American Top 40

Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars. —Casey Kasem

American Top 40 is a weekly, long-running, syndicated radio program, originally hosted by Casey Kasem and currently hosted by Ryan Seacrest, which counts down the forty most popular songs on Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) stations in the United States.

In addition to playing the week's most popular songs, AT40 frequently included various extra segments. Perhaps most famous among these was Kasem's "Long Distance Dedication": a write-in request from a listener for a particular song, always sentimental in nature, typically directed at a person the listener had not seen in a considerable amount of time (such as a long-distance romantic couple, wife to overseas-based military husband, someone's birth parent on the other side of the country, etc). These particular segments were probably best remembered for the almost narmish tone with which Kasem would read the requests on air.

In 1988, Kasem left the show and was replaced by Shadoe Stevens. The change, as well as an altered format, went over poorly, and AT40 was eventually cancelled in 1995. Kasem, though, had in the meantime started up a rival program, Casey's Top 40, in early 1989, which was distributed by Watermark competitor Westwood One and featured "Requests and Dedications" instead of "Long Distance Dedications." Spinoffs of Casey's Top 40 had also been introduced in 1992 for Adult Contemporary (Casey's Countdown, originally consisting of 25 songs and later shortened to 20) and in 1994 for Adult CHR (Casey's Hot 20) stations. The producers of Casey's Top 40 eventually managed to acquire the rights to the American Top 40 title, and the show was Uncancelled in 1998; both of the adult contemporary shows were also renamed accordingly (though AT20 Adult Contemporary was later shortened again, to 10 songs with more "extras" and oldies being played). Kasem subsequently retired from the program in 2004; Ryan Seacrest took over hosting duties and helms AT40 to this day, again hosting separate editions for CHR and Adult CHR formats.

Song-ranking data was originally derived from Billboard Magazine's "Hot 100" pop/rock singles chart until 1991, when the program began using airplay-only charts from Billboard, which continued until the show's cancellation. For its un-cancellation in 1998, the show switched over to the airplay-only Radio and Records (which Kasem had used in his competing program). Currently, songs are ranked by data from Mediabase.

In the 1980s and '90s, American Top 40 also had a Music Video equivalent: America's Top 10, which was basically the last hour of the radio program — that is, the ten most popular songs on the Billboard chart — translated to television, using clips from the songs' videos, natch. Other similar programs have included:

• Weekly Top 40, hosted by radio personality Rick Dees;
• Casey's Top 40, hosted by Kasem himself from 1989 to 1998;
• Casey's Countdown (later renamed American Top 20 and American Top 10), a variation of Casey's Top 40 for adult contemporary stations, which premiered in 1992;
• Casey's Hot 20 (later renamed American Top 20), another variation, for "hot adult contemporary" stations, which premiered in 1994;
• American Country Countdown;
• Dick Clark's U.S. Music Survey (1980s);
• MTV's (later VH-1's) Top 20 Video Countdown.

Reruns of the program spanning Casey's original era as host (1970-1988) are syndicated weekly on classic hits, oldies and adult contemporary stations, and are also available for listening any time on iHeartRadio.

Tropes used in American Top 40 include:

