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crapfromthepast
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Joined: 14 September 2006
Location: United States
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| Posted: 29 June 2009 at 9:03pm | IP Logged
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Dear Casey,
I started listening to American Top 40 in late 1979 on 99X/WXLO in New York City, at the age of 11. To say it had a profound impact on my life would be an extreme understatement; within weeks of discovering AT40 and the pop charts, I gave all my baseball cards to my brother and never looked back. Thanks to the local record stores ("Please request by number") and your show, I now had 45s to collect.
Thirty years later, I am still fanatical about pop music. I dabbled in commercial radio, but they told me that if I was in it for the music, I was in it for the wrong reason. Luckily, I discovered community radio at the left end of the dial, and that's where I've been for the last 22 years. Since 1992, I've been hosting my own pop music show, which I routinely refer to as a graduate-level course in pop.
In the years before I could afford Billboard, I used to tune in to AT40 and write down the positions of the songs in a three-ring binder. That binder was my first useful chart reference, and your show was a very comforting Sunday morning ritual in my formative years.
You'd be surprised at how many DJs I've run into that did the very same thing as kids, and all of us still have those three-ring binders tucked away with our most prized possessions. I kept it up from 1979 to 1989 - from 6th grade to my junior year of college - and I've attached scans of the first and last pages from that binder. Basically, I transcribed about 20,000 songs that you introduced over that ten year span.
I know you're retiring from the countdown world this July 4th weekend, exactly 39 years after the first AT40 in 1970. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you choose to do next. Metaphorically, I hope you get to enjoy sleeping in on Sundays! You can take pride knowing that your shows have made such a lasting impression in so many of us listeners.
Sincerely,
Ron Gerber
host of "Crap From The Past"
KFAI-FM/Minneapolis
Big scans (about 2 MB each):
December 1, 1979: 1-25 26-40
July 29, 1989: 1-25 26-40
Edited by crapfromthepast on 16 June 2014 at 7:30am
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There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
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bwolfe
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Joined: 24 May 2007
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| Posted: 30 June 2009 at 7:01am | IP Logged
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Amen brother!
I did the same thing starting in 1972 listening to AT40 on WVAM in Altoona.
"A Horse With No Name" was the first number one that I can remember.
I too did the three ring binder and would include weeks on the chart, the number ones on the other Billboard charts and what fell off the 40 that week.
I collected local music charts too.
But it was Casey who single handedly made me a chart fanatic.
Its still nostalgic to listen to the old shows on Sirius and recall the anticipation of what songs were debuting and which of my favorites were on the chart.
When I discovered that I could buy a Billboard magazine I would grovel over whether I should buy some new 45's or that issue.
Always a tough decision.
Thank you Ron for bringing up this topic.
A special thank you to Casey for all those great years and memories.
Now on with the countdown...
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the way it was heard on the radio
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torcan
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| Posted: 30 June 2009 at 9:28am | IP Logged
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I didn’t really get into pop music until 1980, but discovered the charts soon after. I followed local CHUM and CFTR charts from Toronto, which were published in the papers each week, but I knew they weren’t that accurate because there were always a lot of songs those stations missed. I discovered “America’s Top 10” on TV in the summer of 1980 and heard “American Top 40” for the first time in March 1981 on a US station I still listen to to this day. I wrote down all the positions just like many of you did. I bought my first issue of Billboard in May 1981 and almost immediately subscribed to it (even though it was very expensive).
I kept all the issues and now have almost a complete run between 1977-2000. I found old issues from ’77-80 in a used book store many years back (for only $30 grand total!) I still bought issues between 2000 - 2004 but not every week. I finally stopped buying it in early 2004 because it just took up so much room, and the music of today doesn’t really hold much interest for me. I still keep up with the charts online though.
Even though I had each week’s Billboard, I always listened to Casey every Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed the show. I even had a trivia question answered on the show once – it was fall of 1984 and I asked about the album that took the biggest leap to No. 1. Oddly enough, that same week I had my name in Billboard’s Chartbeat column for the first time!
An enjoyable read is the “American Top 40” book by Rod Durkee, which has a lot of interesting stories behind the history of the show. One of these days I’ve got to get hooked up to satellite radio so I can enjoy the old shows again. Definitely a memorable part of my musical enjoyment!
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 30 June 2009 at 2:58pm | IP Logged
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torcan wrote:
| An enjoyable read is the “American Top 40” book by Rod Durkee, which has a lot of interesting stories behind the history of the show. |
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Most definitely! A fine read, and worth the price just for the listing of the tracks from all of the AT40 special shows. Plus, I'm in the acknowledgments, listed right before Debbie Gibson. :)
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Gary
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| Posted: 30 June 2009 at 5:40pm | IP Logged
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You don't have to tune into Sirius radio - there are a number of online radio stations that broadcast Premiere Radio's American Top 40 - the 80's and American Top 40 - the 70's. It is so great hearing these shows again on radio as I got hooked on 45's and American Top 40 in 1979 when I was 12. I got into commercial radio and now program the music for a CHR station which I enjoy alot of yesterday's music and today's biggest hits as well.
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: Casey Kasem - counting ’em down 1970-2009
