American Top 40

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)?

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...

<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).

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.

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...

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!!

Ditto! (Make that pre-May of '83 for me...)

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).

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...

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!

Cool - I probably heard it then, lol...

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!

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.