Sad news today…according to AllAccess, American Top 20 and American Top 10 with Casey Kasem will end July 4, on the 39th anniversary of Casey’s AT40.
I thought that Casey would go until July 4, 2010 for the 40th anniversary. However, something made Premiere cut the shows off. It is probably a combination of things: 1) Casey wants or needs to retire & 2) Premiere is looking for ways to save money. If the problem was only #1 above, then they could have continued the shows with another host, e.g. Casey’s son Mike.
They already have Ryan Seacrest’s AT40 Hot AC, so they can offer that to stations who subscribe to AT20. However, they do not have an AC countdown to replace AT10. I do not know the number of affiliates that AT10 has, but perhaps it’s a small enough number that it doesn’t matter if they get a replacement for it or not.
If Casey wanted to go, then more power to him. If Premiere forced him out, then shame on them.
Good luck Casey, and thanks for providing us great entertainment for all of these years.
June 5, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Of great concern to many fans is what will happen to the AT 10 audience after this show concludes. At least there are several attractive options for the Hot AC fans ie Rick Dees, Ryan Seacrest, Chris Leary, Randy Jackson etc, but there is no other countdown show covering the world of AC music EXCEPT for AT 10. Obviously, the stations and the listeners don’t seem to care enough one way or the other.