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john halloran
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| Posted: 09 April 2007 at 5:00pm | IP Logged
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Great posting edisonlite, more action on this post so quick than any in the year I've suscribed.
One thing to mention- as another way to get XM (at least for now-who knows after this merger) is through a DirectTV suscription-the receiver I received features two extra sets of RCA outputs, one of which feeds nicely into a CD burner.
As to the issue of carts-at least on the 70's shows,I'd say no-I have several vinyl shows where I would hear noticeable "clonks" (for lack of a better technical description.) What is a "clonk"?? It is a major rumble of major low-frequency distortion, created from what I believe was the board operator leaving a pot open on the non-tracking turntable, while a second turntable was tracking (recording a record). The ham-handed operator would bump his hand or arm against the tonearm pickup while back-cuing the next record (I've never heard a back-cue come up on a show-those they probably edited out). I'm sure they were burdened with production and distribution deadlines so they let those pass. I originally attributed those clonks to the station that aired the show, until I bought a few shows years back at a record show. If carts were being cued this would have been avoided. I dont know about the 80's shows-I dont have any.
I think this was mentioned in the Durkee book, but in the early years they almost exclusively relied on commercial stock copies (Durkee mentions "An American Trilogy" as an anecdote-they could never find a clean copy!). I dont have this as gospel but it probably wasnt until the third or fourth year of the show,when they could deliver 300 stations (and the ears that went with them)that the major labels must have decided it was in the labels and their artists best interests to supply AT-40 with DJ-promos, rather than taking their chances on AT-40's edits (although some weren't that bad). This also partially explains why sometimes in the early years a LP-version was played in the first week or two of a song's chart run-they couldnt find the 45!
Anyway-as an old-time AT-40 fan-a great post.
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80smusicfreak
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| Posted: 10 April 2007 at 7:44am | IP Logged
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Okay, can't resist coming out of hiding for this one. :-) I can definitely credit "AT40" and its sister weekend TV show, "America's Top 10" (also hosted by CK), w/ getting me started as a music collector, back in '82 - w/ a nod to the TV countdown show "Solid Gold" as well. I, too, began writing down the songs each week, as well as taping my favorite songs from the show - but after about six or eight months, I finally decided it would just be easier (and a little less time-consuming) to simply track down this "Billboard" magazine that Casey's countdown shows were based on. And lo & behold, in May of '83, I found it for sale at my local bookstore in SoCal. Even though the cover price was a pretty steep $3, I was instantly hooked, and have been buying the mag every week since (managed to save every issue, too - just wish it was still $3 a week, lol). But for several years, I still continued to watch CK on TV and tune in almost every weekend to hear him count down the entire top 40 on good ol' KIIS-FM Los Angeles, though...
Just three months ago, in January, I actually bought my first copy of the "AT40" radio show from a seller on eBay - it's the 3-LP box set from September 2, 1972, complete w/ original cue sheets. (The seller was even kind enough to include a CD-R copy of the entire show in the box.) These original radio shows ain't cheap, though, so I don't intend to make a habit of buying/collecting them, but I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a few from the early to mid '80s, just for the memories (alas, I don't currently subscribe to XM radio, but that's very cool that they've brought the old shows back!)...
EdisonLite wrote:
| Are there any other books on the subject of AT40 (I mean, other than the Whitburn chart books)? |
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Since a fellow poster here on Pat's board was kind enough to help me in a book search of my own a couple years ago, I'll add that yes, there is one more that no one here has mentioned yet. I first stumbled across it in a used bookstore about ten years ago, and at the time, had no idea it even existed - it's titled "Casey Kasem's American Top 40 Yearbook", edited by Don Bustany & Jay Goldsworthy. It's a softcover, and was published by Target Books in the Spring of '79. Cover price was $4.95; ISBN no. is 0-448-15575-3. The only problem w/ that copy I found: unfortunately, it was missing a page... :-(
I, too, have Durkee's book (bought it not too long after it came out in '99, which was a few years after I found the yearbook), and much to my surprise, I discovered he actually tells about the above yearbook on pgs. 117-118, for those here who want to learn more about it. (According to Durkee, only 20,000 copies were published, so it's quite rare - who knows how many survive today???)
