title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Following Howard's eviction, HouseGuests competed in the "Bull in a China Shop" Head of Household competition. For this competition, HouseGuests had to walk on a rolling tube while holding on to a bull replica hanging on a rope; when a HouseGuest fell, their bull replica would crash into a china cabinet full of glass. The last HouseGuest remaining on the tube would be the winner. GinaMarie was the winner. Candice won a $5,000 prize, while Helen won a barbecue and invited Aaryn and Elissa to join her. Spencer received the punishment of having to speak using a bullhorn until after the nomination ceremony. GinaMarie and her allies decided to target Candice and Jessie for eviction, hoping to see Candice be evicted from the house. On Day 43, GinaMarie chose to nominate Candice and Jessie for eviction. On Day 44, it was revealed that Amanda had been selected as the third nominee for the second week in a row. When picking players for the Power of Veto competition, Judd and Spencer were selected to compete for the Power of Veto; Aaryn was selected to host. That same day, HouseGuests competed in the "Frog Darts" Power of Veto competition. For this competition, HouseGuests tossed stuffed frogs across a pond onto a set of lily pads; each individual pad was worth a certain number of points, and the HouseGuest with the lowest score each round was eliminated. The HouseGuest eliminated from each round would select a prize, though this could be stolen by a HouseGuest eliminated in a future round. Jessie was the winner of the Power of Veto. During the competition, GinaMarie received the punishment of wearing a dog cone for twenty-four hours, Amanda had to get various rounds of spray tan done, and Candice had to wear a "Clownitard" for a week. Judd was the winner of the competition, but chose to take a $5,000 prize leaving Jessie with the Power of Veto. On Day 46, Jessie chose to use the Power of Veto to remove herself from the block, with Spencer being nominated in her place. On Day 49, the HouseGuests learned that it would be a Double Eviction, and that the M.V.P. twist had officially ended. They also learned that this season would feature nine Jury members, rather than seven. Candice then became the sixth HouseGuest to be evicted when she received seven eviction votes (7-0-0). She became the first member of the Jury of Nine. The HouseGuests then competed in the "Summer School" Head of Household competition. For this competition, HouseGuests had to determine whether there was less or more of an item than what Julie Chen told them. Aaryn was the winner. Following this, Aaryn chose to nominate Jessie and Spencer for eviction, with the plan of evicting Jessie. When picking players for the Power of Veto competition, Amanda, Andy, and Judd were selected to compete. The HouseGuests then competed in the "Nailed It" Power of Veto competition. For this competition, HouseGuests had to attempt to fit a set of nails into the correctly sized slots, with the HouseGuest to finish first winning the Power of Veto. Aaryn was the winner of the Power of Veto. Following this, a plan was set in motion to evict Judd from the house, resulting in Aaryn using the Power of Veto to remove Jessie from the block, with Judd being nominated in her place. Minutes later, Judd became the seventh HouseGuest to be evicted from the house when he received seven eviction votes. He became the second member of the jury.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Following Candice and Judd's eviction, the remaining nine HouseGuests competed in the "Cherry on Top" Head of Household competition. For this competition, HouseGuests were put into a tournament-style bracket. The object was to roll a ball down a curved banana and have it land on top of the ice cream sundae. The first HouseGuest to get the ball on the sundae, moved on to the next round. Andy was the winner. Andy was also tasked with picking four HouseGuests as Have-Nots for the week and chose Aaryn, Elissa, GinaMarie, and Helen. On Day 50, Jessie and Spencer were nominated for eviction. Elissa, Amanda, and Helen were picked to play in the veto competition, while McCrae was selected to host. That same day, HouseGuests competed in the "BBB Movie" Power of Veto competition. For this competition, HouseGuests were given a few minutes to study three movie sets. They were then asked questions about how many of a certain item there were in a set. If the HouseGuest was confident in their answer, they would "stay" for an attempt at winning a movie ticket. The housemate that was closest to the correct answer would receive a movie ticket, while the others were eliminated. If they were not confident they would "fold" and stay in the competition regardless of their answer. The first HouseGuest to obtain three movie tickets would be the winner. Andy was the winner. On Day 53, Andy chose not to use the Power of Veto. On Day 56, in a unanimous vote of 6–0, Jessie was evicted and became the third jury member.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Following Jessie's eviction, Aaryn won her fourth Head of Household of the season in the "Way Off Broadway" HoH competition. Later that day, Julie Chen revealed to the audience that one of the four jury members would be coming back on the next weeks eviction night. On Day 57, the HouseGuests competed in the Have-Not competition, "The Black Box". In this competition, the HouseGuests had to enter a big, pitch-black box with many crawl spaces and gags, find the key, and exit the black box and hit a button to stop the timer. Amanda, Elissa, GinaMarie, and Helen were the Have-Nots for the week. Aaryn then chose to nominate Elissa and Helen, with Helen being her target. Andy, GinaMarie, and Spencer were selected to play in the Veto competition. On Day 58, Elissa went on to win her second Veto competition of the season. Elissa used the Veto to remove her nomination, and Aaryn nominated Spencer in her stead. On Day 63, Helen was evicted by a vote of 4–1, with Elissa being the only one to vote for Spencer.