American Top 40 clone: America's Greatest Hits
Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 4:33 am
America's Greatest Hits is a relatively new weekly radio program. The local station (WIAD 94.7, "The Drive" ) carries it starting around 5am or so on Saturdays - it was 6am and the show was already on so I figure it started at 5. In format and delivery it makes me think it's a clone of American Top 40 ("AT40"). I figure it's relatively new because, despite being nationally syndicated (see below) it doesn"t (yet) have a Wikipedia page the way AT40 does.
The announcer, Scott Shannon, reminds me of Kasey Kasem, his patter is similar and the format is practically a clone, with the lookback to old hits, like when he reviewed the top 5 songs from 28 years ago, 1991. But I suppose any multi-hour "hits of the week" show is probably going to sound the same as any other.
The show admits it is nationally syndicated because Scott does the same line to tout stations carrying it: "America's Greatest Hits is heard across the USA on great radio stations like..." followed by a quick promo for three of the stations carrying the program. (The italicized part are the exact same words Kasem used for his intro to station promos for AT40. I haven't listened to AT40 in years, I don't know who carries it or much about it, other than Ryan Seacrest took over after Kasem became too dead to show up anymore.)
While listening I realized it is all flashbacks, they don't play any recent music, it appears to only cover songs of the 1980s which ties in to the usual content on The Drive, as they generally only carry songs of the '70s, '80s and '90s.
While I was writing this, I will be damned if Scott doesn't do a shout out to Kasey Kasem, saying that if it wasn't for him and the work he did this show would not exist. So maybe the reason it sounds so much alike is not accidental. Maybe the same company also makes AT40.
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Number 3 for this week, 28 years ago: Right Here, Right Now by Jesus Jones; Number 2: Rush, Rush by Paula Abdul; № 1: Unbelievable by EMF
The announcer, Scott Shannon, reminds me of Kasey Kasem, his patter is similar and the format is practically a clone, with the lookback to old hits, like when he reviewed the top 5 songs from 28 years ago, 1991. But I suppose any multi-hour "hits of the week" show is probably going to sound the same as any other.
The show admits it is nationally syndicated because Scott does the same line to tout stations carrying it: "America's Greatest Hits is heard across the USA on great radio stations like..." followed by a quick promo for three of the stations carrying the program. (The italicized part are the exact same words Kasem used for his intro to station promos for AT40. I haven't listened to AT40 in years, I don't know who carries it or much about it, other than Ryan Seacrest took over after Kasem became too dead to show up anymore.)
While listening I realized it is all flashbacks, they don't play any recent music, it appears to only cover songs of the 1980s which ties in to the usual content on The Drive, as they generally only carry songs of the '70s, '80s and '90s.
While I was writing this, I will be damned if Scott doesn't do a shout out to Kasey Kasem, saying that if it wasn't for him and the work he did this show would not exist. So maybe the reason it sounds so much alike is not accidental. Maybe the same company also makes AT40.
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Number 3 for this week, 28 years ago: Right Here, Right Now by Jesus Jones; Number 2: Rush, Rush by Paula Abdul; № 1: Unbelievable by EMF