All Day, Every Day: American Top 40 I’ve never been a fan of the iHeart Radio app you can download to your smartphone. I always thought it too cumbersome to use compared to alternatives, and I don’t like the way iHeart restricts its own stations to its own app rather than allowing them to be available on other apps as well. If iHeart really believed in the app, why do they not let it compete on an even playing field? But I broke down and started using it recently. Keep in mind I still don’t actually like it, but there is a reason to use it … American Top 40. Yes, the very same AT40 you can find on SiriusXM channels 7 — for the 1970s version — Saturdays at 3 a.m. and 9 a.m., Sundays at 6 a.m.; or our own semi-local KOLA (99.9 FM) which airs the ‘80s version Saturdays at 5 a.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. But what if you want to totally live in the past and listen to nothing but AT40, the countdown show hosted by former original KRLA (now KRDC, 1110 AM) personality Casey Kasem, launched on July 4th, 1970 on but a handful of stations, and eventually heard on stations around the globe as the most popular countdown show … ever? If that’s you, the iHeart Radio app — or iHeart.com on a computer — has you covered. A special channel called Classic American Top 40 plays old AT40 countdowns continuously. The ‘70s followed by the ‘80s followed by the ‘70s, etc. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As I write this they are just starting a replay from 1983 after the completion of a week from 1973. Audio heaven, for those who grew up listening to the classic program … and a major reason to use the iHeart app. Ryan Seacrest, by the way, hosts the current version of AT40 heard locally on KIIS-FM (102.7), starting at 6 a.m. Saturdays, 8 a.m. Sundays. Billboard Controversy Was the top song for at least one week of mid-July, 1978 not really the top song? Was there behind the scenes shenanigans? It wasn’t a problem with AT40 directly, but what AT40 used as the basis for the countdown list: Billboard Magazine. I read about this first on (I believe) the AT40 fan page of Facebook. The story goes that Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street should have been the number one song on the Billboard charts in the second half of July, 1978, but that pressure to keep Andy Gibb’s Shadow Dancing at the top spot won out. Here’s what I found at https://djrobblog.com/archives/6222: “Among the many tales of “Baker Street’s” undying legacy is the one involving a bit of chart shenanigans that may have robbed Rafferty of ascending to that coveted No. 1 spot. “As reported in several publications since, legend has it that in one of its final weeks at No. 2 in July 1978, Billboard had actually calculated “Baker Street” to be No. 1. At the time, Billboard’s charts were based on phoned-in radio station lists and record store reports, which staffers or computers would then compile, before the advent of more modern and accurate airplay and sales tracking technology in the early 1990s. Apparently, Gibb threatened to back out of a show being sponsored by Billboard if his song didn’t remain number one, said show being the pet project of then-chart manager Bill Wardlow. “It was alleged that Wardlow had a change of heart about the No. 1 position after having dined with Andy Gibb’s management on the night the chart was compiled. The story goes that Wardlow casually mentioned over dinner that Gibb’s tune had been displaced by Rafferty’s – much to RSO Records’ displeasure.” So Billboard issued a “correction,” apparently forcing American Top-40 to re-record the ending of the how, without the new number one song. Baker Street remained stalled at the number two slot on Billboard, though other sources did indeed put it at the top, such as including Cash Box which had it there on July 15, 1978. It is said that Baker Street is one of the all-time most beloved number two hits; the incident proves the power that top-40 radio once held over American culture. And as former newsman Paul Harvey used to say, now you know … the restof the story. No Static Here This is an old story, but but comes from former KHJ (930 AM) Production Director (among other stations) Douglas Brown. When FM by Steely Dan was released in 1978, may top-40 stations were still on the AM band, including in Los Angeles area, KHJ, Ten Q (KTNQ, 1020 AM), KFI (640 AM), and KEZY (1190 AM). Many of the stations across the country didn’t want to play a song that hyped the FM band, so a few figured out that the “A’ in Steely Dan’s Aja matched the note well, and simply changed the song so that it played as “A-M, no static at all.” Which, of course, is somewhat absurd. The more powerful and influential stations, such as KHJ, convinced the musical band’s record company at the time to produce a special version of the song, one in which the the radio band is not mentioned at all. The resulting song simply refrains “...
