'50s On 5 Playlist, Version 2.0

[georgespelvin]

Casey is originally from Detroit but I don't recall if that was where he got his start in radio. I read about his background in Rob Durkee's book "The Countdown of the Century." Casey's real first name is Kemal and he changed it to Casey when he started broadcasting his show as "Casey at the Mike" (groan).

Reelradio.com has airchecks of Casey's pre-AT 40 shows in LA.

[Tony1948]

[Thomps2525]

Casey did indeed begin his radio career in Detroit. In the early 1950s a teenaged Kemal Amin Casem had small roles on several radio serials on WXYZ. He also worked part-time at WJLB. In 1956 he became the evening DJ at Detroit's first full-time top-40 station, WJBK (which is now WLQV and airs a Christian talk format). At WJBK, Kemal began calling himself "Casey at the mike." I suppose that's better than calling himself "Mike at the casey."

[Tony1948]

[Thomps2525]

WWWW-106.7 FM had a progressive rock format in the 1970s. The station switched to a country format in 1980. From 1992 to 1994, there was a WWWW-AM at 1130, which simulcast the FM. Today there is still a WWWW, a country station at 102.9 in Ann Arbor.

[Tony1948]

[Thomps2525]

The original WWWW-FM began in 1960 as classical/jazz WDTM. Gordon McLendon bought the station in 1966 and changed call letters to WWWW ("W4"). W4 aired a "beautiful music" format until 1970. In 1970-71 W4 ran the syndicated "Solid Gold" format and was one of the first stations to carry Casey's American Top 40. "So keep reaching for the stars..."

[Tony1948]

7quote="Thomps2525"]The original WWWW-FM began in 1960 as classical/jazz WDTM. Gordon McLendon bought the station in 1966 and changed call letters to WWWW ("W4"). W4 aired a "beautiful music" format until 1970. In 1970-71 W4 ran the syndicated "Solid Gold" format and was one of the first stations to carry Casey's American Top 40. "So keep reaching for the stars..."[/quote]That would be the approximate time period in question. So it was really short-lived; too bad, even though it was syndicated. Here in New York, W.O.R. f.m., which had gone to an oldies format in the fall of 1967, had hit the skids and really wasn't much of an oldies station by 1970. In fact, after the middle of 1968, the best thing it ever aired was "The History Of Rock And Roll" which it played a few times between 1969 and 1973. At the beginning of 1970 we were still two and a half years away from July 7, 1972 when W.C.B.S. f.m. shocked everybody and went to an oldies format which, though it weakened after the first few years, continued for some 33 years. Even in its "weakened" state, they put together some great special programming; if you think Norm N. Nite is good now, you should have heard him do his Top 20 count-downs on Saturdays and Sundays on C.B.S. f.m. Anyway, thanks for the research.

[ceaser]

I've heard casey mention as well that he was also a drummer for a time.

[Mr. D.T.]

I have been evaluating the playlist on dogstar...50s has really, really, REALLY been spiraling downhill; it wasn't that bad three months after the merger. Less deep cuts, less MOR, more Time-Life oldies. I'm starting to lose interest in the station. At least 60s is attempting to return to its former glory.

[Thomps2525]

How dare you put down the '50s channel! Where else can we hear all those obscure low-charting songs from the '60s?

[CTGuy]

[Thomps2525]

So Sirius XM expects to attract more subscribers by sounding identical to FM oldies stations?

To quote a line from Phyllis Diller's "Queen Ant" character from Pixar's A Bug's Life movie: "Now why didn't I think of that? Oh, that's right---because it's suicide!"

[CTGuy]

[Tony1948]