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American Top 40

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American Top 40 (commonly abbreviated to "AT40") is an independent internationally-syndicated radio program currently hosted by Ryan Seacrest. Each week, the 40 songs that have received the most number of requests on Mediabase's data and from affiliated stations, as well as user-based votes from the program's [website] are counted down backwards (from forty to one). The program currently airs in a number of countries including the United States, Canada, several European countries, Australia and the United Kingdom.

American Top 40 Logo.
American Top 40 Logo.

Contents

History

1970-1988: The First Casey Kasem Era

The show began on July 4, 1970, and was originally distributed by Watermark Inc. (which was later purchased by ABC Radio Networks). Hosted by Casey Kasem, the show began as a three hour program which counted down the top 40 songs on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart in a three hour time slot. The show quickly gained popularity once it was commissioned, and expanded to a four hour program on October 7, 1978 when many radio stations began playing longer songs. By the early 1980s, the show could be heard on more than 500 stations in the United States alone.

1988-1995: The Shadoe Stevens Era

In 1988, Kasem left the show due to contract concerns with ABC. His final show aired on August 6, 1988. Kasem was replaced by Shadoe Stevens, whose first American Top 40 show aired on August 13, 1988. Kasem joined the Westwood One radio network less than a year later to start a rival show, Casey's Top 40. Many listeners were upset by Kasem's departure and, as a result, many stations dropped American Top 40 in favor of Casey's Top 40 once it hit the airwaves in early 1989. Casey's Top 40 was based on the Contemporary Hit Radio/Pop tracks chart in Radio & Records magazine. American Top 40 was briefly cancelled in the USA in July 1994, when then owner ABC withdrew the show and acquired the rights to rival Rick Dees Weekly Top 40. The show was also cancelled in the remaining foreign markets on January 28, 1995. These foreign markets replaced it with a similar format called The World Chart Show (which still airs today).

1998-2003: American Top 40 Returns

American Top 40 was revived on March 28, 1998 when original host Casey Kasem pitched the idea to his network Westwood One to rename "Casey's Top 40" as "American Top 40". Westwood One refused, so Kasem took himself and the AT40 name to AM/FM Radio syndication.

The resurrected American Top 40 kept the Radio and Records CHR/Pop chart previously used for "Casey's Top 40" and was used as the basis for the show for the majority of this period. The only exception was a brief period from October 2000 to August 2001 when an obscure Mediabase chart was used. This chart had a rather ambiguous recurrent rule, which would see songs removed weekly from the chart from as high as #10. Kasem also hosted two other shows, based on Radio & Records soft and hot adult contemporary charts at this time. Each of these shows were known as American Top 20 or AT20, for short.

From January 2001 to December 2002 many radio stations aired reruns of 1980-1988 episodes under the title "American Top 40 Flashback". In its early weeks the shows were the original four hour format of an American Top 40 episode, but after the first month and a half the show was reduced to three hours. Although "American Top 40 Flashback" ceased in December 2002, Columbus, Ohio radio station WMMX still airs "American Top 40 Flashbacks" on Saturday mornings.

The AC version of AT20 became "American Top 10" in the Spring of 2004 featuring the top 10 AC songs of the week and a "Spotlight" feature in which Kasem plays songs with a common theme. In December, AT10 focuses on Christmas Music due to the fact that many of its affiliates broadcast a Holiday/Christmas music format around the Holiday Season.

2004-present: The Ryan Seacrest Era

On January 10, 2004, Ryan Seacrest took over the hosting duties of American Top 40 from Kasem, although Kasem would continue to host American Top 20 and American Top 10. With the host change, American Top 40 underwent a makeover, using a new theme song and introducing several new features. These extras included playing the previous week's #1 song at the beginning of the show, a gossip section, an update on movies screening in cinemas, and other extras which are inducted on a regular basis: "AT40 Breakout", a song predicted to crack the chart within the next few weeks, "Request Line", a segment in which Ryan Seacrest will play a song requested by a listener, "Double Play", a former hit from the artist just played, and "AT40 Rewind", a hit song from the past decade or so.

The show also began using a new chart that used no recurrent rule. On the first show with Ryan Seacrest, this led to several older songs reappearing after having dropped off many weeks earlier. Over the long term, it meant songs could spend long runs for about a year on the chart even after they went to recurrent status on other published charts. "Here Without You" by 3 Doors Down set a longevity record in 2004 for the show by lasting 50 weeks before finally falling off. In 2006, "Scars" by Papa Roach would go on to tie the record. American Top 40 also became more interactive, involving online song voting and e-mail.

American Top 40 is currently produced and engineered by Claudine Cazian and Sal Cocio.

