50 Years of American Top 40

Can you remember the last time you listened to American Top 40?  It's still out there, now hosted by Ryan Seacrest.  I'm not trying to belittle Seacrest's AT40.  But once Casey Kasem's AT40 disappeared, so did my quest to try and find it.  Kasem's ended pre-Internet, and if you want, Seacrest's AT40 is on the iHeartRadio streaming app.

But Casey Kasem's AT40 ruled my world through most of the 70's and parts of the 80's.  Although it started on July 3, 1970, I didn't come to it until a year or two later when I lived in Germany.  My Dad was stationed there from 71-75, and AT40 played every weekend on Armed Forces Radio.  I was fascinated from the start at songs that moved around the charts every week.  I needed to know what the #1 song was going to be.  No Billboard magazines in 1970's Germany.  And the chart was diverse back then.  Pop, Rock, Soul, Country, Novelties all collided and took my young mind everywhere.  It's a big reason for my eclectic tastes today. 

AT40 is also a big reason I have such a soft spot for chart icons that got roasted by music critics in the 70's.  You don't love John Denver, Barry Manilow, Bread, Olivia Newton-John, Carpenters?  Well, then, I guess you had to be there in the 70's, tuned into an AM station playing AT40.  And I was. 

The genius of AT40 was that it made every record, whether they went to #1 or peaked at #35 sound like the most important song that week.  Which is why chart nerds like me remain fascinated with forgotten chart records that came and went.  Those glorious hits that would peak at #37 then disappear forever. 

By the time the 80's rolled around the radio business changed.  It became harder to find pure Top 40 stations.  CHR stations no longer played crossover Country songs and were taking fewer chances on R&B songs.  And AT40 no longer fit in with the type of stations that played its weekly countdown. Kasem himself bounced between AT40 and his own Countdown shows.  He left AT40 for good in 2003, which is when Seacrest took over.

As AT40 rolled along, there were other syndicated radio countdowns.  I definitely remember the Dick Clark one. But nobody tops Casey's AT40.  Chart info is easy to find now.  It wasn't in the pre-Internet age.  That was to wonder of AT40.  50 years later, I still love to listen to the old shows.  You can find them on SiriusXM's 70's channel, iHeart Radio and on a bunch of non-satellite/streaming stations.  Listen to a few and even if you're too young to have been there from the beginning, you'll become as hooked on AT40 as I did way back then.