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Shortly after Helen's eviction, the remaining HouseGuests and first four jurors competed in the "Off the Wall" competition, which functioned as both the HoH and re-entry competition. The HouseGuests and jurors were to stand on platforms and catch balls thrown at them without falling off. The first player overall to catch 10 balls or last to remain standing would be the new HoH, and the first juror to do so would return to the game. Judd was the last juror left standing and returned to the game as a HouseGuest, and Elissa was the first to catch 10 balls and became Head of Household. On Day 64, Elissa nominated Aaryn and McCrae for eviction. On Day 65, Amanda, GinaMarie, and Judd were selected to play in the Veto competition. Amanda won the Veto competition, her first individual competition win of the season. On Day 67, Amanda used the Power of Veto to save McCrae, causing Elissa to name Andy the replacement nominee. On Day 70, Aaryn was evicted by a vote of 5–0.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Following Aaryn's eviction, the remaining HouseGuests began the "Big Hopportunity" competition. The HouseGuests were to hop to a wall made from chicken wire. There, each HouseGuest navigated their egg them through a maze formed by the letters "HoH" to a hole at the far side. They then had to hop back down and drop the egg in their basket. GinaMarie was the first HouseGuest with a dozen eggs and won the HoH. On the live show, Julie Chen also announced that the HouseGuests will compete in a special competition, and a live double eviction during Week 10. On Day 71, GinaMarie chose to nominate Amanda and McCrae for eviction. On Day 72, Spencer, Andy, and Elissa were selected to play in the Veto competition. McCrae won the Veto competition. On Day 74, McCrae used the Veto on himself and Spencer was once again named the replacement nominee. On Day 77, Amanda was evicted in a 3–2 vote after GinaMarie was forced to break the tie. Because this was also a double eviction week, the remaining HouseGuests went straight into the Head of Household competition, which McCrae won. McCrae (unaware that Andy was the one who had double crossed him and Amanda) nominated Elissa and GinaMarie shortly after. When Judd won the Power of Veto, he decided not to use it and Elissa was evicted in a unanimous 3–0 vote.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Following Amanda and Elissa's eviction, the HouseGuests competed in the following Head of Household competition, which Spencer won. He nominated GinaMarie and McCrae. On Day 79, McCrae won the Power of Veto, his third Veto win of the season. On Day 81, McCrae used the Veto on himself and Spencer chose to name Judd as the replacement nominee. On Day 82, Judd was evicted from the house for a second time in a 2–0 vote.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Following Judd's second eviction, Andy won his second HoH of the season in the "Before or After" HoH competition. On Day 83, he nominated McCrae and Spencer for eviction. That same day, the HouseGuests competed in the final Veto competition of the season, titled "Web of (F)Lies". Andy won the Power of Veto. On Day 84, Andy decided not to use the Power of Veto. Immediately following the Veto ceremony, GinaMarie, with the sole vote to evict, choose to evict McCrae from the game.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Following McCrae's eviction, the final three participated in the first part of the final HoH competition, "The Great E-skate", with GinaMarie being the victor. On Day 86, Spencer and Andy competed in part two of the final HoH competition, "Crab Grab", which Andy won. During the finale, Andy and GinaMarie faced off in the final part of the competition, "Jury Statements". Andy won the competition and, as final HoH, cast the sole vote to evict Spencer from the house. After asking questions to the final two, the nine-person jury voted to crown the season's winner. Andy won in with a 7–2 vote, and Elissa won $25,000 as America's Favorite HouseGuest, with Judd and Howard gaining the next-highest number of votes.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: During the first six weeks, the "M.V.P." was in play. The holder of the power would secretly name a third nominee (shown in bold). This nominee would be revealed at the Veto Player Draw.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: "Big Brother 15" was officially announced on September 19, 2012 shortly before the finale of the previous season. It was confirmed that Executive Producer Allison Grodner would return to the series, as would Rich Meehan for Fly on the Wall Entertainment. It was later announced that "Big Brother 15" would last for a total of 100 days, making it the longest edition of the series to date. Casting for the season began shortly afterwards, with open casting calls being held in states such as Florida, California, West Virginia, and Maine, among others. Online applications were also available, with the online deadline being May 11, 2013. Semi-finalists for the casting process were informed in May and June 2013. Robyn Kass of Kassting Inc. was responsible for casting as with various previous seasons. This season was the first to feature a completely new cast since the 12th season in 2010. Despite statements made earlier by host Julie Chen stating that there would be more HouseGuests than ever before, it was later confirmed that the season would feature a total of 16 HouseGuests. The 16 HouseGuests were revealed on June 20, 2013. It was later revealed that HouseGuest Elissa Slater is the sister of "Big Brother 13" winner Rachel Reilly.