Features During The 1970s - 1980s

During Kasem's run as host of the show, there were several features. The most famous was the Long Distance Dedication, which had evolved from a song that Kasem had recorded in the mid 1960s. The Long Distance Dedication feature began two months before the show expanded to four hours in 1978. Most shows featured two long distance dedications. This feature endured on AT40 into Shadoe Stevens' run as host of the show and has also followed Casey (first as the "Request and Dedication") on his Westwood One shows and then back as the LDD when he returned to AT40 in 1998.

AT40 also featured several question letters in each show, where a listener would write to ask a chart trivia question. Sometimes these letters led to an extra song being played, though this became less common as songs increased in length in the 1980s. Also in 1978 after the show expanded to four hours, each of the first three hours ended with the "AT40 Archives" segment that featured a number one song of the past. From October 1978 to June 1980 the number one songs of the 1970's were featured in the "AT40 Archives", and from June 1980 to November 1981 the number songs of the 1960's were featured. The "AT40 Archives" feature was gone by the end of 1981.

Finally, each show would often have "stretch" stories. These were stories which supposedly related to certain songs. The song was played after each of these stories. Also, beginning in early 1979, a recap of the previous week's top three songs started off each AT40 episode. American Top 40 began to lose stations once Shadoe Stevens took over. In an attempt to win back an audience, several other features were tried. These included interview clips, music news, top 5 flashbacks, and previews of upcoming chart hits (called the "AT40 Sneak Peek").

Chart Data Used by American Top 40

Billboard magazine

AT40 used the Top 40 portion of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart from the show's inception in 1970 to November 30, 1991. The chart was widely regarded as the industry standard in tracking the most popular songs in the country, and was thus a natural choice to be used. However, by the early 1990s, many songs would appear on the chart being fueled by single sales, and had received low airplay (several were very long, others were too controversial or risqué for mainstream airplay). These song would generally only be aired in brief snippets during the show.

Because of this, American Top 40 began using the Top 40 from the Billboard Radio Monitor chart. These songs generally scored much higher radio airplay, and some were not even released as singles, such as "Steel Bars" by Michael Bolton). During this time, a few songs made big debuts, including 2 that almost debuted in the #1 spot: "I'll Be There" by Mariah Carey, which entered American Top 40 at #4, and "Erotica" by Madonna, which entered at #2.

In January 1993 American Top 40 switched charts again, this time to the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart. This chart had more Top 40 Mainstream hits but less urban/dance/rap songs.

Radio & Records magazine

With the show's revival in 1998, a new chart was implemented, the top 40 portion Radio and Records CHR/Pop top 50 chart. This would also be a first time a recurrent rule was used on the show, albeit indirectly. Songs that were below #25 and had exceeded 26 weeks in the top 50 were removed, and these removals, if they occurred in the top 40, would be reflected on the appropriate week's program. In 1999, the rule was modified to further restrict long chart runs. Songs falling below #20 with at least 20 weeks in the top 50 would now be removed.

On October 21, 2000 American Top 40 began using an unpublished chart on a weekly basis for the first time in its history. The chart seemed to be a variant of the CHR/Pop chart provided by Mediabase, the data provider to Radio & Records. The most noticeable feature of this new chart was its ambiguous recurrent rule. Songs would be removed regularly from within the top 15, seemingly regardless of the number of weeks it had spent on the chart. This chart lasted until August 11, 2001, when AT40 returned to the Radio & Records Pop chart. The return coincided with another modification in the recurrent rule; songs would be removed below #25 after 3 consecutive weeks without a bullet (an increase in radio plays). This change would be short-lived, and in November 2001, Radio & Records returned to the 20 weeks/below #20 rule, which remained in place for the remainder of Kasem's tenure.

Spin-Off Programming

Based on the success of American Top 40, Kasem and Don Bustany created a spinoff top 40 countdown for Watermark for Country Radio called American Country Countdown, patterned after Kasem's program. "ACC" premiered in 1973, and was hosted by radio personality Bob Kingsley from 1978 until 2005. There was also a TV version of American Top 40 hosted by Kasem and later Siedah Garrett and Tommy Puett called America's Top 10 that aired in syndication from 1980 to 1992.

Special Countdowns

Occasionally, between 1971 and 1991, American Top 40 would air special countdowns in place of the regular American Top 40 countdown show. These included: The Top 100 songs of the year have also been counted down on an annual basis, usually spread over two weeks in an eight hour format.

Substitute Hosts

A new episode must be produced every week, meaning that occasionally a substitute host must fill in. Substitutes for Ryan Seacrest have included: Some well-known guest hosts for Casey Kasem have included: Shadoe Stevens' guest hosts for his American Top 40 reign included:

Trivia

Further reading

External links

 

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