Notes

Other 2014 shows

SiriusXM obituary for Casey [thanks to KFAI's Aaron Westendorp] (June 2014)
Casey introducing GET USED TO IT - Roger Voudouris (AT40, May 19, 1979)
Ron Gerber's letter to Casey (CFTP, July 3, 2009)
Casey's obituary for John Lennon (AT40, December 13, 1980)
Long Distance Dedication for COME TOGETHER - Beatles (AT40, April 17, 1982)
Casey in movie Ghostbusters (1984)
Casey doing Top Ten List on David Letterman (September 3, 1993)
John Leader introducing WHY ME - Irene Cara (Countdown America, November 12, 1983)
Clips of Rick Dees as Spacey (1987?)
Casey parody introducing I DO BELIEVE WE'RE NAKED - Funky C Funky Do (The Simpsons, January 9, 1992)
Promo for NOT THE AMERICAN TOP 40 (for airing Labor Day weekend, 1984)
Clip of Bell Biv DeVoe's biggest hit (CFTP, July 23, 2001)
CFTP ID #133 - I dig you. You are really cool.
CFTP ID #231 - Five foot seven and 140 pounds
CFTP ID #232 - Flying saucer
CFTP ID #239 - Ron handsome kind and considerate
CFTP ID #28 - Epilepsy
Giant montage of Casey sound bites from CFTP IDs (1998-2014)
Clip of LETTER TO ELENA (1964)
Clip of INTRO (Astrology For Young Lovers, 1967)
Clip of AQUARIUS (Astrology For Young Lovers, 1967)
Clip of CLOSING (Astrology For Young Lovers, 1967)
Clip of NO BLADE OF GRASS (1970)
Casey interviewed by Bob Hamilton (AirChexx, October 22, 1976) [thanks to radio legend Jay Philpott]
Snuggles Long Distance Dedication that aired (AT40, September 14, 1985)
Snuggles outtake cleaned up by RG (outtake from September 14, 1985 AT40 recording session)
Closing theme (AT40, 1970)

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For some great AT40 clips, listen to these old episodes of Crap From The Past:

November 14, 2003 - American Top 40's 33-1/3rd Birthday [The best overview of AT40 clips]
October 23, 2009 - One And Done - Songs That Spent Exactly One Week In The Billboard Top 40 [all actual AT40 segments with the full songs]
July 3, 2009 - Casey Kasem, Counting 'Em Down 1970-2009 [featuring a complete broadcast of NOT THE AMERICAN TOP 40, produced by the American Comedy Network, which aired on Labor Day, 1984, plus my letter to Casey]
February 24, 2012 - CFTP's 20th Birthday - All radio ads from 1982-1992 [90 minutes of commercials that aired on AT40/CT40 between 1982 and 1992]
April 20, 2012 - Lotsa Casey [AT40 snippets featuring "D.O.A." by Bloodrock and "Once You Understand" by Think]
June 17, 2011 - Excerpts from American Top 40, July 14, 1984 [just a fun week for AT40]
March 4, 2002 - featuring an aircheck of Casey Kasem on Pasadena's KRLA from 1967 [mostly unrelated to AT40 except for the 1967 clip]

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To fully appreciate the genius of Casey Kasem and American Top 40, go listen to the original AT40 episodes from 1970 to 1988. They're out there.

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This is the text of my letter to Casey, sent June 2009:

Dear Casey,

I started listening to American Top 40 in late 1979 on 99X/WXLO in New York City, at the age of 11. To say it had a profound impact on my life would be an extreme understatement; within weeks of discovering AT40 and the pop charts, I gave all my baseball cards to my brother and never looked back. Thanks to the local record stores ("Please request by number") and your show, I now had 45s to collect.

Thirty years later, I am still fanatical about pop music. I dabbled in commercial radio, but they told me that if I was in it for the music, I was in it for the wrong reason. Luckily, I discovered community radio at the left end of the dial, and that's where I've been for the last 22 years. Since 1992, I've been hosting my own pop music show, which I routinely refer to as a graduate-level course in pop.

In the years before I could afford Billboard, I used to tune in to AT40 and write down the positions of the songs in a three-ring binder. That binder was my first useful chart reference, and your show was a very comforting Sunday morning ritual in my formative years.

You'd be surprised at how many DJs I've run into that did the very same thing as kids, and all of us still have those three-ring binders tucked away with our most prized possessions. I kept it up from 1979 to 1989 - from 6th grade to my junior year of college - and I've attached scans of the first and last pages from that binder. Basically, I transcribed about 20,000 songs that you introduced over that ten year span.

I know you're retiring from the countdown world this July 4th weekend, exactly 39 years after the first AT40 in 1970. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you choose to do next. Metaphorically, I hope you get to enjoy sleeping in on Sundays! You can take pride knowing that your shows have made such a lasting impression in so many of us listeners.

Sincerely,
Ron Gerber, host of "Crap From The Past", KFAI-FM/Minneapolis