DICK CLARK NATIONAL MUSIC SURVEY

[JonathanGabel]

In memory of this icon, anyone remember this countdown show?  From what I read it was on the air as Dick Clark National Music Survey from 1981 to 1986.  When this show first came on the air it had 550 affiliates.  Was that in the USA and around the world or was that all 550 radio stations in the United States itself.  Post your comments and memories regarding to this subject here!  LONG LIVE THE LEGEND OF DICK CLARK!

[Matt Smith]

This was a product of the Mutual Broadcasting System.  It was carried on their satellite system as well as distributed to "offline" stations by disc.  Information here provided by Wikipedia, and as best I remember, is accurate.....

In 1981, he created The Dick Clark National Music Survey for the Mutual Broadcasting System.  The program counted down the Top 30 contemporary hits of the week in direct competition with American Top 40. Clark left Mutual in 1986, and Charlie Tuna took over the National Music Survey.  Clark then launched his own radio syndication group; the United Stations Radio Network, or Unistar, and took over the countdown program, "Countdown America". It ran until 1994, when Clark sold Unistar to Westwood One Radio. The following year, Clark started over, building a new version of the USRN and a new countdown show: "The U.S. Music Survey". He served as its host until his 2004 stroke.

Later . . . .

[rnigma]

The FM station I worked at in the '80s ran "Countdown America" when John Leader was the host (we also ran American Top 40).  It was syndicated by RKO Radio Networks (whose newscasts we also carried).  Then Dick Clark bought RKO and it became United Stations; he then merged it with Transtar to form Unistar.  Our PD dropped "Countdown America" before Clark took it over, and picked up Scott Shannon's countdown show.  (Leader then launched "Countdown USA.")