Decades Countdowns

siriusnj

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Oct 29, 2008
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As a Sirius sub, I have listened to Nina Blackwood's 80's countdown for awhile, as well as the short-lived Pulse Countdown. While I enjoy having the original countdowns from Casey Kasem and Rick Dees, whoever is compiling the tapes seems to be pretty lazy. With the old countdowns, every week would be a new year, and it gave some variety for 10 weeks until the cycle began again. We would hear the same year only once every 2 1/2 months, which usually was enough time to get a pretty fresh countdown. The 90s countdown the past few weeks has been stuck in 94, and the 80s has been stuck in 1980. And then, as someone previously posted, today the Rick Dees countdown was randomly pushed back to 12 PM from 9 AM, which is frustrating for someone like me who likes to record the countdowns and listen to it on my commute to work later in the week. And last week, the first three hours of the Rick Dees 90s countdown worked fine, but at 12 PM, they cut out of it to a regular playlist, so the top 10 was cut off. I don't know what is with the lackluster oversight of the countdowns these past few weeks, but I hope I don't begin to long for the days of the worse content, but more reliable Sirius countdowns.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

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They are doing a piss poor job of varying the countdowns on the 70s and 80s. The 80s seems to be stuck in the early 80s. While I like the early 80s it used to be much more varied before the merger. The 70s has been locked in the early 70s. Again, much more varied before the merger.
 

kingchuck69

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I kinda have to agree.

Although I did hear a 1976 AT40 a few weeks ago and a 1986 show as well.

Remember, the 1979 shows probably won't get aired since they went to four hours in 1978 and there were no shows after 1988.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

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I kinda have to agree.

Although I did hear a 1976 AT40 a few weeks ago and a 1986 show as well.

Remember, the 1979 shows probably won't get aired since they went to four hours in 1978 and there were no shows after 1988.

I understand the 80s issue. XM used to rotate pretty evenly between the 8 years it had. XM also used to play the 78 and 79 countdowns. I don't know what the issue is with airing a longer countdown.
 

kingchuck69

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I understand the 80s issue. XM used to rotate pretty evenly between the 8 years it had. XM also used to play the 78 and 79 countdowns. I don't know what the issue is with airing a longer countdown.

I read somewhere that only the 70-78 countdowns were available.

These shows are also syndicated to terrestrial radio too, and some stations only allot three hours to the 70's shows, especially since the show went from three to four hours in 78; the songs were getting longer.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

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I read somewhere that only the 70-78 countdowns were available.

These shows are also syndicated to terrestrial radio too, and some stations only allot three hours to the 70's shows, especially since the show went from three to four hours in 78; the songs were getting longer.


I've heard a 1979 one at one point.

They went to 4 hours to accomodate more advertising. They added extra LD dedications and 'extras' (such as all the #1 songs from the 60s or 70s) to make up the extra hour.
 

Troglodyte

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Nov 11, 2008
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I wonder why they eliminated the bumpers on the 70's AT40s.

On another board I read that they are heavily editing the 70's AT40 shows (very poorly) because it "flows" better. :blah: Whatever. BM (before merge) Dave Hoefel's "Satellite Survey" on the 70's channel was even better because he hit all ten years in a ten week cycle so no year was ignored.

If anyone remembered, when XM first got the AT40's three years ago, they practically did 1979 every other week!
 

siriusnj

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Oct 29, 2008
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If anyone remembered, when XM first got the AT40's three years ago, they practically did 1979 every other week!

They do that with the 80s AT40 and, to a lesser extent, Rick Dees' 90s countdown. When Sirius controlled the channels with "look-back" countdowns, it wasn't too difficult to do 10 different years in 10 different weeks, and then go through the same pattern again. I like having the "original" countdowns better, but is it so hard to have some variety with the years? Is it a problem where they don't have all the tapes for each week?
 

Troglodyte

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Nov 11, 2008
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That was great wasn't it? Now they are stuck in 1972.

Wellllll. 1979 was a great year for music (I really thought I was gonna marry Donna Summer!) but I was listening to Casey heavily then so when I hear a countdown from then I actually remember the show and there isn't any "Oh wow" songs for me. Hearing the early 70's show is more of a hoot cause I never heard the low charting "IT" songs on my local Top40 station. I still wish they would do all ten years in a ten week span going back and forth from early, mid to late 70's. But I know that's asking for WAY too much.

Yeah I'm one of those weird people that actually enjoys discovering and hearing older songs that I never heard before. I'm clearly not in the Sirius/XM demographic (age-wise I am) And I may get my subscription cancelled because I don't paticularly want to hear "Dancing Queen" AGAIN!

Speaking of which, they are doing 1977 this weekend......
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
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Wellllll. 1979 was a great year for music (I really thought I was gonna marry Donna Summer!) but I was listening to Casey heavily then so when I hear a countdown from then I actually remember the show and there isn't any "Oh wow" songs for me. Hearing the early 70's show is more of a hoot cause I never heard the low charting "IT" songs on my local Top40 station. I still wish they would do all ten years in a ten week span going back and forth from early, mid to late 70's. But I know that's asking for WAY too much.

Yeah I'm one of those weird people that actually enjoys discovering and hearing older songs that I never heard before. I'm clearly not in the Sirius/XM demographic (age-wise I am) And I may get my subscription cancelled because I don't paticularly want to hear "Dancing Queen" AGAIN!

Speaking of which, they are doing 1977 this weekend......

I did not hear Casey until into the 80s. And I really wasn't into music that much at all until 1977/78 so I have no emotional connection to the early 70s which means I have no emotional connection to the countdown.

1977 will be good. I think they should be mixing it up a lot more. 10 weeks should cover all 10 years in some random order.
 

Troglodyte

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Nov 11, 2008
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I did not hear Casey until into the 80s. And I really wasn't into music that much at all until 1977/78 so I have no emotional connection to the early 70s which means I have no emotional connection to the countdown.

1977 will be good. I think they should be mixing it up a lot more. 10 weeks should cover all 10 years in some random order.

I hate to sound like a downer, but I have a feeling they are just playing out the contract they have with AT40 and just get rid of all countdown shows. I'm sure its killing them to have to play all those low charting unfamiliar songs......
 

goreds2

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Oct 14, 2008
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OH H.....EYE OH
This mornings Casey Kasems AT40 is from 3/5/77

Rod Stewart's - The First Cut Is The Deepest was a cool listen to.
(Yes, a Cheryl Crow tune)
 

goreds2

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OH H.....EYE OH
This mornings Casey Kasems AT40 is from 3/13/76

I am trying to list these each Monday morning to get a possible trend. They seem to be consistent in keeping the month and week the same as the current.
 

limegrass69

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Oct 12, 2008
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I'd be bummed if they dropped AT40. The countdown shows are a great way to hear songs that charted, but were not necessarily top 20. IMHO, it's a much safer context to present an "oh wow" song on a tightly formatted hits channel. If the song is within a countdown show, it is sort of validated since it was a top 40 hit.
 

siriusnj

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Oct 29, 2008
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Last week (March 8), 80s on 8 played the 2/27/88 AT Top 40 countdown, which was the exact same countdown they played on March 1. The original complaint was that they were playing the same years week after week but at least it was a different episode. This smacks of laziness.