Casey's Top 40

Casey's Top 40

Genre	Music chart show
Running time	4 hrs. (including commercials) 3hrs. + 15 min. (w/out commercials)
Country of origin	United States
Syndicates	Westwood One
Hosted by	Casey Kasem Mark Elliot (original substitute) David Perry (later substitute)
Created by	Westwood One
Produced by	Karen Shearer (1989) Bert Kleinman (1989-1996) Lorre Crimi (1996-February 1998) Ben Harris (February 1998-cancellation)
Executive producer(s)	Norman Pattiz
Original release	January 21, 1989 – March 21, 1998

Casey's Top 40 was a syndicated radio music program that was distributed by the Westwood One radio network. The show was a vehicle for former American Top 40 host and co-creator Casey Kasem and ran for over nine years. Like Kasem's prior show, Casey's Top 40 aired on weekends, emanated from Hollywood, California, and was a countdown of the 40 biggest hits of the week on the popular music chart.

Background

In January 1988, Kasem was entering the final year of a seven-year contract as host of American Top 40 with syndicator ABC Watermark. The two sides were unable to come to an agreement for a renewal, so on February 9, ABC Watermark announced that it would begin searching for a replacement host.

Westwood One, which at the time was already home to several weekly music programs including those broadcast by its corporate sibling Mutual Broadcasting System, began aggressively pursuing Kasem and offered him a five-year contract worth triple his current salary. Kasem signed with Westwood One in April 1988, and Shadoe Stevens was named Kasem's replacement the following month.

Kasem’s final episode as host of the original AT40 was on August 6, 1988. His contract did not expire until January 1989. Since they had several months before Kasem became part of their broadcast lineup, Westwood One went to great lengths to promote his arrival at their network. This included a "Westwood One Survival Kit" that was sent to affiliates. Included in the package was a "Casey in '89" button, a pin displaying the premiere date and a flashlight called a "Shadow Simulator", perhaps taking a shot at Stevens.

Casey's Top 40 premiered on the weekend of January 21, 1989 on stations from coast to coast and overseas. Some of those stations had been carrying American Top 40 and opted to drop it in favor of Kasem’s new show; in some cases both countdowns aired on the same station.

Substitute hosts

As on AT40, Kasem would require substitute hosts from time to time. In the early years of the show, the role was filled by voiceover artist Mark Elliott, who had also been one of many substitutes for Kasem on AT40. From 1993 until 1998, veteran Los Angeles DJ David Perry was the designated fill-in.

Similarities between Casey's Top 40 and AT40

Casey's Top 40 was similar to Kasem's old AT40 show, featuring Kasem's trademark voice, teasers and trivia about songs and artists (including the "stretch" stories). However, while American Top 40 used the Billboard Hot 100 as its source, Casey's Top 40 used the weekly CHR/pop airplay-based survey produced by Westwood One's then-subsidiary Radio & Records. AT40 would eventually follow suit by moving to airplay-only charts, switching first to the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and then to its Mainstream Top 40 chart.

When it launched, Casey's Top 40 was one of several shows using the Radio & Records chart; in addition to Unistar Radio Network's Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, this list included two programs already under Westwood One's corporate umbrella, The National Music Survey hosted by Charlie Tuna for Mutual and Rockin' America Top 30 Countdown hosted by Scott Shannon for Westwood One.

In 1994, Radio & Records split its weekly CHR/pop survey into two different trackers. One focused on stations with a dance/rap/R&B-centered playlist, called the "Rhythmic" chart. The "Mainstream" chart, which tracked more traditional pop music, became the new chart source for Kasem's countdown, beginning with the program airing the weekend of April 30, 1994.

Like AT40, Casey's Top 40 was timed to generally fit ten songs per one hour. The show divided each hour into segments, with four three minute commercial breaks inserted per hour. Each hour consisted of five segments, the last of which was the shortest. Unique to Casey's Top 40, the last segment for each hour (never the last hour) consisted of one song and a teaser by Kasem used to segue into the next hour, followed by a musical bumper for stations to play their hourly required station identification, before immediately going into the next song on the countdown to start the next hour; this segue would carry over to the revived AT40 in 1998.