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: The season continued to feature a wide variety of fan interactivity, with Rob Gelick, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Platforms for CBS Interactive Entertainment, stating "We're building on "Big Brother's" major strides in interactivity – including primetime reality TV's first live Twitter vote – by bringing the show's die-hard fans even more opportunities to impact components of the show and interact with this season's HouseGuests ... Fans will have the most immersive, 360-degree "Big Brother" experience ever, across every possible screen, including social media integrations." On April 4, 2013, it was announced that the live feeds would be hosted by the official CBS website. This made it the first time that SuperPass had not hosted the live feeds since the first season. It was later confirmed that the spin-off series "" would begin airing on TVGN, the first time since the show's debut. "Big Brother: After Dark" is slated to premiere the same night as the main series. Changes to the weekly airing schedule of the series were also made, though it still remained on air for three nights a week. The twist for the season was revealed by CBS on June 19, 2013, when it was confirmed that three HouseGuests would be nominated per week. It was also revealed that fans would vote each week for one HouseGuest to be the M.V.P. of the week, earning a special power. On this twist, Grodner stated "The "Big Brother" MVP will force the HouseGuests to rethink their strategies. With America rewarding good game play, it doesn't pay to be a floater this summer." The HouseGuests moved into the house on June 21, 2013.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: On June 18, 2013, fifteen pictures of the new house including a video tour were released. The house's theme has been called "mid-century modern" by Julie Chen. Scott Storey, the show's production designer, has hinted that the house's design references several 1960s' icons, as well as films and shows set in the era. Included are nods to Charles and Ray Eames, Mary Blair, the 1964 World's Fair, Pan-Am, "Catch Me If You Can", and "Mad Men". The line is filled with arrows, this some leading from the kitchen to the bathroom and some located directly across from the front door. A large globe hangs from the wall in the kitchen, while the counters in the kitchen are round instead of box shaped. The bathroom features mostly wood, and also features red rugs and pillows. Images of Los Angeles International Airport can be found in the hallway leading to the Head of Household bedroom. One of the bedrooms is architecture oriented, and featured walls decorated with blueprints and sketches. The third bedroom is filled with various colors on the walls in an abstract form. The backyard features a round seating area, a hammock, a pool table and an immersion pool.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: The series premiered on June 26, 2013 to a 2.2 rating with adults 18–49, according to Nielsen overnight numbers. This made it the second lowest rated season premiere for the series to date. The following three episodes continued to see a decline in ratings, with the July 3 episode earning 5.42 million viewers, the season low thus far. The decline in ratings, mainly when compared to previous seasons, was noted as being partly due to the racism controversy outside of the house. The following episode, however, saw an audience of 6.24 million viewers, only the second episode this season to surpass the six million viewers mark. Though ratings did decline for the following episode, the first Thursday eviction of the season had an increase in ratings, becoming the third episode to reach six million viewers. The following four episodes all continued to increase in ratings, with both the July 18 and 21 episodes achieving a higher number of viewers than the season premiere. Though the following episode saw a drop in ratings, it continued to surpass the six million viewers mark.<ref name="ratings 25/7"></ref> The July 25 episode saw an audience of 6.90 million viewers, making it the second most watched episode of the season at that point. It was noted that the increase in ratings came after the decision was made to air the racist and homophobic comments made by numerous HouseGuests.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: "Big Brother 15" became highly controversial after a variety of bigoted remarks were made by several of the HouseGuests, both on the aired episodes and on the live feeds. The main source of the controversy was centered on Aaryn Gries, who made numerous offensive remarks directed at people who were minorities. Other contestants also received notable criticism for their similarly ignorant comments, including GinaMarie Zimmerman, Spencer Clawson, and Amanda Zuckerman. These remarks were widely condemned as racist, homophobic, antisemitic, and misogynistic.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: The behavior exhibited this season led to a very negative reaction from viewers, with over 27,000 people signing a petition asking for CBS to expel Aaryn from the Big Brother house before she was evicted on Day 70. About the controversy, CBS stated:


