Talk:American Top 40

Wheres the year end 100 songs
i think we need the year end 100 it is part of the AT40 show. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.228.33.102 (talk) 04:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

General Tidy-Up
Re-structured the whole article, broke down the very long history section and tried to make the article a little more manageable to read. Probably still could do with some more work, but at least it's a start. Phil500 07:00, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Picture Added
I added The AT40 Logo From the orignal website by useage by permission of wikipedia. -- wwe_stacykeibler_fan
 * AT40 Website[]

Charlie Tuna ?
I do not recall Charlie Tuna hosting AT 40 at any time.


 * He has, as a fill-in host, back in the 1970s - EmiOfBrie 12:10, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Not true; Charlie Tuna never hosted AT40 during the 70s. See the books by Rob Durkee or Pete Battistini for addition guest host details. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.29.91.243 (talk) 13:20, 19 January 2008 (UTC)


 * He did indeed guest host AT20/AT10 in 2005.--71.17.133.47 (talk) 05:48, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

XM airing archived shows?
XM Radio has been teasing that AT40 will be aired on the decades channels (70's and 80's) and it is starting this weekend (8/4-6) with a marathon. I cannot find an XM press release nor a news story on it, though, so I haven't included it in the article, even though I've heard the commercials. —C.Fred (talk) 00:53, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

American Top 40 In the UK?
The only station in the UK currently playing American Top 40 (AT40) is Amber Sound 107.2 in Derbyshire

No mention of Premier Radio Networks??
AT40 is owned by Clear Channel and syndicated by their subsidary, Premier Radio Networks. Shouldn't this be mentioned. And in regards to above, I agree, AT40 has not been legally broadcast in the UK since the early 90's.

KQQL in Minneapolis will start airing classic 70s AT40 shows
I noticed on their website and read on some message boards that KOOL 108 will start airing some of the classic AT40 shows from the 70s. No word on whether other stations will begin airing them, but KQQL is owned by Clear Channel, which in turn owns Premiere. As they say, stay tuned! --Fightingirish 16:16, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

American Top 40 In the UK?
Im going to remove the United Kingdom from the article as it is not true. Does anyone have a reason why the "United Kingdom" should stay in the article?

Regards, C.G


 * I'm pretty sure it airs on Core Radio in the UK on Saturday afternoons as I've listened to it a few times. It may have gone since the recent change in format. No idea where you're coming from Big Moira 23:14, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

I Was Mentioned On American Top 40 One Week!
And until about two years ago, I was mentioned on American Top 40 the same number of times that the Philadelphia Eagles played in the Super Bowl, a fact I remember because it was the same weekend, January 24-25, 1981, that the Eagles played the Oakland Raiders.

What happened was that in a December 1980 broadcast, Casey Kasem mentioned that there were two acts who had had a Top 40 entry every year in the 1970s, Elton John and Paul McCartney. I know way too much about Neil Diamond, and I was pretty sure that he had a Top 40 entry each year in that decade, too. I sat down and listed every year and found I had a Neil Diamond song to go in each one. In 1977, the only song of his that made the Top 40, "Desiree", didn't do so until December 24, during a time period in which Casey pre-empted the regular weekly Top 40 to do an annual recap of the annual Top 100. So, I figured that was why he may have overlooked "Desiree" and, as a result, Neil's annual 1970s accomplishment.

I lived in the Washington, D.C. area at the time, so I called the local station that carried American Top 40, WPGC, to see if they had an address for the show. They did, and I typed up the letter to Casey and sent it off to an address in North Hollywood, California.

I promptly forgot about the letter, and I didn't always catch the whole broadcast every week. But on the weekend of January 24, I wanted to especially hear the show because that's Neil's birthday. He was turning the Big 4-0, and his hit song "Love On The Rocks" was climbing the charts and almost certain to be in the Top 10 that week. I was hoping that Casey would say something about it being a big birthday for Neil.

