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Old Rick Dees’ Countdown Affiliates

K

ksradiogeek

Over the past few months, I’ve been listening to iHeart’s replay channel of old Dees countdowns from the 80s and 90s (and just recently, re-airings on weekend mornings on Z93/Dayton). Around the top 30 and top 10 during the 80s shows, he’ll give a shout out to affiliates around the country/world. (I don’t believe he continued to do this during the 90s and subsequent decades.)

While getting a full list of affiliates that have carried the countdown in some capacity may be a challenge (no pun intended - if you know, you know), does anyone remember what stations carried the Weekly Top 40 during those two decades in particular? (I know he’s still on some stations, though that has whittled down gradually over the years.)
 
Walx 100.9 FM Selma Alabama (Saturdays at 8 A.M. and Sundays at 6 P.M.) (In the 2000s, just before dropping the Top 40, they would air him on Sundays at 2 P.M.) (They also aired a weeknight show he did at 8 P.M., during the late 80s) (Can't remember the name of it but they did give a shout out to Walx Selma, on one episode)

Whhy 101.9 FM Montgomery Alabama (Sundays at 6 P.M.) (Not too long ago they carried his syndicated midday show.)

Dan <><​
 
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The show originated at KIIS-FM in LA, and was an extension of Rick's morning show. One week he had Backstreet Boys as guests on KIIS, and that interview became the centerpiece of that week's Top 40. Meanwhile, Casey's show just had canned interviews, and before that had no interviews at all. It was really unique at that time to hear the host of a national countdown actually speak with the stars.
 
I know that, before they went into bankruptcy, Edward Stolz's stations in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Palm Springs had carried the daily Rick Dees program for a while, so I imagine that he was carrying the weekly countdown show as well.
 
TheBigA said:
The show originated at KIIS-FM in LA, and was an extension of Rick's morning show. One week he had Backstreet Boys as guests on KIIS, and that interview became the centerpiece of that week's Top 40. Meanwhile, Casey's show just had canned interviews, and before that had no interviews at all. It was really unique at that time to hear the host of a national countdown actually speak with the stars.
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And that’s why I like Rick more than Casey. Don’t get me wrong, Casey’s talented and legendary in his own right. The accolades he racked up were deserved. But anymore, I feel that the AT40 reruns are boring. Rick’s seem just…better. He’s more topical, more listener interactive, and more engaging.
 
ksradiogeek said:
Over the past few months, I’ve been listening to iHeart’s replay channel of old Dees countdowns from the 80s and 90s (and just recently, re-airings on weekend mornings on Z93/Dayton). Around the top 30 and top 10 during the 80s shows, he’ll give a shout out to affiliates around the country/world. (I don’t believe he continued to do this during the 90s and subsequent decades.)

While getting a full list of affiliates that have carried the countdown in some capacity may be a challenge (no pun intended - if you know, you know), does anyone remember what stations carried the Weekly Top 40 during those two decades in particular? (I know he’s still on some stations, though that has whittled down gradually over the years.)
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KGRC, Hannibal, MO when I worked there in 1985-86.
 
It was on KMXV in Kansas City in the 90’s on Saturday mornings, and still airs on that station Sunday mornings. When I listened in the 90’s, Rick would have the call in contest winner for that week mention the station where they listened to the Weekly Top 40.
 
I looked up that ad from R&R mentioned in post #7, and discovered that Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 was originally syndicated by United Stations. That company was partly founded by Dick Clark. So my earlier post about Dick wanting to work with Rick is not correct. It was Dick's company that syndicated Dees. However, in 1983 (until 1985) Clark's National Music Survey was syndicated by Mutual Broadcasting, under a contract Clark signed before he started United Stations. In 85, that contract was over, and Clark hosted Countdown America for United Stations. But I believe it was only available for AC stations, not CHR, so it didn't compete with Dees.
 
In 1994, when KKFR in the Phoenix market briefly reflirted with top 40 after KZZP dropped it, it carried Rick Dees countdown for most of the period. I believe someone else in Phoenix (possibly KYOT but I'm not sure) was carrying that particular countdown back in the 1980s.

At a personal level, I much preferred Casey Kasem to Rick Dees. Yes, Dees was more entertaining but I preferred the more straightforward facts-based (it seemed like it was facts-based anyway) approach that Casey used. Also, during 1993 and early 1994 before Record World divided its top-40 charts between rhythmic and straightforward radio play, Rick wouldn't play the rap tunes that had profanity in them, not even the radio versions where the profanity was edited whereas Casey did play all of the songs that made the list during that timeperiod.
 
ted chittenden said:
Casey did play all of the songs that made the list during that timeperiod.
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Are you sure about that? I read somewhere that he also skipped those songs that didn't fit with the radio affiliates.

From 1988 to 1998 he used the Radio & Records chart, because he was syndicated by Westwood One, and at the time, they owned R&R.
 
TheBigA said:
From 1988 to 1996 he used the Radio & Records chart, because he was syndicated by Westwood One, and at the time, they owned R&R.
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As I recall, Billboard still had an agreement in force with ABC/Watermark for AT40 under Shadoe Stevens, so that might also have been a factor ... at least through January 1995, when the show ended (allowing Casey to reacquire the trademark and the ownership of the shows he had hosted, eventually leading to the show being revived the last weekend of March 1998 by Chancellor/AMFM, with Casey as host once more).
 
Casey never returned to Billboard after leaving AT40. The Westwood One era shows as well as the later AMFM / Premiere era shows all used R&R / Mediabase airplay charts.

That said, Casey never strayed from the published chart. Rick was known to move songs around from time to time, especially if a song hung around at #1 a little too long.

I always preferred Casey. I'd listen to Rick, but Casey was a mandatory tune-in.
 
I don't know where Rick Dees aired on in Kazoo if he was ever was cleared, I know Casey was on 103.3 WKFR in Kazoo Sun nights 6PM to 10PM I believe.
 


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