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: A similarly worded disclaimer began appearing before the episodes shortly afterward. It was later speculated that the HouseGuests had been warned about these comments.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Several of the discriminatory remarks first started to air on the show during the July 7 episode. Following these revelations, it was reported that Aaryn had been dropped by her talent agency and lost her job as a magazine spokesmodel. GinaMarie was also fired from her job as a pageant coordinator and Spencer's employer later released a statement acknowledging his comments made on the live feeds.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Chen expressed her opinion on the topic on her CBS talk show "The Talk". "It stung", said Chen. "I took it personally. The really sad part was it took me back to the '70s when I was growing up in Queens, when I was 7 being bullied and being called a chink ... the year is 2013! Then I felt ignorant. There are still people who feel that way? Yes, there is." She claimed that her Twitter account was "blowing up" with people demanding her response to the incident. Furthermore, Chen stated that the network and the show take this very seriously and they would not show this if it didn't affect the game play of the other contestants.


title: Big Brother 15 (American season)

text: Leslie Moonves, the CEO and president of CBS at the time, spoke with reporters about the controversy during his network's Summer Press Tour.


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: White Bird in a Blizzard is a 2014 art drama thriller film co-produced, written, directed and edited by Gregg Araki and starring Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, and Christopher Meloni. Based on the novel of the same name by Laura Kasischke, the film follows several years in the life of teenager Katrina "Kat" Connors (Woodley), beginning on the day her mother, Eve (Green), disappeared and the effect this event has on her and the people of her life, frequently alternating between the present time and flashbacks. The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2014 before being given a limited theatrical release on October 24, 2014.


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: In 1988, when Katrina "Kat" Connors was 17, her beautiful but mercurial mother, Eve, disappeared without a trace. The story weaves back-and-forth with flashbacks of Eve's past life and the present day.


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: In the flashbacks, Eve was a wild girl who gradually changed into a domesticated housewife after marrying Brock, an ordinary man who leads an uneventful life. While Kat explores her blossoming sexuality with her handsome but dim-witted neighbour and schoolmate, Phil, Eve struggles to deal with aging and quenching her youthful wildness. She tries to be sexy when Brock is away, even luring Phil's attention. After Eve disappears, Kat deals with her abandonment without much issue, occasionally releasing her own wild side, seducing the detective investigating her mother's disappearance. The film then jumps forward three years to the spring of 1991. On a break from college, Kat returns home and seems unfazed to learn that her father is in a relationship with a co-worker.


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: The detective Kat has been having an affair with informs her that Brock might have killed Eve after catching her cheating. Kat dismisses this theory, just like she did three years ago, but after mentioning the topic to her friends Beth and Mickey, they tell her they suggested this same theory to her and she dismissed them as well. Kat suspects Phil of having slept with Eve and confronts him the night before she is to return to college, but Phil angrily rebuffs it and tells her that her father knows where her mother is.