Features

• Last Week's Top 3: As he had done on American Top 40, Kasem would begin each countdown a rundown of the top three songs from the previous week's survey, often playing the previous week's chart topper to begin the show (although this became more infrequent as the years went on). The first of these was "Two Hearts" by Phil Collins, which had reached the top spot the week before Casey's Top 40 premiered and would retain its #1 spot that week.
• Jingles: A new set of jingles was recorded for Casey's Top 40 by JAM Creative Productions, which included the usual song-number and title bumper jingles as well as the trademark "Casey's coast to coast" jingle from AT40 recorded in a different rhythm and key. JAM also composed the show's opening theme, which included singers counting down from ten over the music, something that would follow Kasem for the rest of his career. His mainstream AC spinoff Casey's Countdown also had its slogan jingle created by JAM ("Casey Counts Them Down"), which would be later used on his other countdown shows. Initially, some of these jingles refererred to the show as "CT40", but ABC Watermark won an injunction preventing this reference for being too similar to "AT40".
• Droppers, Biggest Movers and Longest-Charting Song: For each song that debuted on the countdown, one had to fall out of the top 40 to make room. Kasem referred to these as "droppers" and would identify the songs that the show had to "say goodbye to" that week. He would also identify the song making the largest leap up the chart and the longest-charting song still in the Top 40.
• Request and Dedication: Kasem continued to take requests from fans requesting songs dedicated to others who affected their lives. Since he could not use the AT40 title "Long Distance Dedication", these became known as "Requests and Dedications", with typically three of these segments airing per show. Originally, these requests were received entirely by postal mail, but listeners were later provided the ability to fax in their requests. Beginning with the countdown airing the weekend of July 8, 1995, listeners could also submit requests through an America Online email account created specifically for Kasem's program.
• Request and Dedication Update: Later in the show's run, the producers began reaching out to the listeners who had their Requests and Dedications fulfilled. Those same people were encouraged to follow up with the show by sending postcards to the producers with their telephone numbers if they had updates on their situation. If one was selected, Kasem would phone that person and conduct a brief interview, of which a snippet would play during the following countdown. This was largely a feature unique to Casey's Top 40, as the original AT40 very seldom included updates for past Long Distance Dedications.
• Affiliate mentions: Another AT40 staple included in Casey's Top 40 was Kasem's hourly mention of some of the "great radio stations" carrying his show.
• Other charts: Kasem continued his AT40 tradition of announcing the songs topping other Radio & Records charts during the final hour of each countdown. He usually made mention of the R&B (originally Black) and country charts, later adding the adult contemporary chart and the alternative rock chart once those launched. If any of those songs appeared in the top 40, Kasem would make note of it before playing the song.
• Special reports: Usually at least once per episode, Kasem would break from the countdown to report on an item of relevance, such as a snippet of music news, or field a listener question.
• Trivia Quiz: Once per episode, Kasem would lead into a commercial with a music question with three multiple-choice answers. After the commercial played, he would give the answer.
• Casey's Top 40 Concert Calendar: Unique to Casey's Top 40, Kasem would give a rundown of prominent bands with upcoming concerts.
• Closing: The final segment of each countdown featured the top two songs on the survey, just as Kasem had done on AT40. After playing the #1 song of the week, Kasem would read the show's credits and sign off with his trademark "keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars". He would also usually add "and keep your dial/radio tuned right where it is" to encourage listeners to keep listening to their Casey's Top 40 affiliate. That last portion was another carryover from AT40, which was used from 1977 to 1984, and would be used with AT40's revival in 1998.

Casey's Biggest Hits

As a further promotional tool for the show, Westwood One added a weekly strip of interstitial segments featuring past chart hits to the countdown package shipped to the affiliates, designed to be played during the week. Five segments for each week were produced, each usually longer than five minutes, with Kasem offering a teaser for the past hit. After a 60-second commercial break, he would return with the story behind the teaser and then play the song.

Special shows

Kasem would occasionally host special countdowns focusing on past hits, such as his countdown of the greatest summer songs of the 1980s, which aired on July 7, 1990.

Year-end Top 100

As with AT40, each December, Kasem presented a two-part, eight-hour, 100-song countdown of the past year's hits. These episodes were usually aired around Christmas and New Year's Day, with the first 50 songs comprising one episode and the rest airing the following week. Kasem did a total of nine of these year-end countdowns, with the last airing over the weekends of December 27, 1997 and January 3, 1998.

Below is a chart of the songs that finished the year at #1. For the first year CT40 was on the air, only a Top 40 list was compiled.