Ah, but a few months ago, I started tracking "AT40" shows & memorabilia on eBay, and to my surprise, an eBay seller had another copy of the yearbook, and w/ a "Buy It Now" price that was dirt cheap - so I grabbed it, and now have a complete copy to replace the old one. :-) I noticed yet a third copy turned up in eBay stores last month, and I just checked eBay for that one again, and it appears that one also sold, as I no longer see it listed. :-( However, I'm willing to trade my original copy w/ the missing page (and will gladly include photocopies of both sides of that page from my complete copy), if interested, EdisonLite...
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sriv94
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| Posted: 10 April 2007 at 8:03am | IP Logged
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One question that I don't think has been answered here: What time do the shows air on XM?
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 10 April 2007 at 9:47am | IP Logged
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<One question that I don't think has been answered here: What time do the shows air on XM?>
The '70s shows air at Saturday 12 pm EST & Wednesday 10 pm (on the '70s channel, 7). The '80s shows air at Sunday 12 pm EST & Thursday 10 pm (on the '80s channel, 8).
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torcan
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| Posted: 10 April 2007 at 1:24pm | IP Logged
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I started watching "America's Top 10" during summer 1980, and heard "American Top 40" for the first time in early '81. I got my first issue of Billboard in summer 1981 and collected them right up until about 2003. To be honest, I don't really like much of today's Top 40 music, and it was too expensive and took up too much room for me to continue collecting it. About 10 years ago I found a used bookstore that had old issues from about '77-80 and picked those up at a pretty good price. I'd love to get older issues from the '70s if I could ever find any!!
I listened to Casey every Sunday morning, and most weeks followed along in Billboard. (There were a few weeks here and there where a couple of songs were in different positions on Casey's countdown than Billboard indicated, but Rob Durkee briefly mentions those in his book).
What I found is that, if a song was on the countdown long enough, you'd usually hear the longer album version at least once during its time in the top 40. They actually edited songs quite frequently. It's been noted that the Year-End Top 100 countdown usually contained edited songs, but sometimes regular countdowns would as well. I guess if that particular hour was running late they'd edit down a couple of songs. They almost certainly used promos during the '80s. Sometimes they'd play shorter "radio edits" of songs where the 45 was the longer album version.
What wonderful memories I had of listening every week...in fact, my name was mentioned on the show during November 1984 with a trivia question I sent in!
I guess I've got to go and get satellite radio now to hear them all again!
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80smusicfreak
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| Posted: 11 April 2007 at 7:51pm | IP Logged
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torcan wrote:
| To be honest, I don't really like much of today's Top 40 music, and it was too expensive and took up too much room for me to continue collecting it. |
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I know what you mean! I've considered giving up "Billboard" myself a few times now in the last five years, but every now and then it still has some great articles that appeal to me, so I've kept on - geez, that mag has been a part of well over more than half my life now! But I definitely don't follow the charts as religiously as I used to, since like you, I've also become quite disenfranchised w/ today's music - I buy very little "current" music nowadays, and whenever I do hear something I like (e.g., Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy", etc.), of course it's almost never available as a (domestic) commercial single... :-(
BTW, if I may get up on my soapbox for a moment, I HIGHLY recommend a new indie documentary that just came out this past November to all folks here on Pat's chat board who are also dismayed by the current state of pop music here in the U.S.: Buy the DVD titled "Before the Music Dies" (a.k.a. "B4MD"), made by B-side Entertainment! This film is a fascinating/informative/tragic look at where pop music is at today, filled w/ interviews & performances from rock legends (and some not-so-famous, but legitimately talented), past and present - I got mine a few months ago! For more detailed info, head over to www.beforethemusicdies.com; you can also order it from Amazon...
Quote:
| About 10 years ago I found a used bookstore that had old issues from about '77-80 and picked those up at a pretty good price. I'd love to get older issues from the '70s if I could ever find any!! |
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Ditto! (Make that pre-May of '83 for me...)
Quote:
| I listened to Casey every Sunday morning, and most weeks followed along in Billboard. (There were a few weeks here and there where a couple of songs were in different positions on Casey's countdown than Billboard indicated, but Rob Durkee briefly mentions those in his book). |
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Yes! I distinctly remember one such example in the Summer of '83 when I was listening closely to Casey's countdown one Sunday a.m. and one of my all-time faves got snubbed on "AT40" in its second (and it turned out final) week in the top 40 on the "Hot 100", and he then made the correction to listeners the following week...
