My dad talks about American Top 40 in the 1970s. What was this show? Was it on TV or radio?

Answer 1

I grew up with American Top 40. Here are the facts:

1. It debuted on July 4, 1970 with only seven stations across the country carrying its maiden broadcast.
2. It was a weekly countdown show during which time the host, Casey Kasem (a Los Angeles disc jockey at the time) counted the 40 biggest selling singles "from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to Mexico."
3. The program based its tabulations on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 but it also used other sources for its ranking, so a comparison of Billboard magazine and a given week's American Top 40 songs would not always agree.
4. The show originally aired for three hours each week and local stations would receive from the parent company (Watermark Incorporated) three vinyl albums that they could play at their leusire--therefore not every station played AT 40 at the same time. Where I grew up you could hear it on Saturday night on one station and then Sunday morning from 9:00 to 12:00 on a rival station.
5. In the late 70s the format switched to four hours.
6. Intersperced with the music, Casey Kasem would add interesting tidbits about the artists or the songs coming up. In about 1978 he began reading "long distance dedications" to listeners. It was one of these dedications that provided one of the most listened to bloopers of radio history, when Casey went nuts and unleashed a stream of obscenities over a dead dog dedication. This was never aired but the edit tapes leaked out and made the circuit on the Internet a few years ago.


And there you have a concise and accurate answer without a single line lifted from Wikipedia.

Answer 2

You know the show that Ryan Seacrest does on the radio on Sunday's, well it was along the same lines as that. It was on the Radio I believe and American Bandstand was on the TV. The American Top 40 is still played on the radio. It used to be Casey Kasem, but he retired and Ryan Seacrest took over. It is just the Top 40 songs of the week.

Answer 3

Top 40 was a type of radio format used in the post world war II time frame well into the next several decades and popularized by rock and roll on radio, which became big starting around 1956.

The format actually varied somewhat, with some stations playing up to 100 songs, but it started with a top 40 playlist.

Answer 4

This was a radio broadcast that continues to air america's choices of the 40 top hits that is hosted by Kassy Kason. Some stations continue to air this broadcast.

Answer 5

American Bandstand? that was a top 40 TV show. There was also a tv show called Hullabaloo, but that might have been in the 60s.

Answer 6

Radio.