The Weekly Top 40, syndicated
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This is a weekly countdown of the top forty songs in the country. It started in 1983, but I surely didn't start listening to it until some years later (in the late 80s or early 90s). Around that time, I listened to three different top 40 shows. In addition to this one, there were also AT40 and Casey's Top 40. Although... it's possible they weren't all airing on stations I got within the same period. Looking back, I tend to feel like I listened to them all in the same era of my early to mid-teens, or thereabouts. But it could be that only one or two of the shows were available to me at any given time. (It's not like there were a lot of radio stations in my area.) But whatever. The host of this show, Rick Dees, had done a morning radio show for some time prior to this, I think. And his hosting style definitely has the sort of zany, smarmy sensibility common to a lot of morning zoo hosts. I mean, it's hard for me to remember exactly what I thought of him, back when I used to listen to the show. I'm sure I sometimes found him amusing, and other times... probably not so much. (Though he probably never annoyed me as much as stereotypically crass morning zoo hosts or shock jocks.) It's like his style was sort of a slightly toned down version of a morning zoo guy. Or something. Anyway, I guess I found the show enjoyable enough, for awhile.


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