American Top 40 December 23 and 30, 1972

[Koolmotor]

I recently found a script of the American Top 40 broadcast for December 23 and for December 30, 1972, given to me many years ago. I don't know which station it was from. The local advertisements have been written in pencil. It may be from Ohio.

It was the year-end broadcast, with hits number 80 (Witch Queen of New Orleans) to number 41 (Starting All Over Again) in the December 23 program. The hits from number 40 (Burning Love) to number 1 for the year (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face) were in the December 30, 1972 program.

I intended to just quickly read the printed script, but found myself going down the top 80 of that year, listening to the songs that were in my iTunes library. It was interesting to see which songs I had, about two-thirds of the overall list. Since it was a survey for the entire year, almost all of the songs were familiar to me. Some of them are regulars on the oldies playlists, but others have faded away.

It's hard to explain to a younger person how much fun radio and popular music were then, at a time we couldn't have imagined online music and the internet.

 

[Larry]

The iHeart radio app has a Casey Kasem AT40 station (which I think is the stream of a Dayton, OH HD station). Occasionally they play the year end countdowns.

 

[JoeLouis]

The iHeart radio app has a Casey Kasem AT40 station (which I think is the stream of a Dayton, OH HD station). Occasionally they play the year end countdowns.

WMMX HD2 Dayton, I only listen to the 70s shows which are basically 3-6AM and 3-6PM daily, and they'll throw in a year end countdown once in a while.

 

[Larry]

I haven’t listened in past week but they often play year end countdowns around holidays. Wonder if they are doing a bunch on New Years’ Eve bad Day?

 

[JoeLouis]

I haven’t listened in past week but they often play year end countdowns around holidays. Wonder if they are doing a bunch on New Years’ Eve bad Day?

If you find out let me know, and I'll let you know if I find out.

 

[gr8oldies]

The iHeart radio app has a Casey Kasem AT40 station (which I think is the stream of a Dayton, OH HD station). Occasionally they play the year end countdowns.

Except for the AT40 channel being carried on WMMX's HD2 (if it still is, we just had a thread about iHeart pulling some of their HD2s), WMMX's local management and programming people have nothing to do with it. The HD2 is there for a discount on music royalties. Last I knew iHeart Smooth Jazz channel was on WCHD, Dayton as the terrestrial "originator". Before WMMX, AT40 channel was on an HD2 in Austin. I don't know if any year-enders are carried on the channel.

 

[JoeLouis]

Except for the AT40 channel being carried on WMMX's HD2 (if it still is, we just had a thread about iHeart pulling some of their HD2s), WMMX's local management and programming people have nothing to do with it. The HD2 is there for a discount on music royalties. Last I knew iHeart Smooth Jazz channel was on WCHD, Dayton as the terrestrial "originator". Before WMMX, AT40 channel was on an HD2 in Austin. I don't know if any year-enders are carried on the channel.

I had it on today and they still used the WMMX HD2 I.D. I hope they don't pull Casey, I listen to it every day unless it's late 70s I like the show '75 and earlier. Cool Oldies is WASH HD2 Washington D.C. like that one too.

 

[vchimpanzee]

The problem with year-end countdowns is if the song was popular too close to the end of the year, it isn't as high up as it should be.

 

[JoeLouis]

The problem with year-end countdowns is if the song was popular too close to the end of the year, it isn't as high up as it should be.

"Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" was the number one song of 1969 on the smaller stations near me, however it was also the number one song on 77 WABC for 1970, seems 77 was always a little behind other top 40 stations for the weekly survey.

 

[michael hagerty]

"Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" was the number one song of 1969 on the smaller stations near me, however it was also the number one song on 77 WABC for 1970, seems 77 was always a little behind other top 40 stations for the weekly survey.

A lot of stations used the date a song peaked as the determination as to whether it made the year-end countdown.

At KHJ in Los Angeles, "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" hit #1 the week of December 24, 1969. It didn't make #1 at WABC until the week of January 20, 1970---almost a month later.

 

[JoeLouis]

A lot of stations used the date a song peaked as the determination as to whether it made the year-end countdown.

At KHJ in Los Angeles, "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" hit #1 the week of December 24, 1969. It didn't make #1 at WABC until the week of January 20, 1970---almost a month later.

Great research, thanks Michael, i love stats like these.

 

[firepoint525]

The problem with year-end countdowns is if the song was popular too close to the end of the year, it isn't as high up as it should be.

