The Dec. 23, 1989, AT40 show: A personal experience. -- American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century

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Date Posted: 18:28:24 12/23/02 Mon
Author: Nelson J. Gomez
Subject: The Dec. 23, 1989, AT40 show: A personal experience.

First, I want to thank Rob for posting the review of the December 23, 1989, AT40 show, which I prepared.

There is a personal story I want to share with you all about this particular program. And it goes like this:

I live in Panama, where I was born and raised. By late 1989, I was a regular listener of AT40 for about three years. I was one of many who not only listened to the show, but also transcribed the countdown in a notebook. Until the December 16, 1989, show, I hadn't missed any listings since I began transcribing (in mid 1987).

However, due to political events that took time to build and are somewhat inappropriate to mention here, the United States invaded Panama on the morning of Wednesday, December 20, 1989. Because of the military action, our normal lives were severely disrupted. As a consequence, the program of December 23 was not aired neither by the commercial affiliate of AT40 nor by the US Armed Forces Radio station in the Panama Canal, which carried the show as well.

I hoped that, by listening to the January 6, 1990, show, I could reconstruct the December 23, 1989 list, based on the songs� chart movements. But when the Jan. 6 program came out, Shadoe didn't mention the songs� movements, although he did announce the "droppers". I tried to obtain the Dec. 23 list by other means, but Billboard magazine wasn't (and isn't) available here except by subscription; and those with subscription (DJs mostly) were very reluctant to lend their precious copy of Billboard to an unknown individual like me.

By mid-February, after concluding that I had no chances to obtain that listing, I wrote AT40, explained the problem and asked them if they could help me on this. About three months later, I received a reply signed by Rob. He wrote that, whenever listeners wanted that kind of chart information, they'd usually send to such people the address for Billboard magazine. "However" he wrote, "I'm very willing to help you and make and exception. I realize you and your country's situation as of late last year had to be extremely hectic". Enclosed in the envelope, I found a copy of the "Stat list" for December 23, 1989; it's an interesting document that summarized an important amount of artist data and chart statistics in just one page. The stat list allowed me to fill the gap in my transcriptions.

I continued transcribing until the November 23, 1991, program, when I stopped for reasons that are easily understood and don't need to be explained. In 2000, I traded a copy of the stat list for a CD copy of the Dec. 23, 1989 show; that same year, I had a chance to finally thank Dr. Rob via email for his assistance.

Rob's help in sending me a copy of the stat list is meaningful when you consider that he made an exception in the program's policy of answering people�s requests for chart information. Today, Dr. Rob's letter has a very special place in my personal memorabilia... next to the AT40 book he wrote, of course.

Thanks again, Rob.

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