AT40 Dec. 13-14 2003

[GordonUM]

Apparently this is Casey's final regular top 40 countdown. No indication of that fact during the show though, but then he might not have known that the news would be public by now. Interestingly though, he talked about Jay-Z (incidentally, about his supposed final album) in front of an unrelated song by Simple Plan, even though "Change Clothes" is a week away from entering.

Haven't listened to Casey in a while but I made it a point to listen to and record this one. I thought Casey was sounding a little rough on the demo aircheck on Premiere's website, but he sounded a lot better here. And I don't understand how people can say he can't relate to today's artists. He just relates to them as people rather than as trends. With all the exposure Nelly's had, I'd never heard the story Casey told this week about how his gift to his mother after making it big was paying for her retirement. In a world without Casey doing AT40, we'll still know all we ever wanted about Rob Thomas, but the only thing we know about the latest rappers may be their cars and clothes. I can see how some of his stories may be seen as eccentric, like talking about the invention of basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts to introduce Staind from Springfield. But for me, that's part of the show's charm. And the #1 story was about Polaroid's response to Outkast, that you're not supposed to shake Polaroid pictures, something my friend just pointed out the day before. How's that for relevant?

And on another note, I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this in a different week, but he referred to No Doubt as having the #1 album, meaning they're probably using Hits rather than Soundscan for album sales.

If anyone's interested, I did record this one and compressed it into mp3 format taking up under 30 MB. It's far from CD quality but with the streaming audio from the web I wouldn't have been able to get that anyway. So if you're interested, contact me on MSN messenger at gckraut, and I'll be happy to send it to you. It was so easy to record yesterday, and so nice to listen to the countdown all day today that I wish I'd started doing this sooner.

[sigur]

Can You send it to
[e-mail]

Thanks!

To you plan to record the year-end show and what radio station did You listen to?

[GordonUM]

Actually, I had some trouble sending the files through MSN Messenger last night, so leaving your email here would be the best thing. Don't worry if you don't have space in your email inbox. I signed up for a 30-day trial to a service that lets me upload to their server and email links to files on there.

I'll be away this weekend so I may not be able to hear the first half of the year-end countdown, but I do plan on recording the second half, as well as Casey's final show (if there is one) on the 3rd, and Ryan's first show on the 10th. I recorded most of the show from WKSC/Chicago, but their stream started cutting out near the end, so I recorded the rest from OZ-FM in Canada. Does anyone know which AT40 stations offer the best streaming audio quality?

[mst3k]

GordonUM said:

Apparently this is Casey's final regular top 40 countdown.

Possibly, although we don't know yet what the AT40 on the weekend of January 3rd will sound like. It may be some sort of special countdown, or possibly they'll just use the 12/12 pop chart.

[Rob64]

I also recorded the whole show to MP3 format

[BlahBlahBlah]

I would like it too. :)

[e-mail]

Well at least the last AT40 with Casey Kasem will be on my birthday (Jan 4). :)

[BillboardBoy]

LDDs:
Waterfalls
I Wanna Love You Forever
Drift Away

Debuts:
Me, Myself & I
The First Cut Is The Deepest
God Is A DJ
Numb
Milkshake

Droppers:
Bigger Than My Body
Low
Shut Up
Into You
Can't Hold Us Down

• "The First Cut Is The Deepest" was written by Cat Stevens and recorded by Keith Hampshire and Rod Stewart.

• Mya's first chart appearance was on "Ghetto Supastar."

• Pink is on the cover of "Seventeen" and was in a female trio called Choice.

• "Eamon" is pronounced EE-mun.

• Casey told a story on the history of the "white flag."

• Enrique Miguel Iglesias had a small role in "Once Upon A Time In Mexico."

• "Me Against The Music" debuted at #1 in Denmark, Australia, Ireland and Spain.

• Clay Aiken has a Christmas song with Kimberly Lock.

• Beyonce's had 2 #1 hits this year and is sure to do well on the Top 100 of 2003.

Tops of the other charts:
Album - The Singles 1992 to 2003 - No Doubt
Urban - The Way You Move - OutKast
Country - I Love This Bar
AC - Unwell
Rock - All In The Suit That You Wear
Alternative - Numb

[Rob64]

Casey also told us how the polaroid company felt about "Hey Ya!"

[Cerebro]

Put me down in the "I'd like a copy of this too" camp.

[e-mail]

I wanted to record this myself, but woke up too late. Besides, an MP3 version is much easier to store than multiple cassettes.

I'd be interesed in MP3s of the upcoming year-end show too.