Or misses the survey all together. Famously happened with Steve Miller's "Rock'n Me," a #1 hit on the first weekend in November of 1976. Did not make the year-ender for either '76 or '77, but got played as an extra on Premiere's playback of the 1976 top 100.

 

[michael hagerty]

Or misses the survey all together. Famously happened with Steve Miller's "Rock'n Me," a #1 hit on the first weekend in November of 1976. Did not make the year-ender for either '76 or '77, but got played as an extra on Premiere's playback of the 1976 top 100.

Absolutely can happen. The earlier you make your cutoff for the year-end chart (Billboard's was October 31 at the time), the greater the risk of lost records.

 

[Kent]

At KHJ in Los Angeles, "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" hit #1 the week of December 24, 1969. It didn't make #1 at WABC until the week of January 20, 1970---almost a month later.

Seems like I heard AT-40 counts a year as December 1 to November 30, or something of the like. So, a song that hit #1 in December would most likely be credited to the following year. I've also heard of the occasional song that was strong late in a year appearing in two year end countdowns, usually in the top of one year and the lower half of the other.

 

[firepoint525]

Seems like I heard AT-40 counts a year as December 1 to November 30, or something of the like. So, a song that hit #1 in December would most likely be credited to the following year. I've also heard of the occasional song that was strong late in a year appearing in two year end countdowns, usually in the top of one year and the lower half of the other.

It was changed to that, probably sometime in the '80s. That either means that there was a 13-month "year," or a survey year in which a month just fell into a black hole.

What I remember (primarily from the '80s) is that the #1 song from December was often the #1 song of the entire following year. Not sure if it was longevity, or if the December chart-topper got extra credit for that "frozen" week that they used to have back then.

 

[michael hagerty]

Seems like I heard AT-40 counts a year as December 1 to November 30, or something of the like. So, a song that hit #1 in December would most likely be credited to the following year. I've also heard of the occasional song that was strong late in a year appearing in two year end countdowns, usually in the top of one year and the lower half of the other.

Right. I was responding to Joe Louis, who said that "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" was on the 1970 WABC countdown.

KHJ likely would have had it on their 1969 countdown, but they did a "Top 100 of the Sixties" countdown that year instead. And looking at their 1970 countdown, it was #2 for the year, despite having peaked at #1 and spent off of its three weeks at the top in calendar 1969. The fact that it only fell to #3, and didn't fall off the Boss 30 until mid-February of 1970, I'm sure had a lot to do with that ranking.

 

[michael hagerty]

It was changed to that, probably sometime in the '80s. That either means that there was a 13-month "year," or a survey year in which a month just fell into a black hole.

What I remember (primarily from the '80s) is that the #1 song from December was often the #1 song of the entire following year. Not sure if it was longevity, or if the December chart-topper got extra credit for that "frozen" week that they used to have back then.

It's been a moving target. I just found a January 1963 Billboard article that says their cutoff date for the year-end 1962 chart was October 27. It was very likely the end of October during the years I paid the most attention (when I was programming----1971 to 1981) and got tighter as technology made it easier.

 

[landtuna]

A lot of stations used the date a song peaked as the determination as to whether it made the year-end countdown.

At KHJ in Los Angeles, "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" hit #1 the week of December 24, 1969. It didn't make #1 at WABC until the week of January 20, 1970---almost a month later.

Might this have something to do with "Raindrops" being the theme of the very popular "Sundance Kid" movie?

 

[michael hagerty]

Might this have something to do with "Raindrops" being the theme of the very popular "Sundance Kid" movie?

Sure. Top-grossing film of 1969. Still, more people heard the record on the radio than saw the movie. Bacharach was at the peak of his powers and B.J. Thomas was in the middle of a run of hits. It all worked together.

 

[sandiegoinexile]

I also listen daily to the Casey Kasem AT40 iHeart channel. There does not seem to be a time-of-day delineation. They alternate with a 70s episode and then 80s. then 70s, then ping-pong back and forth. In past years they have aired year-end countdowns during the last week of the year (as well during other holiday periods, like Memorial Day weekend). This holiday week, I haven't heard any year-end countdowns -- although they are often in the rotation.

Oddly enough, I tuned into KOLA 99.9 out of Riverside CA on Sunday night. It was a year-end AT40 countdown from 1980 - Part One on the terrestrial KOLA.