Instead, he introduced "Love On The Rocks", which was #2 that week ("(Just Like) Starting Over" by John Lennon was #1, and "The Tide Is High" by Blondie was #3), by mentioning my name and my letter! This was certainly a great thrill for me. At least one cousin in a distant state heard it, too.

I'd love to get my hands on a broadcast of that show, or at least get to hear it again some time. Oh, as far as the Super Bowl went, "Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian)" beat "Witchy Woman". RSLitman 03:00, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Substiute Host "Dave Roberts"
I ran across this page and noted that the link to Substitute Host "Dave Roberts" is incorrect. I'm not a baseball player nor have I played one on TV. But I still do voiceover at www.DaveRobertsVoiceover.com.

I guest-hosted four times in the 80's until I got my own shows on the RKO Radio Networks: "MusicStar" and "The Hot Ones".

Thanks,

Dave Roberts Dave@DaveRobertsVoiceover.com 66.69.243.184 14:41, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, it seems you now have a new link to another Dave Roberts (a weather person)...jbut it's not me. I know it's a small thing, but any chance of making this right? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.112.144.57 (talk) 18:38, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

Substitute Host: Ashley Tisdale
I was listening to AT 40 on Jan 12, 08 and Ashley Tisdale was the substitute host.Kirby17 (talk) 05:19, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Wrong info
Check on It didn't debut at #1. The website is wrong. Bob Greenlake (talk) 19:41, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Clarification?
So if I read this right, all four shows (currently) base their charts off the playlists of the stations that air them. Further, AT40 Hot AC and Casey's AT20 are more or less catering to the same type of station, based on their individual hipness factor (and therefore causing the very slight differences in the two charts). Is that about right? Lambertman (talk) 18:43, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Chart Feats redundant
As AT-40 was based on Billboard magazine (until the 1990's after which is was based on Radio and Records); Is this list redundant when there is also the list maintained at the List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones? Lordandrei (talk) 03:32, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

It appears that XM has pulled AT40 off of 80s on 8, has anyone gotten confirmation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.53.110.144 (talk) 19:07, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Chart Feats entirely unreferenced
Please read the background at User_talk:Cb6 in which the accuracy of the AT-40 website is disputed. Reading this discussion page I see various other challenges to the website's accuracy in terms of what was played week by week. I suggest, given the arcane nature of the topic, that a consensus needs to be reached here whether the article is discussing the official record or real-life history, since as far as I can tell there's no other potential source for reality than the corporate website. From a wikipedia quality standpoint my own opinion is that every entry in the Chart Feat section constitutes original research. The article seems to be the place where such claims are registered. I'm no fanatical purist but it all seems out of hand. Someone, eventually, is going to delete the entire section on perfectly good grounds.

What's needed is an off-wikipedia centre of expertise which can be referenced here as a legitimate authority. Does such a thing currently exist? Is the corporate website demonstrably inaccurate and if so is there any feasible way of compiling accurate data? Alternatively, could we please have a convention recognizing the primacy of the website over individual editors' undocumented recollections? And can we please set things up in such a way that Chart Feats are claimed elsewhere than in the article here in order to provide a checkable source for the wikipedia content rather than the current unreferenced list?

I can't bring myself to delete the entire section yet since contributors have obviously put a lot of work into it and it'd be like stirring a hive of bees. It's still unencyclopedic though and until there's an external master source it's going to stay that way. I'll drop an email to the AT-40 site webmaster asking whether the company would like to generate its own Chart Feat area. If anyone would like to argue that the current state of affairs is desirable, now's the time to do it. JohnHarris (talk) 12:25, 24 July 2010 (UTC)


 * While I'm not sure of a source to verify every AT40 countdown, the following website has a rundown of every AT40 countdown up through 1995: http://www.oldradioshows.com/ . Keep in mind, though, that there are a number of misidentified songs and artists in the listings. However, since the countdowns use Billboard charts through 1995, they can at least be cross-referenced. JLThorpe (talk) 00:30, 25 July 2010 (UTC)