• Bowdlerization: Chuck Berry's "My Ding-A-Ling" was replaced with a different song in several markets when it reached #1 in 1972, and reruns of those weeks' programs have featured a different song in the #1 position in certain markets. A repeat of this almost happened again in 1987, except that George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" ended up stopping at #2.
  • It should be noted that AT40 never itself banned records from airplay, although it did provide instructions for stations that weren't playing certain songs to delete them from their own broadcasts. And although Kasem refused to announce the title of the aforementioned "I Want Your Sex" during most of its chart run.
• Canon Discontinuity:
  • Some years, for their annual year-end countdown special, AT40 staff chose to put together their own list of the year's top hits rather than use the "official" list provided by Billboard. This was especially common in the early '80s.
  • When Kasem began using the charts of Radio and Records in 1989, chart information regarding past hits dating back to 1973 (the year R&R began publication) would always reference the R&R chart data rather than Billboard's. Thus, songs such as Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" or Celine Dion's "The Power of Love," which hit #1 on Billboard but not R&R, would not be referenced as #1 hits. Reference would also be made to R&R chart milestones that didn't apply to Billboard - for example, Mariah Carey having 10 consecutive #1 hits from 1990-93, when half of those failed to top the Hot 100.
• Catch Phrase: "Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars!" in the Kasem years. Sometimes followed by: "...and leave your radio tuned right where it is."
  • "Radio plays 'em, record stores sell 'em, Billboard ranks 'em, and AT40 counts 'em down."
  • "And the hits don't stop till we reach the top!"
  • "Once a week with AT40, and you know how the biggest hits in your hometown are doing all over the nation."
  • "American Top 40 is heard every week across the USA and around the world on great radio stations like..."
• Christmas Songs: AT40 dedicated a few countdowns to lists of the Top 40 Christmas songs of all time. In the early 2000s, when adult-contemporary radio stations began playing wall-to-wall Christmas music starting in November, Kasem's AC countdown show began offering countdown-less playlists of holiday music in Kasem's usual tease/story format. These special shows continue to rotate today on radio stations that play the weekly AT40 reruns.
• Dueling Shows: Rick Dees' Weekly Top 40 and, ironically enough, Casey's Top 40 in the early 1990s. For the Music Video side of things, Top 20 Video Countdown for America's Top 10.
• The Eighties: When the show was arguably at the height of its power, although it actually started in The Seventies.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Casey "Zoinks, Scoob!" Kasem, Shadoe Stevens, Ryan Seacrest
  • Guest hosts were not uncommon, but starting in 1988, the guest hosts began to be recording stars themselves, including Daryl Hall & John Oates and Debbie Gibson.
• Lighter and Softer: The "adult contemporary" spinoffs of Casey's Top 40 that premiered in the '90s were this by definition, not only featuring lighter and softer music but also featuring more extras (replays of past hits).
• Long List / Top Ten List: Forty songs, plus a couple of extras, in four hours (originally three).
• Long Runner: The program debuted in 1970 and has been going strong ever since. Well, except for that hiatus in the mid-1990s.
  • Uncancelled
• Nothing but Hits: The entire premise of the program. Averted in hindsight by the syndicated reruns, featuring hit songs of their day which have been all but forgotten by now.
• Rearrange the Song: Some songs would be cut in half to control the show's running time; this typically happened to songs that were on their way down the charts. Also, sometimes alternate versions or remixes of a hit song would be played; for example, the "Spanglish" (Spanish/English) version of Gloria Estefan's "Anything for You" was usually played in place of the English version.
• Spin-Off: American Country Countdown, a country music-version of AT40 that premiered in 1973 and is still going strong today. The current host is Kix Brooks (one half of the long-running duo Brooks & Dunn); before him were original host Don Bowman (who once guest-hosted AT40) and later, Bob Kingsley (the host at the height of ACC's run).
  • Quietly Performing Sister Show: See above. ACC is radio's longest-running, continuously produced syndicated program, outlasting AT40 (whose current run dates from 1998, the year it returned from a three-year hiatus).
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Through the years, a few of the commercial bumpers, most notably, a 1977 cue styled after the Starlight Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight." Additionally, the show ending theme used from 1979-1984, a synthesizer-heavy piece, had a few of its bars inspired by Ray Parker Jr. & Raydio's 1978 hit "Jack and Jill."
• Very Special Episode: In addition to annual year-end countdowns and decade-end surveys, special, one-time only countdowns were common - for example, Top 40 Christmas Songs, Top 40 Disappearing Acts (One-Hit Wonders), Top 40 Disco Hits, Top 40 Newcomers of the Decade So Far, and so on.