American Top 40
American Top 40 is an American radio show that first aired on July 4, 1970 . The program contains the 40 most successful songs from the US charts as well as stories about the artists. In no time at all, the show became the most popular weekly radio show in the United States.
history
The show was created by the US presenter Casey Kasem , who also presented it from 1970 to 1988 and 1998 to 2004. In 1978 he added an element to the program that would go down in radio history: The "Long Distance Dedication", in which Kasem read out letters from listeners who usually greeted people in distant parts of the world with very impressive stories. Since then, Kasem has continued the category in today's sister programs of the “American Top 40”, “American Top 20” and “American Top 10”.
In 1988 Kasem gave the show to radio host and actor Shadoe Stevens , who moderated it until 1995. At this point in time, Kasem established the competing show "Casey's Top 40".
On January 28, 1995, the last program of the "American Top 40" ran for the time being, as it was replaced for contractual reasons on most radio stations in the USA by the program "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40", which was presented by the presenter Rick Dees .
On March 28, 1998, the show was finally revived as a result of extensive contract negotiations by Casey Kasem and moderated by him again.
On January 10, 2004, the show was moderated by radio and television presenter Ryan Seacrest , who added new, more modern elements (such as artist interviews) to it. Several times a year, artists are used as guest moderators (e.g. Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson ) who represent Seacrest in vacation weeks.
Today the show is broadcast in two different formats ( CHR and Hot AC ) from around 400 radio stations in the US and many more around the world.