Quote:
| What wonderful memories I had of listening every week...in fact, my name was mentioned on the show during November 1984 with a trivia question I sent in! |
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Cool - I probably heard it then, lol...
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jimct
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| Posted: 12 April 2007 at 12:30pm | IP Logged
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I haven't chimed in on this post until now, but I wholeheartedly share all of your wonderful memories of the program - it was on every Sunday night in my area. Thanks to this post, I was able to pop on the XM radio on my DirecTV last night, and hear a commercial-free AT40 countdown from 4/3/1971. An absolute pleasure to hear again - thanks for the info!
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 13 April 2007 at 8:26pm | IP Logged
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I'm a little late joining this discussion too, but I was actually a huge fan of American Top 40 during the Shadoe Stevens era from 1988-1995. Back when I was a young buck aspiring to become the next Casey Kasem in radio, I would try my darndest to emulate Shadoe's deep, powerful voice but my teenage vocal chords could only go so low! ;-) Anyway, my family and I were stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany from 1988-1991 and I looked to Shadoe and AT40 to keep me in tune with the most popular songs in the U.S. I'd listen religiously to the show for four hours every Saturday evening on the Armed Forces Network's FM dial and would write down each song as they were counted down from #40 to #1 (I know, I didn't have much of a social life back then!). The show was instrumental in launching the huge interest I have in Top 40 music and the Billboard charts to this day!
For what it's worth, I have purchased a handful of actual AT40 broadcasts on CD from eBay over the years and they usually don't sell cheap. But it's always a real treat to re-live those old shows I used to listen to on my boom box's FM dial every weekend whiled locked away in my bedroom!
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 14 April 2007 at 9:13am | IP Logged
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I asked a friend with XM how the sound quality compares to FM radio. And he said FM sounds better than XM. Is this true?? I'd like a few opinions on that before committing to pay for XM.
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aaronk
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| Posted: 14 April 2007 at 3:29pm | IP Logged
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EdisonLite, that is a very good question, and it's one of the reasons I don't subscribe to XM or Sirius. Both of them sound WORSE than FM. My fiance had a free one-year subscription to Sirius when she leased her Jeep. One of the first things I noticed is how awful it sounds.
Yes, it's true that you get far more variety than what's found on regular FM stations. What I don't like about their marketing campaign (and I don't know if they still use this) is how they over-emphasize the "pure digital sound." This is a gimmick to trick the ignorant listener. Yes, it is a digital signal, but what they don't tell you is that it's compressed down to (my guess) about 48 kbps.
They have to compress the "digital" information down a LOT in order to send 100 channels to your radio. Consumer beware! There are many claims (including some by HD stations) that digital sound is equal to CD quality, which is just not true. The bit rate of a CD is 1411 kbps, which is nearly 30x the bit rate of XM or Sirius.
I'm not sure what HD sounds like, but I guarantee it isn't true CD quality. I don't think technology has advanced enough to be able to send that much information fast enough via the Internet or digital radio. I just hope that HD uses at LEAST compression rates of 128 kbps or better.
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Santi Paradoa
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| Posted: 14 March 2020 at 3:51pm | IP Logged
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I just listened to a classic AT40 on SiriusXM from March 12th, 1977 and heard Casey correct three of the positions he had counted down earlier. Sure enough, when I check the official chart for that date the three songs he updated chart positions for were not as originally counted down. I probably was listening back in 1977 but do not remember him stopping the countdown to make these changes after a phone call from Billboard magazine with the update. BTW, the three songs were at numbers 32, 28 and 26. And now on with the countdown.
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PopArchivist
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| Posted: 14 March 2020 at 9:11pm | IP Logged
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EdisonLite wrote:
| I asked a friend with XM how the sound quality compares to FM radio. And he said FM sounds better than XM. Is this true?? I'd like a few opinions on that before committing to pay for XM. |
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Just my two cents in 2020. I wouldn't pay for XM, Spotify or any streaming service or anything that controls how and what availability the music is disseminated, even if it sounds good. Not too old fashioned that I want vinyl, but not naive enough to think that paying for music that I cant own and the artist can pull anytime is worth it. Even with a free trial I passed.
