American Top 40 to Celebrate 40th Anniversary

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, June 30, 2010

This holiday weekend marks the 40th anniversary of Premiere Radio Networks' "American Top 40." As part of the special anniversary weekend, host Ryan Seacrest will commemorate the milestone with a tribute to the show's creator and original host Casey Kasem, as well as announce the top artist of the last 40 years.

In addition to counting down the current top 40 songs, Seacrest will revisit some of the greatest moments over the last four decades. The anniversary celebration will continue online with the re-launch of www.AT40.com. Serving as a one-stop shop for AT40 fans, the new site will feature pop culture, entertainment, music and fashion news, artist bio pages and archived charts with direct links to iTunes; photo galleries and more.

"American Top 40 is the soundtrack to life; it sparks emotion and memories, and has a huge impact on pop culture," stated Seacrest. "This show is really special to me. Not only because it's the biggest countdown in the world, but because it's the one show I grew up listening to as a kid, so I take a lot of pride in hosting the program every weekend."

"American Top 40" was created by Casey Kasem in 1970 and the show became the gold standard of music programming. Seacrest debuted as host of the program in January 2004. Today, AT40 continues to be the number one countdown show in the U.S. and can be heard on nearly 500 radio stations worldwide.