power of Casey's delivery, the unique style of telling these stories that you're not necessarily going to find on entertainment tonight, and known the power of the intimacy of radio. That's not there with seacrest. How could it be? he's got his hand in too many things and could wear himself thin soon if not already.

Another reason that Casey's shows will outlast Seacrest's shows is that Casey's "stretch stories" will never be outdated. Whether it be a social science lesson or the "latest" technology related to music for the moment, you can always learn something interesting even after listening many years later. With Seacrest's shows, who cares about a particular movie or some singer's fashion sense when listening to the show again 5 years later?

[shemp9971]

I have nothing personal against Ryan Seacrest, but anyone replacing Casey as the host of "AT40" reminds me of the film "Bruce Almighty", where God gives Jim Carrey's character his powers. I haven't really listened to the radio very much in years, partly because of the fact that 10% of the population owns 90% of all the radio stations in the country. In a 2004 magazine interview, Prince was saying that the reason why there was nothing happening musically in Minneapolis was because nothing was local anymore. Personally, terrestrial/commercial radio isn't really fun to listen to anymore. I occasionally listen to public radio, but do believe that my options as a listener are being severely limited.

[shemp9971]

There will never be another disc jockey like Casey Kasem. Casey is really the last of the big name disc jockeys in the U.S. or elsewhere. There will still be radio personalities, no doubt, but I do think that the days of commercial/terrestrial radio's domination are coming to an end, given the rise of Internet and satellite radio. I also think that sooner or later, there will be some kind of backlash because a lot of the songs are so unmemorable. I don't think that a lot of that will really hold up twenty years from now because a lot of them are so shoddily or poorly written.

[Deleted]

Mar 31, 2011 19:38:59 GMT -5 shemp9971 said:

There will never be another disc jockey like Casey Kasem. Casey is really the last of the big name disc jockeys in the U.S. or elsewhere. There will still be radio personalities, no doubt, but I do think that the days of commercial/terrestrial radio's domination are coming to an end, given the rise of Internet and satellite radio. I also think that sooner or later, there will be some kind of backlash because a lot of the songs are so unmemorable. I don't think that a lot of that will really hold up twenty years from now because a lot of them are so shoddily or poorly written.

But Shemp since most of todays youth have no idea what good music was or worse, scoff at what was good like some I know have, this is what they will look back on fondly.

[adam31]

Does Ryan mention Casey in the credits every week? If so, how does he say it? I would imagine since the show is created by Casey he would have to.

[Deleted]

He doesn't really do credits anymore. After #1 plays the show might be on another 15 seconds or so.