Year	Song	Artist	Source
1989	"Miss You Much"	Janet Jackson	[1]
1990	"Vision of Love"	Mariah Carey	[2]
1991	"(Everything I Do) I Do It for You"	Bryan Adams	[3]
1992	"End of the Road"	Boyz II Men	[4]
1993	"Dreamlover"	Mariah Carey	[5]
1994	"The Sign"	Ace of Base	[6]
1995	"I Know"	Dionne Farris	[7]
1996	"Missing"	Everything but the Girl	[8]
1997	"You Were Meant for Me"	Jewel	[9]

Expansion into adult contemporary charts

As with AT40, Casey's Top 40 also had problems with some stations reluctant to play music that did not agree with their format. In one example, WSTR in Atlanta, Georgia, being an anti-rap station and a very Adult Contemporary-leaning CHR, edited "Another Night" by Real McCoy (a Euro disco record with rap breaks) out of its broadcasts of Casey's Top 40 in 1994, even while the song was at #1 on the show.

In 1992, Kasem added a second countdown show. With mainstream pop radio in decline, and many Casey's Top 40 affiliates having an adult contemporary format, Westwood One launched Casey's Countdown on March 7, 1992 as a three-hour, 25-song countdown (later reduced to 20), using the Radio & Records AC chart. In addition to the weekly hits and "Request and Dedication" pieces, some past hits were played, along with Kasem's anecdotes related to the songs or artists.

On November 5, 1994, Kasem began yet another show, Casey's Hot 20, a three-hour countdown that used a new Radio & Records hot adult contemporary chart that had launched in April.

As on the parent program, both Casey's Countdown and Casey's Hot 20 concluded their years with an annual special featuring the top hits of the year. Casey's Countdown originally featured a two-part, seventy-song countdown, which was later reduced to thirty-five. Casey's Hot 20 only featured thirty-five songs in its abbreviated first year countdown, but beginning in 1995 this was expanded to sixty over two programs.

The songs that finished the year atop the charts are as follows:

Year	Casey's Countdown	Casey's Hot 20
1992	"The One", Elton John	n/a
1993	"Love Is", Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight	n/a
1994	"Now and Forever", Richard Marx	"Now and Forever", Richard Marx1
1995	"Love Will Keep Us Alive", The Eagles	"In the House of Stone and Light", Martin Page
1996	"Because You Loved Me", Celine Dion	"Give Me One Reason", Tracy Chapman
1997	"Un-Break My Heart", Toni Braxton	"Barely Breathing", Duncan Sheik

¹ In 1994, Radio & Records did not compile a year end Hot AC list. The countdown was instead based on data gathered by the producers of Casey's Hot 20.

The end at Westwood One, and the rebirth of AT40

As 1997 was coming to an end, Kasem’s latest contract was nearing its conclusion and trouble had begun to brew between he and Westwood One.

The first bit of conflict arose near the end of the year. As part of his exit deal with ABC Watermark in 1988, Kasem and ABC agreed to a codicil that would revert the rights to the American Top 40 branding to its original copyright holders — which would have been Kasem and Don Bustany — if the network cancelled the program (it did, in 1994) and did not use the branding in an interim period (it never did) Since Bustany had retired by 1997, sole control passed to Kasem. He was not pleased, however, when Westwood One proved unwilling to let him change the name of the countdown.

Westwood One, in turn, was not pleased with the advertising revenue Casey's Top 40 had been generating in recent years. When the program launched in 1989 it aired on stations in almost all of the nation’s big media markets. By 1997, however, this was no longer the case. While the show was still popular domestically and worldwide, some of the larger market stations airing in had pulled it from their lineups as did quite a few in smaller areas; this included its largest initial affiliate, WHTZ in New York.

Another point of contention involved a series of corporate mergers that resulted in Westwood One becoming a subsidiary of Infinity Broadcasting, which in turn became a subsidiary of CBS Corporation. Kasem felt that with the connections to mass media that CBS had through its various holdings, there were promotional opportunities that both sides could have taken advantage of; to his disappointment, they were not.

Ultimately, Westwood One decided that the risk of losing Kasem was not one they were willing to take; once word had broken about the schism between both sides, several rival networks began pushing to sign him away. In December 1997, Westwood One agreed to a deal that would bring Kasem back for at least one more year of hosting his three countdowns for the network. The deal included a contingency plan regarding advertising revenue; this would prove important in what followed.

