Another AT40 question

sriv94 wrote: The funny thing about the 80s ones is they're the same AT40 countdowns, just with the MTV personalities introing and outroing (probably no Long Distance Dedications though

And no other extras, no artist stories like Casey used to have, no repeat of the previous week's top 3, no playing 3 #1 hits from the '60s or '70s in chronological order, no AT40 theme music, no teasers. But other than that, exactly the same show ... except without any personality, excitement or life.

The fact that they're even counting down Billboard top 40 shows reveals this was all done for one purpose only ... to prevent paying Premiere Radio for their AT40 shows, saving the fee (which I guess is like $25 or 40 per week - but hey, they lose many many subscribers as a result. That's a good business decision, right?) Seems like it ought to be illegal for them to NOT pay to use the AT40/Billboard countdown but then to count down the Billboard top 40 hits anyway (without paying.) Maybe someone should report this suspicious activity to Premiere Networks.

Edited by EdisonLite

I can no longer find then-'80s channel PD Bruce Kelly's original post on xmfan, but do recall him writing six years ago that the reason XM dropped AT40 in 2003 was because of a large increase in the licensing fee they'd have to pay Billboard for the use of the Hot 100 chart info upon which AT40 was based. This was in addition to the licensing fees for the actual show itself from Premiere.

When Bruce announced the impending return of AT40 in 2005 on xmfan, his first statement was License probs worked out with BB Mag. He also stated at the time that he would not be airing any Shadoe Stevens AT40 shows. I'm strictly speculating here, but might it be that because Casey's AT40 reign did not encompass the entire '80s decade, Sirius believed it could save the licensing fees for the show itself and do an in-house countdown with their existing talent?

Hykker wrote: When did Casey leave AT40? I want to say some time in 1988..

That's right. According to Wikipedia, his last show was 8/6/88.

I'm not sure I understand, are you saying this channel plays nothing but the AT40 '70s and '80s countdowns continually?

And I assume they don't also air the previous weekend AT40 70s show that SXM plays, but just the ones that Premiere plays on syndicated radio stations. Is that the case?

Just wanted to point out that the iHeart Radio "Classic
American Top 40" channel is not just playing the previous
week's editions of the syndicated shows. Instead, they are
now playing random countdowns (alternating between a '70s
and an '80s show).

So now you can turn in several times during the week and
not have to listen to the same two countdowns over and
over.