I listen to FM. It's free. If you like older music, burn a CD. Better quality. Or buy a 256 IPOD Touch full of lossless music and carry it with you. Much better investment and listening experience....
Edited by PopArchivist on 14 March 2020 at 9:12pm
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 15 March 2020 at 3:41am | IP Logged
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Just a heads up, Mixcloud has several classic American Top
40 shows for streaming. I think some get removed from
time to time, but others will pop up too. I hate it when
the local oldies station will cut-off the first hour to
fit it in to the 3 hour time slot. Some of the best songs
are in that first hour!
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Bill Cahill
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| Posted: 15 March 2020 at 5:04am | IP Logged
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They run here, iheartradio, these are the same restored versions played on FM stations
each week. 80's run more than 70's, some shows are completely restored from vinyl, some have songs replaced by CD sources. The channel gets updated from
time to time, when the person responsible for it has some free time. Close to 200 shows are rotating. The 80's countdowns are the complete 4 hour versions.
Edited by Bill Cahill on 15 March 2020 at 5:05am
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 15 March 2020 at 8:36am | IP Logged
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Bill Cahill wrote:
They run here,
6545/">iheartradio, these are the same restored
versions played on FM stations
each week. 80's run more than 70's, some shows are
completely restored from vinyl, some have songs replaced
by CD sources. The channel gets updated from
time to time, when the person responsible for it has some
free time. Close to 200 shows are rotating. The 80's
countdowns are the complete 4 hour versions. |
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I listen to those too. However, there's too much
repetition and you can't pick and choose or fast-forward,
etc. I wish there was a site that just had them all
uploaded for streaming.
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eriejwg
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| Posted: 15 March 2020 at 9:05am | IP Logged
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Someone mentioned early in the thread about the show being
done in real-time. As I recall reading somewhere, Dick
Clark filled in as host around 1972 and was amazed that it
was done that way vs. recording the vocal tracks ahead of
time (an early type of voice-tracking.) I believe after
than point that Casey also recorded his vocal tracks ahead
of time. I could be wrong.
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LunarLaugh
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| Posted: 15 March 2020 at 7:22pm | IP Logged
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Paul Haney wrote:
Bill Cahill wrote:
They run here,
40-
6545/">iheartradio, these are the same restored
versions played on FM stations
each week. 80's run more than 70's, some shows are
completely restored from vinyl, some have songs
replaced
by CD sources. The channel gets updated from
time to time, when the person responsible for it has
some
free time. Close to 200 shows are rotating. The 80's
countdowns are the complete 4 hour versions. |
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I listen to those too. However, there's too much
repetition and you can't pick and choose or fast-
forward,
etc. I wish there was a site that just had them all
uploaded for streaming. |
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FWIW, there are a lot of scoped versions from many
various years uploaded on to YouTube. Not ideal, but
better than none at all.
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 16 March 2020 at 3:51am | IP Logged
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eriejwg wrote:
Someone mentioned early in the thread
about the show being
done in real-time. As I recall reading somewhere, Dick
Clark filled in as host around 1972 and was amazed that it
was done that way vs. recording the vocal tracks ahead of
time (an early type of voice-tracking.) I believe after
than point that Casey also recorded his vocal tracks ahead
of time. I could be wrong. |
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That is exactly right, John. IIRC, that story is in Rob
Durkee's book (which I highly recommend).
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 16 March 2020 at 3:52am | IP Logged
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The scoped versions on YouTube are good too. Still nice
to hear the full songs though.
Edited by Paul Haney on 16 March 2020 at 3:53am
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Hykker
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| Posted: 16 March 2020 at 6:01am | IP Logged
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eriejwg wrote:
I believe after
than point that Casey also recorded his vocal tracks ahead
of time. I could be wrong. |
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Well, the "dead dog" rant from circa 1976 seems to indicate
he was pre-recording his tracks by then.
Makes sense, the show sounded very scripted to me...why
waste your star's time sitting thru songs when he can get
his part "in the can" and let the producers assemble the
show.
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: American Top 40
