What's up with AT40? Two weeks ago, they aired a countdown from May 1977. Last week was from 1978. Now they're doing another one from 1977. I much prefer the shows from the earlier 70's, the Lobo/Bread/Carpenters/Stylistics/Three Dog Night era. Can't stomach a lot of the disco era stuff.
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AT40 - the late 70's?
- Thread starter Lonely Summer
- Start date
I'm sure the chronology of shows are decided upon by the syndicator, not the local stations.
Lonely Summer said:
The AT40 producers actually traveled through time and found out that you personally don't like disco. Then in a masterful move, decided to recreate AT40 shows with lots of disco just to torment you. :
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Grindlfan
Guest
Are you referring to the XM Radio AT-40 70s broadcast? It's puzzling that you mentioned that you are listening "now" and it is Friday when AT-40 airs Sunday mornings on KJR. As far as the sydicated airings I've heard on KJR I think they've done a nice job of rotating shows from the entire decade, not focusing too much on any particular years.
Okay, maybe I spoke too soon. This week's broadcast is from June 1973 (sigh) I love the era of the Spinners, Jim Croce, Paul Simon, the O'Jays, even some Elvis Presley.
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searadiofreak
Guest
I may be wrong, but my understanding is they didn't put all the early and mid-70's stuff in the "vault". So you obviously are going to hear more late 70's due to the material available. It's a good show, and fun to listen to. Casey sounded great back then. It's also funny how some of the songs were edited down to half their original length...that must have been a tough call, or maybe not, depending on the song!
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Grindlfan
Guest
searadiofreak said:
Interesting that you mention the song edits on Classic AT-40. I was curious if they were edited on the original broadcasts or if they've edited them recently to fit in the commercial time for the stations carrying the shows now. It doesn't bother me. I still enjoy those shows immensely.
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searadiofreak
Guest
To answer your question, to be honest, I'm not sure. My educated guess is they were edited in the original shows as inventory was more of an issue back then. But I don't know that to be a fact. There may have been some politics that went on with the record labels back then, but who knows? That's a mystery that only execs probably know, or Casey himself. I would ask personally, but my station recently dropped Casey's American Top10 so I probably wouldn't get too far.
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Grindlfan
Guest
I remember there being a controversy over the song Kung Fu Fighting when it was a hit and KJR subsituting another song in it's place on the AT 40 broadcast for a few weeks. One week they played Costafine Town by Splinter instead of KFF and I got excited thinking that the Splinter record was a big hit. It should have been anyway. I wish someone would re-issue the Splinter albums on CD.
Speaking of Classic AT-40. What was the deal with the week ending June 9, 1973? The countdown Casey played did not match up as it usually did with the BB chart for that week. In the show this morning he made reference to a computer being involved in the tabulation of the charts. Anyone know if that was a one off thing or did they do that for a while? I didn't remember them straying from the BB Top 40 chart.
Speaking of Classic AT-40. What was the deal with the week ending June 9, 1973? The countdown Casey played did not match up as it usually did with the BB chart for that week. In the show this morning he made reference to a computer being involved in the tabulation of the charts. Anyone know if that was a one off thing or did they do that for a while? I didn't remember them straying from the BB Top 40 chart.
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dlm1129
Guest
It's a little hard to read but check this out for a full explanation of the chart snafu that AT40 (or more correctly, Billboard) experienced that week. http://www.charismusicgroup.com/Cue Sheets/06-09-73.pdf Basically Billboard supplied a list to AT40 then revised it due to a mistake in the way they programmed their new computer system. It was too late for AT40 to re-do the program to make it to stations on time so it went out as-was.
I remember hearing an on-air explanation from Casey on the following week's show. They also offered a Billboard re-print with the corrected chart data for anyone sending in a self-addressed stamped envelope. I think them up on it. I sure wish I had hung onto it...
This 1973 program was great! My very favorite countdowns (like the originator of this thread) are the early 70s. It's fun hearing the slightly different approaches Casey took through the years.
I remember hearing an on-air explanation from Casey on the following week's show. They also offered a Billboard re-print with the corrected chart data for anyone sending in a self-addressed stamped envelope. I think them up on it. I sure wish I had hung onto it...