[EvanJ]

As somebody said in another topic, American Top 40 said the Number 1 album on Hits Daily Double, not Billboard, therefore possibly making Jay-Z fans mad (he was ahead of No Doubt on Billboard). It really isn't any better than Rick Dees switching positions, and other than by having request specials, I don't remember any songs that were Number 1 on Rick Dees recently but never on R and R. It's possible that American Top 40 is made before the SoundScan data is released, but in that case they should:
Wait one more day to make it (Hits Daily Double finishes on Tuesday and the SoundScan Top 10 comes out on Wednesday) or
Go one week farther behind announcing the Number 1 album so that they have the Billboard and SoundScan data. I really wouldn't want them to do this because the Number 1 album announced on American Top 40 is already behind and the Number 1 album changes more often than the Number 1 song on American Top 40.
If the new countdown will be more speedy like they said, they should have either the current Number 1 album or at least the Number 1 album on SoundScan data released one and a half weeks before American Top 40 airs, that is if they keep saying the other Number 1s. I haven't heard American Top 40 in a long time but I'd still like them to keep saying the other Number 1s. Being a kid, I never cared for Long Distance Dedications, and if the LDDs are changed for CHR-Pop and required to be a song CHR-Pop would play now, it may negate the point of having them.
"Mya's first chart appearance was on 'Ghetto Supastar'" I think is something American Top 40 has already said.

[Hervard]

EvanJ said:

Being a kid, I never cared for Long Distance Dedications, and if the LDDs are changed for CHR-Pop and required to be a song CHR-Pop would play now, it may negate the point of having them.

From what I heard, the Long Distance Dedications will no longer be on AT40. If that's true, then hopefully, they'll both remain the same between the two A/C shows, since generally, they are the same anyway. Maybe now they'll always be the same, since whatever is played on Hot A/C can't be too out of format for A/C. However, for the first few weeks, since they're probably still receiving LDDs that won't be aired until after the new year - LDDs that request songs that are appropriate for the CHR format only, they may change them as well. But hopefully, further into 2004, people sending in the dedications will have found out that the new AT40 doesn't do LDDs and will request a song that fits the A/C and/or Hot A/C format.

[mst3k]

EvanJ said:

As somebody said in another topic, American Top 40 said the Number 1 album on Hits Daily Double, not Billboard, therefore possibly making Jay-Z fans mad (he was ahead of No Doubt on Billboard).

I assume it's because AT40 uses R&R's charts, and the Hits Daily Double album chart is what's published in R&R.

[BillboardBoy]

As somebody said in another topic, American Top 40 said the Number 1 album on Hits Daily Double, not Billboard, therefore possibly making Jay-Z fans mad (he was ahead of No Doubt on Billboard).

It really isn't any better than Rick Dees switching positions.

I don't think it's bad or dishonest at all. I mean, Hits' album chart is printed in R&R, so why shouldn't they use it? AT40 was paying Billboard some ungodly figure (like $100,000 a year) to use their charts back in the '80s and '90s, and probably don't have the right to do it anymore. And who's to say that Billboard's charts are more accurate than Hits'? At least in R&R, you get to see the actual number of copies. In Billboard, you just get a rounded-off figure in Geoff Mayfield's column.

[EvanJ]

Well have you ever heard an outside source say how many albums an album has sold on Hits Daily Double? Outside sources will mention R and R radio chart positions but not Hits Daily Double sales. If a countdown in another country says what the Number 1 album in the United States is, what chart do you think they use. They also make the articles funny which Billboard doesn't, therefore making Hits Daily Double comparable to Rick Dees.
Hits Daily Double gives sales numbers, but Billboard gives these things that Hits Daily Double doesn't:
More free positions (100 to 50, and if you went through the Artist Index you could get all 200)
Weeks On Chart
Peak Position
Certifications (You could add up sales every week on Hits Daily Double, but for example, you wouldn't know Shania went from nothing to diamond by looking at it's Hits Daily Double sales this week)
Using only Hits Daily Double, you wouldn't know if an album is new or climbing into the Top 50. Billboard gives weeks in the Top 200 for the Top 100 albums, which may not be every week an album was out but is better than Hits Daily Double does. For some albums not in the Top 100 you can get its weeks on the Country, Heatseekers, or Independent Albums chart.
Especially when albums sell this much this time of year you need more than 50 positions.
It was also posted that Hits Daily Double surveys less or no Christian stores, you wouldn't know from Hits Daily Double if Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman, etc. that an album by those artists was going to debut in the Top 50 on Billboard.
MercyMe is platinum and on week 89 on the Billboard 200, but they probably have little or no weeks on the Hits Daily Double chart.
Vertical Horizon and Michelle Branch ("The Spirit Room") may also have had a lot of sales below the Top 50. The same could go for Simple Plan who has 53 weeks on the Billboard 200 with a peak of 36. Trapt has 46 weeks on the Billboard 200 and is platinum with a peak of 42.
It's a big accomplishment to go 155-55, but you would never see that happen if you only saw the Top 50. Hits Daily Double only makes a Top 50 so it doesn't have last week positions for Top 50 reentries that Billboard would have a last week position for.
I also like Billboard better because you don't have to register.
Billboard may charge a lot to use their charts, but the Number 1 album on the Billboard 200 is public information and is on websites other than Billboard so I don't know how much Billboard could reasonably expect to charge just for naming the Number 1 album. American Top 40 using the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart would be different because that chart isn't free.