Kasem, with new deal in hand, continued on and on the weekend of February 21, 1998, hosted an edition of Casey’s Top 40 with significant attention paid to songs by nominees for the Grammy Awards, which were to be awarded that week. The next week, Kasem was absent from the show and David Perry, by then his designated substitute, was at the helm. The absence was not expected and, perhaps more significantly, was not intended as temporary.

In January 1998, AMFM Radio Networks, the syndication arm of broadcaster Chancellor Media and forerunner of today's Premiere Radio Networks, was organized, and upon its establishment, the new company sought big-name radio talent and piqued the interest of the disgruntled 65-year old Kasem. However, he would need to find a way to break out of his newly inked deal with Westwood One in order to make the move.

Kasem found an out in the advertising revenue clause inserted into the contract. The clause stated that if the countdown was not generating $6 million in advertising revenue at any point, both sides had an option to break the contract. Claiming the language of the clause was vague and that it only applied to the final 1997 figures, Kasem took advantage of his option and struck a deal with AMFM that included rights to the American Top 40 brand. CBS, Infinity, and Westwood One responded by filing a breach of contract lawsuit against Kasem, who justified the decision by criticizing the lack of effort to promote the countdown across the networks of CBS.

When it became apparent that Kasem's departure from Westwood One was permanent, the company made an effort to continue his countdown programs under new titles beginning the week of March 14, 1998: Casey's Top 40 became The Top 40 Countdown; Casey's Countdown became The Top 20 Countdown; and Casey's Hot 20 was renamed The Hot 20 Countdown. Likewise, the daily interstitial segments sent to stations with the weekly countdowns were renamed "The Biggest Hits". JAM Creative Productions would also record new themes and jingles for all three countdowns with the new titles. David Perry would host all three countdowns the week of March 14, then would disappear; the following week on March 21, The Top 40 Countdown was hosted by Jeff Wyatt, the former host of for Westwood One's American Dance Traxx who also hosted that week’s edition of The Top 20 Countdown, and The Hot 20 Countdown was hosted by musician and former Entertainment Tonight host John Tesh. As the changeover was made on short notice, some stations continued to use local commercial bumpers featuring Kasem and the old titles at the end of each break.

The "Requests and Dedications" feature would continue, but the "Dear Casey" open was simply omitted as was any mention of his name in the body of the letter. Instead, the host would go right into the letter after a brief description.

Ben Harris, a long time staffer for Kasem's countdown programs, was named the producer for all three countdowns. Previous producer Lorre Crimi, who had joined Kasem in 1996, followed him to AMFM to produce the new AT40.

Despite the changes, Westwood One would ultimately discontinue the programs on March 21 after only two weeks. Like Kasem's last show before his abrupt exit, there was no mention made of the cancellation of any of the three countdowns; in fact, the hosts of each countdown continued to solicit Request and Dedication letters as well as updates on previous featured requests, and signed off encouraging listeners to join them on the next program.

On March 28, one week later, the new AT40 launched on AMFM Radio Networks with Kasem again behind the microphone of his creation. Many of his Westwood One staff would follow him there (including Perry, who continued briefly in his role as Kasem's designated sub host, his producer Lorre Crimi, and Merrill Shindler, who Kasem had brought over from AT40 when he left ABC Watermark). The legal wrangling between the two sides continued. However, Westwood One did not object to Kasem's continued use of the Radio & Records CHR/pop survey as its chart source. As such, Kasem's first and second #1 songs on the new AT40 were the same as his last two with Westwood One. That week, "My Heart Will Go On" finished its seventh week atop the chart. Three weeks later, "Truly Madly Deeply" reclaimed the #1 spot for a third non-consecutive and last week at the top. Kasem hosted the revived AT40 until the weekend of January 4, 2004, after which he handed the hosting position to Ryan Seacrest who continues in that role today.

AMFM also picked up the mainstream AC and hot AC countdown shows Kasem was doing and rebranded them as American Top 20. They both launched the same weekend as the new AT40. The mainstream AC countdown was eventually cut in half in 2004 and became a more feature driven program, retitled as American Top 10. Kasem remained as the host of both AC countdowns until he decided to retire on the weekend of July 4, 2009.

Sources

• Durkee, Rob. American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century. ISBN 0-02-864895-1. New York City: Schirmer Books, 1999. Accessed December 10, 2007.