This 1973 program was great! My very favorite countdowns (like the originator of this thread) are the early 70s. It's fun hearing the slightly different approaches Casey took through the years.
That Splinter album is great! Got it in a free records bin at a store in Olympia some years back. Just recently picked up a Jackie Lomax record that George Harrison produced, and of course I've got the albums he did with Billy Preston (yes, George was my favorite Beatle). Enjoyed today's countdown. Out of 40 songs, there were maybe 2 or 3 I didn't like - my favorite era of music (at least where top 40 is concerned) is 64-75. Like some of you, I was checking the Billboard chart for a match to today's countdown, and couldn't find one. If I'm not mistaken, in the early years of AT40 they were either a week ahead or behind Billboard. Can't remember the logistics of it, it was something I read in a book about At40. But today's countdown was an anomoly. I, too, wondered how many of the early shows were saved. It was typical for things to get recorded over back in those days - nobody thought there'd still be interest in these things 30 years later.
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dlm1129
Guest
This Sunday's AT40 countdown on KJR-FM will be from June 26, 1971. Great stuff on there; many non-"classics" but I kinda like it better that way.
For those of you who don't understand why some of us like this program, it's all about context and discovery of songs that haven't been played since the 70s. Even the overplayed classics sound at least somewhat fresher.
In some cases, it's evident why some of those songs didn't get play beyond their hit initial hit period; for others it's a head-scratcher. For example, I've discovered a lot of old soul that barely dented the charts but sound fresh today.
For those of you who don't understand why some of us like this program, it's all about context and discovery of songs that haven't been played since the 70s. Even the overplayed classics sound at least somewhat fresher.
In some cases, it's evident why some of those songs didn't get play beyond their hit initial hit period; for others it's a head-scratcher. For example, I've discovered a lot of old soul that barely dented the charts but sound fresh today.
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searadiofreak
Guest
dlm1129 said:
I totally agree, it is so much fun to listen to "hits" that no longer get played. It really should be a format, perhaps not on terristorial radio, but maybe satellite, if it isn't already. I would call it the "forgotten channel" or something.
There is an AT-Classics station in my area, I will check it out this Sunday hopefully to hear '71, if indeed the affiliates are all on the same "grid".
AT 40 was distributed to stations on vinyl as early as 1976. I know because there is/was a record store in Tacoma that had a couple of sets for sale, and I've bought a couple from that year, but you can always check Ebay. If they were distributed to hundreds of stations on vinyl, there should be plenty of copies out there somewhere for replay on the new show.
Judging from the cue sheets, each hour had to time out independently of the other hours, so they had to edit some songs each week to have time to play full versions of other songs. And because they were trying to fit almost 25 minutes of content per side, they didn't have much time to play around with for each half hour either.
Judging from the cue sheets, each hour had to time out independently of the other hours, so they had to edit some songs each week to have time to play full versions of other songs. And because they were trying to fit almost 25 minutes of content per side, they didn't have much time to play around with for each half hour either.
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searadiofreak
Guest
AAllen said:
If these shows are available in a record store or on ebay, whoa, that is a major copyright infringement. But I guess if you don't get caught it isn't really a crime, right?
I found a couple copies of Dick Clark's Rock, Roll & Remember in Portland's Everyday Music recently - one show featured Bread, the other spotlighted Creedence Clearwater Revival. Both record sets were priced around $8, excellent condition. Haven't come across any AT40 shows in the stores, but I will keep looking. Summer of '71 was a great time for music, looking forward to this week's show.
searadiofreak said:AAllen said:
If these shows are available in a record store or on ebay, whoa, that is a major copyright infringement. But I guess if you don't get caught it isn't really a crime, right?
Who really knows at this point in time whether that's really illegal or not; on that same note a couple years ago my family and I went on vacation to the Oregon Coast and while looking through a Salvation Army Thrift Store in Newport, OR I found a CD of the second hour of a Casey Kasem American Top 20 show from 2005, it was a pretty cool find and it only cost about 2.99. I guess if tapes, records and CD's are available at record stores and thrift stores technically what can be done about it? The record companies and radio syndicators can't go through every house, apartment, record store and thrift store in the US and Canada looking for those types of things, that would take forever to do. It's kind of a gray area I suppose.
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