CASEY KASEM CALLS IT QUITS

[gcreedle239]

On the 39th Anniversary of AT40, Casey announced he's retiring from AT10. ABC World News had the story tonight. I used to listen, to my parents dismay, to the show at the Sunday lunch table, so I could write down every song. Then a few years later at age 15, my first airshift was Sunday morning Church tapes, AT40 and then a precious hour where i got to hone my craft. Mr. Kasem sound IDENTICAL today to what I remember in 1970. And I'll never forget the 33 1/3 discs with only a fraction of a second between the outro jingle and next segment's intro sing. Had to be fast with the cart machine trigger and a "throw down" on the turntable's volume pot (it was a Gates, itcould take it). Good luck, Casey.

 

[landtuna]

Lots of good memories with Casey but I have to admit mine are long, long ago. I quit listening to AT40 when the music hit the skids.

 

[oldies76]

Casey Kasem is a legend. Thankfully 70's re-runs are being aired locally.

 

[gcreedle239]

Landtuna, I too quit listening around 1980, which coincidentally was IMHO the point when true TOP 40, that is the top songs from a broad range of music, bit the dust. Stations became much more narrowly defined musically at which point AT40 lost a lot of its relevance.

 

[gcreedle239]

I didn't live in LA in the 70's but am curious as to which station cleared the show in LA during the 70s. My guess is KIIS and that it did very well, but sometimes syndicated shows are not cleared in the largest markets. In my small town midwestern 70's radio experience, AT40 and Paul Harvey were both highly rated and always sold out.

 

[softmachine]

Ponderous.

 

[oaktree]

Casey - Thanks for the great years of memories. "Keep your feet on the ground, keep reaching for the stars."

Knowing that this was the final show for Casey's abbreviated countdown, I pulled off the shelf the still perfect sounding and protected vinyl discs in the now familiar white box of Volume 1 Show 1 - the weekend of July 4th, 1970 ... that I, fortunately, salvaged after just one playing, from the trash at long silent WAMS in Wilmington, Delaware.

I treasure having this copy of the first AT40 and a bunch of others through the years. Tom Rounds, Ron Jacobs, Casey, PAMS, Jamm Creative Productions and Watermark did a superb job on what, now, 39 years later, is the end of a great milestone in radio history.

There's no one like Casey ... dead dog dedication's and all ... and I'm sure that through it all, for Casey, "...the countdown continues," in something in time.

Thanks, Casey!

 

[ronkaram]

I remember Casey as a DJ in Cleveland at WJW. When they dropped the top 40 format he went to thier sister station in Detroit. When I moved to LA in 1965, he was a dj at KRLA.

 

[davideduardo]

I treasure having this copy of the first AT40 and a bunch of others through the years. Tom Rounds, Ron Jacobs, Casey....

How nice to give credit to seldom mentioned TR and RJ. TR is credited with taking the concept of barter syndication and making it work, and Jacobs' production values, writing and direction were so much of what made AT40 successful.

I envy you for having a copy of the first AT40. I've worked for TR for the last 16 years, and also worked briefly with RJ... but don't have that collector's item!

 

[LKellerIII]

I didn't live in LA in the 70's but am curious as to which station cleared the show in LA during the 70s. My guess is KIIS and that it did very well, but sometimes syndicated shows are not cleared in the largest markets. In my small town midwestern 70's radio experience, AT40 and Paul Harvey were both highly rated and always sold out.

In Los Angeles, AT40 premiered on KRLA. At that point, Casey had been with the station for about 5 or 6 years, and was the weekend and fill-in guy. His local Sunday afternoon show was also a count-down show, and Casey had been doing his trademark stories for a number of years. So it was not a stretch for AT40 to premiere on the same day in the same time slot.

I'm not sure how many years the show stayed with KRLA

 

[firepoint525]

Lots of good memories with Casey but I have to admit mine are long, long ago. I quit listening to AT40 when the music hit the skids.

I think I quit listening to him about the time that my local station moved him from Sunday afternoons to Saturday mornings at 6:00 a.m.!!

 

[radioman148]

Lots of good memories with Casey but I have to admit mine are long, long ago. I quit listening to AT40 when the music hit the skids.

I think I quit listening to him about the time that my local station moved him from Sunday afternoons to Saturday mornings at 6:00 a.m.!!

Yeah same here which I believe was in the late 70s.

 

[firepoint525]

Landtuna, I too quit listening around 1980, which coincidentally was IMHO the point when true TOP 40, that is the top songs from a broad range of music, bit the dust. Stations became much more narrowly defined musically at which point AT40 lost a lot of its relevance.

It became less enjoyable for me when he expanded from the three-hour format, to four. I think it was around 1978. They added more network commercials, long-distance dedications, archives, etc. I was actually disappointed that it didn't become a longer countdown (say, top 50 as opposed to just top 40), only a longer program. The other stuff that they added was just filler, in my opinion.

I know they expanded the show so that they wouldn't be forced to continue using such severe edits of some of the songs that they were playing, so with that in mind, it was actually disappointing that they didn't play the occasional album version, or even the 12-inch dance mix, of some of the songs that made the countdown. And I remember that even then, he still talked right up to the point when the vocal started, and would often talk over the ending of the song, particularly if it was one in which the ending was a "fader."

 

[Hoosierky]

Sirius aired the first AT40 with Casey on Saturday. The energy and enthusiasm Casey showed blew me away!!
No LD dedications and only 2 or 3 "oldes". That program rocked!!

Casey, for the first time in over 40 years, take the weekend off. You deserve it!!

 

[softmachine]

They added more network commercials, long-distance dedications

"...and this one's about kids, and pets, and a situation we could all understand...whether we have kids or pets or neither. It's from a man in Cincinnati, Ohio, and here's what he writes..."

 

[firepoint525]

They added more network commercials, long-distance dedications

"...and this one's about kids, and pets, and a situation we could all understand...whether we have kids or pets or neither. It's from a man in Cincinnati, Ohio, and here's what he writes..."

Oooohhh, I remember that one well! ;D I never thought of "the Case" quite the same again after hearing about that one! (It's on youtube if you want to check it out! ;D)

 

[ChannelFlipper]

They added more network commercials, long-distance dedications

"...and this one's about kids, and pets, and a situation we could all understand...whether we have kids or pets or neither. It's from a man in Cincinnati, Ohio, and here's what he writes..."

Another classic promo read:

..."Please join us this Sunday and every Sunday at Two AM. Two AM??!!"

 

[DIZ Guy]

AT 40 expanded to 4 hours in the fall of 1978. The LDD made its debut in the summer of 1978...

The original 3-hour version of AT 40 was the best...

 

[softmachine]

They added more network commercials, long-distance dedications

"...and this one's about kids, and pets, and a situation we could all understand...whether we have kids or pets or neither. It's from a man in Cincinnati, Ohio, and here's what he writes..."

Another classic promo read:

..."Please join us this Sunday and every Sunday at Two AM. Two AM??!!"

Two? Two-oo?!

 

[softmachine]

They added more network commercials, long-distance dedications

"...and this one's about kids, and pets, and a situation we could all understand...whether we have kids or pets or neither. It's from a man in Cincinnati, Ohio, and here's what he writes..."

Oooohhh, I remember that one well! ;D I never thought of "the Case" quite the same again after hearing about that one! (It's on youtube if you want to check it out! ;D)

I can recite that thing almost verbatim. I thank Negativland for that...