Question about Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Hot AC

[Mike Schwartz]

Would anyone know what weekend the Hot AC version of this show was first aired? I know that AT 40 Hot AC began the weekend of December 4, 2004 and that Rick's regular CHR countdown began in September 1983. Any help here would be greatly appreciated!!

[musicfanpete]

Jul 26, 2009 18:36:17 GMT -5 Mike Schwartz said:

Would anyone know what weekend the Hot AC version of this show was first aired? I know that AT 40 Hot AC began the weekend of December 4, 2004 and that Rick's regular CHR countdown began in September 1983. Any help here would be greatly appreciated!!

This is a bit tricky. The first "official" Hot AC version of his show that encompassed a full 40 song chart probably first aired almost the same time as the AT 40 Hot AC countdown began. I want to say around early 2005, but unfortunately I don't have an exact start date. Maybe someone else here knows for sure.

However, Rick started running "edited" versions of his CHR countdown in the late 80's on stations that leaned Hot AC/Adult CHR. Q-101 in Chicago was an example of a station that ran this "adult" version when Q-101 was still a Hot AC in the 80's. He would replace certain songs on his CHR top 40 chart that these type of stations deemed inappropriate for their audience. Some stations in the 90's would later air a top 30 version of his CHR countdown, though that may have just been to fit the show within certain time constraints. So while he has been running adult versions of his countdown literally for decades, only in 2005 did he make the Hot AC version official.

Hope that at least partially answers your question Mike. :)

[Hot AC Archiver]

I used to have original cds of the HAC version from April 1995. The discs said "New Hot AC Version". It was, as stated above, a top 30 show with lots of extras to fill out the 4 hours.

[radiobrett]

I first heard the Rick Dees Hot AC show in October of 2002. At that point, Rick was counting down the Top 30 Hot AC songs on the Mediabase chart. The first two hours of the show would be songs 30-21 with several extras thrown in. Some of the extras were from the last few years, others were songs in the 31-40 position, although they were always called extras. The format of the first two hours was similar to AT20 with Casey Kasem, each segment would have one or two countdown songs and one or two extras. Then, starting with Hour 3, the countdown would air 20-1 as it does to this day.

It was always amusing to hear the opening of the show, all about the Weekly Top 40 and the top 40 hits, etc etc, hear the Sure Shot, and then the countdown would begin at number 30.

However, at this point, the show was its own show. Rick used the Hot AC chart and at that point the positions almost always aligned exactly with AT20 with Casey Kasem.

In the 90s, Rick would simply edit the CHR show and replace the rhythmic and hip-hop leaning songs with Hot AC friendly recurrents. This made for bizarre charts that did not resemble the weekly Hot AC chart whatsoever. At least in the early 00's, even though it was only Top 30, it was a true Hot AC Top 30.

[musicfanpete]

Jul 27, 2009 10:39:47 GMT -5 radiobrett said:

I first heard the Rick Dees Hot AC show in October of 2002. At that point, Rick was counting down the Top 30 Hot AC songs on the Mediabase chart. The first two hours of the show would be songs 30-21 with several extras thrown in. Some of the extras were from the last few years, others were songs in the 31-40 position, although they were always called extras. The format of the first two hours was similar to AT20 with Casey Kasem, each segment would have one or two countdown songs and one or two extras. Then, starting with Hour 3, the countdown would air 20-1 as it does to this day.

It was always amusing to hear the opening of the show, all about the Weekly Top 40 and the top 40 hits, etc etc, hear the Sure Shot, and then the countdown would begin at number 30.

However, at this point, the show was its own show. Rick used the Hot AC chart and at that point the positions almost always aligned exactly with AT20 with Casey Kasem.

In the 90s, Rick would simply edit the CHR show and replace the rhythmic and hip-hop leaning songs with Hot AC friendly recurrents. This made for bizarre charts that did not resemble the weekly Hot AC chart whatsoever. At least in the early 00's, even though it was only Top 30, it was a true Hot AC Top 30.

Ha ha, I remember that! I think WTMX aired that 30 song "top 40" chart in the late 90's or early 00's for about a year or so, usually late Sunday nights (that's the last time the Mix even aired a countdown show of any sort). I guess back then 30 was the new "40".

Now though things don't really matter as Rick continues to count down his own chart that he probably throws together about two hours before the show is taped! ;) But that is what makes his current charts entertaining. It does not quite follow the official charts, so you don't really know where a song is going to peak until it's heard on his show.

[Mike Schwartz]

My thanks to Pete, Brett and The Guru for taking the time out to resolve this mystery for me. I was puzzled because I noticed that someone on Ebay last week was selling Rick Dees Weekly 40 Hot ACs CDs from the 90s. As I only knew about the Hot AC version from the past few years and through postings on this board-I greatly appreciated the clarification.