 * The Chart Feats section focuses on a later period and I suspect that, transcription errors aside, the oldradioshows material must originate with at40 at some level. Even having checked the website I'm not quite sure what he's selling - is it contemporary fliers? No matter. Thank you for looking around and offering assistance. If you have an opinion on the "no original research" aspect then I'd be interested to hear it. JohnHarris (talk) 18:10, 26 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I think the oldradioshows site is for a tape trader (someone who sells/trades radio programs). I assume the lists are transcribed directly from the original audio broadcasts of AT40. Personally, I'm fine with the whole Chart Feats section being deleted, as most of the data can't be verified without a site like oldradioshows having had all the countdowns transcribed. For the data that can be verified (data from AT40 countdowns that used the Billboard charts and therefore can be fact-checked), it would probably be better to put that info on the pages for those individual charts (I believe the Hot 100 page already has a similar Chart Feats list). JLThorpe (talk) 18:25, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Chart Feats - proposed section deletion
On the basis of verifiability and no original research I intend to delete the entire Chart Feats section unless anyone here would like to take it to dispute resolution beforehand rather than afterwards. None of the material in the Chart Feats section is referenced at all, none of the content appears on at40.com's website other than by contributors here performing original research on the published charts, Wikipedia is the wrong place to publish such chart analysis, and what information I've checked has proven inaccurate (though I concede I've checked little of it and have no intention of checking the remainder). The preceding section of this talk page is relevant, as is the "Explain" section of my own talk page. I'm anxious that some discussion happen here before I act and that a consensus can be arranged. So far I've failed to spark one. JohnHarris (talk) 18:03, 26 July 2010 (UTC)


 * The Chart Feats has now been removed on the basis shown above. JohnHarris (talk) 18:24, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Inaccuracies
Yeah, I would like to point out some inaccuracies with regard to the article. Don Bustany didn't retire from AT40. He was forced out by the powers that be at ABC. ABC Radio had its own agendas with regard to the show. Those that produced the show during the Shadoe Stevens era didn't know what they were doing, hence the show's cancellation, not changing formats although CHR did fall out of favor during the grunge era. Shadoe Stevens is a talented individual in his own right but wasn't right for the show. ABC made a mistake by letting Casey Kasem go in the first place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shemp99 (talk • contribs) 13:39, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I would just like to say that it's too bad that AT40 never aired in Great Britain because listeners there really missed out on hearing a great story teller. Kasem is basically Alan Freeman's American counterpart. Shemp99 (talk) 19:30, 30 October 2010 (UTC) Shemp99

AT40 (unitalicized) or AT40 (italicized)?
I see it shown both ways throughout the article, and this is more a question of typographical consistency. However, there are 129 instances of the abbreviation in the article, as of the time I wrote this comment (I let Google Chrome count them). Putting italics on the instances that don't have them would create consistency, but then future editors may continue to use it unitalicized, which I'll agree is a lot easier. So, should the italicized ones be reverted to no italics (a tedious process, plus some future editors may use the italics)? I may be answering my own question here — to leave it as it is — though consistency is preferred. I've seen some articles use both US and U.S. (for United States), but I don't think I've seen one with over 100 instances of either abbreviation. MPFitz1968 (talk) 20:23, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

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Split the AC programs into their own article
I believe there is a significant enough amount of information on both this article and the AC section of the Casey's Top 40 to warrant combining the two into one page. The new page should carry the AT20 name. --100.1.170.132 (talk) 04:00, 24 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Doesn't seem to be any rejection or objections, so I'll assume it's okay for someone to try. --ChrisP2K5 (talk) 07:17, 2 July 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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Ryan's Contract
When is Ryan's contract up for AT40? — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheQOnline (talk • contribs) 22:28, 20 October 2017 (UTC)