Chart Accuracy No Longer Important On AT20?

[Michael1973]

Every week on AT20, Casey features several songs that were "one of the hottest songs X years ago this week". On this week's show (6/18/05) there were no less than three instances where the selected songs were not appropriate for this week. I know mistakes get made sometimes, but it seems to me that on a show whose staff are professional chart watchers, you wouldn't see this kind of thing happen as often as it has been. Here's what I'm talking about. The following songs were featured on the 6/18/05 show as big hits "this week back in XXXX":

Finger Eleven -- One Thing (2004) This song didn't debut on AT20 until July and then spent close to a full year on the chart. That's 10-11 months where they could have featured the song. October probably would have been ideal. So why play it now?

Train -- Meet Virginia (2000) This song debuted in October 1999 and remained on the chart until July 2000. Five years ago this week, the song was barely clinging to life at the bottom of the chart -- hardly one of the hottest songs!

Journey -- Don't Stop Believin' (1981) Debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 the last week of October 1981. Enough said.

What do you think? Is Casey's staff just not as committed to keeping this sort of info accurate as they used to be? You wouldn't think it would be so difficult.

[djkc28]

They probably don't even bother checking months, just as long as it was in the year they are flashing back to. The average person wouldn't know the difference, only avid chart watchers like us on this board would notice.

[Hervard]

If they're going to play songs from different times of the year, like they do on AT10, they should probably just take out the words "this week" out of the scripts.

[BillboardBoy]

I agree that it was wrong to play the Journey song and say it was popular this week in 1981. But the other 2 songs were in the Top 20 on the corresponding week in past years. Regardless of its position in the Top 20, it was still one of the hottest songs that week, so I don't think accuracy was a problem in those two cases. Keep in mind that all these Clear Channel stations are playing more music this year because of the "more is less" rule and maybe they needed to play some stronger songs that week.

[Kid Pulse]

These days, he never says "this week" anymore. It's not as fun as it used to be. And I miss him saying "X years ago this week, the #1 song was . . ." and then, without playing it, saying "now on with this week's survey".

Does anyone know what happened the past 2- 2 1/2 years??

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I heard a bit of Casey hosting the AT20 countdown last month and while it was great to hear his voice again, he sounded almost bored. As if he was doing the show just to keep doing it. I really do miss listening to him every Saturday morning doing AT40 the regular chart. I think even if he did the Hot AC version but with recurrent rules and stuff (ie. the R&R Hot AC 40), it would still be fun to listen to every week.
And I'd totally work on the staff to ensure that chart facts are accurate. All they really need is one person to do it part time before they write the scripts each week!