Top 40 Music Countdowns - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) 1958 (August 9). Billboard magazine had published other singles charts since January 1, 1955.
• A2) 1970 (July 4). The #1 song in the first countdown was Three Dog Night's "Mama Told Me Not to Come".
  • A3) He was born in Detroit on April 27, 1932 as Kemal Amin Kasem (yeah, that's K.A., not K.C.).
  • A4) Casey's Top 40 (1989-98). Casem also hosted America's Top 10 on television from 1980 until 1993.
• A5) Rick Dees. The show will mark its 25th anniversary next year and is now broadcast on over 350 radio stations in the U.S. and 37 other countries.
  • A6) He was born on March 14, 1950 as Rigdon Osmond Dees III in Jacksonville, Florida but began his career as a DJ as a teenager in Greensboro, North Carolina.
  • A7) Disco Duck. The disco novelty song includes quacking ducks, an unauthorized Donald Duck impersonation, and Rick's Cast of Idiots.
• A8) Shadoe Stevens (1988-95). He now hosts the radio programs "Top of the World" and "Rock the World".
  • A9) He was born on November 3, 1947 as Terry Ingstad in Jamestown, North Dakota.
  • A10) The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He replaced Richard Malmos on the CBS show in 2005.
• A11) Ryan Seacrest. He was born in Georgia on December 24, 1974, and it's actually his real name.
  • A12) He has hosted television's American Idol since 2002.

What I found especially interesting is how the major Top 40 countdowns have been tabulated over the years. The following table comes from several sources:

	American Top 40	Casey's Top 40	Rick Dees' Weekly Top 40*
Host	Casey Kasem (1970-88 and 1998-2004**) Shadoe Stevens (1988-95) Ryan Seacrest (2004-present)	Casey Kasem (1989-98)	Rick Dees (1983-present)
Data Source	Billboard Hot 100 (1970-91) Top 40/Top 100 Radio Monitor (1991-92) Top 40/Mainstream (1992) Radio and Records CHR***/Pop (1998-2001 and 2002-03) Mediabase 24/7 unpublished chart (2001-02) Mediabase custom chart (2004-present)	Radio and Records CHR***/Pop (1989-98)	Cashbox (1983-84) Radio and Records (1984-2005?) Mediabase (2004?-present)

* Countdown was briefly available as a podcast (no iPod required). There is also an AT40 podcast, but it only contains the interviews.

** 75-year-old Casey Kasem still counts down the American Top 20 (adult contemporary) and American Top 10 (soft adult contemporary).

*** CHR stands for Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR/Pop basically means Top 40). Radio and Records ended its countdowns in August 2006 as the company merged with the Billboard Information Group.

Top 40 Music Countdowns - Random Trivia Questions

I grew up listening to the American Top 40 countdown on the radio every Sunday as far back as I remember much of anything, which is when I was eleven years old. Before that, my recollections of music were mostly fuzzy, listening to AM radio on the car mono (definitely not stereo) from the back seat of a mold-green Dodge Dart Swinger. It's somehow reassuring to find that WICC is still around, even if I can't remember the last time I listened to AM music.

I got my first real radio (that is, I semi-permanently relocated my mom's AM/FM shoebox to my bedroom) when the Eagles "Hotel California" took over the number one spot (which marks the date as May 1977). After that, I listened to the countdown semi-regularly for the next half-dozen years until college intervened and disrupted my schedule (it's hard to listen to the radio when you're asleep).

Top 40 Music Countdowns Questions

• Q1) In what year was the Billboard Hot 100 chart first published?
• Q2) In what year did Casey Kasem begin counting down the American Top 40?
  • Q3) What is his real first name?
  • Q4) What countdown did he host for almost a decade between stints on American Top 40?
• Q5) Who began his competing Weekly Top 40 in 1983?
  • Q6) What is his first name short for?
  • Q7) What song did he reach #1 with as a music artist on October 16, 1976?
• Q8) Who both succeeded and preceded Casey Kasem as host of the American Top 40?
  • Q9) What was his original name?
  • Q10) What television talk show is he currently the announcer for?
• Q11) Who took over as host of the American Top 40 in 2004?
  • Q12) Why do you know what he looks like?