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: After having recurring dreams about her mother being stranded in the snow, Kat begins to unpack Brock's suspiciously locked freezer in their basement but is stopped when he walks in on her. She questions him about her mother's disappearance, asking if he does in fact know where she is, but he denies having any knowledge of her whereabouts. Believing her father, Kat bids him goodbye and tearfully boards her flight, returning to college. It is revealed that this was the last time Kat sees her father, as he went out to a bar shortly thereafter and drunkenly admitted to murdering Eve. He is soon arrested and later hangs himself with a sheet in his jail cell, also revealing that he moved Eve's body from the freezer to a nearby hill the night before Kat unpacked it. Upon discovering the body, it was revealed that the body had been frozen for so long that when it was buried, it melted away.


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: The film ends with a flashback of Eve's death; she came home from shopping the afternoon of her disappearance to find Brock and Phil in bed together. Phil dashed out of the room and Eve began laughing hysterically at Brock, incredulous. A humiliated Brock repeatedly begged her to stop, but Eve continued laughing until he grabbed her by the throat and strangled her to death.


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: The film opened in the United States in a limited release on October 24, 2014 in 4 theaters and grossed $6,302 with an average of $1,576 per theater and ranking #80 at the box office. After 7 weeks in theaters the film earned $33,821 domestically and $344,479 internationally for a total of $378,300.


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film has a score of 55% based on 92 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The critical consensus states: "Part suburban thriller, part sexual awakening drama – and fully convincing as neither – "White Bird in a Blizzard" rests a little too heavily on Shailene Woodley's typically superlative work." The film also has a score of 51 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: Pop Insomniacs said, "We've seen versions of this story several times, but never quite mangled together like this before, which is precisely why I was so captivated, uncomfortable and surprised by this movie". "Kansas City Star" reporter Jocelyn Noveck said, "It all comes down to a doozy of a plot twist, and it's enjoyably shocking. But at the end you're still left shaking your head, feeling lost, wishing there was something tangible to hold on to — perhaps a bit like being trapped in a snow globe... Two stars out of four".


title: White Bird in a Blizzard

text: Stereogum ranked the film's 80s pop- and shoegaze-heavy soundtrack as the 16th best soundtrack of 2014.


title: Knee effusion

text: Knee effusion, informally known as water on the knee, occurs when excess synovial fluid accumulates in or around the knee joint. It has many common causes, including arthritis, injury to the ligaments or meniscus, or fluid collecting in the bursa, a condition known as prepatellar bursitis.


title: Knee effusion

text: Signs and symptoms of water on the knee depend on the cause of excess synovial fluid build-up in the knee joint. These may include:


title: Knee effusion

text: Osteoarthritis knee pain usually occurs while the joint is bearing weight, so the pain typically subsides with rest; some patients experience severe pain, while others report no discomfort. Even if one knee is much larger than the other, pain is not guaranteed.


title: Knee effusion

text: One knee may appear larger than the other. Puffiness around the bony parts of the knee appear prominent when compared with the other knee.


title: Knee effusion

text: When the knee joint contains excess fluid, it may become difficult or painful to bend or straighten. Fluid may also show under the knee when straightened. Icing may help to decrease swelling. Heat may help relax the muscles of the knee.


title: Knee effusion

text: If an individual has injured their knee, they may note bruising on the front, sides or rear of the knee. Bearing weight on the knee joint may be impossible and the pain unbearable. Bruising may be seen as bluish lesion.


title: Knee effusion

text: Causes of the swelling can include arthritis, injury to the ligaments of the knee, or an accident after which the body's natural reaction is to surround the knee with a protective fluid. There could also be an underlying disease or condition. The type of fluid that accumulates around the knee depends on the underlying disease, condition or type of traumatic injury that caused the excess fluid. The swelling can, in most cases, be easily cured.


title: Knee effusion

text: Having osteoarthritis or engaging in high-risk sports that involve rapid cut-and-run movements of the knee — football or tennis, for example — means an individual is more likely to develop water on the knee.


title: Knee effusion

text: In overweight or obese individuals the body places more weight on the knee joint. This causes more wear in the joint. Over time, the body may produce excess joint fluid.


title: Knee effusion

text: Also known as arthrocentesis, this procedure includes withdrawal of fluid from inside the knee for analysis such as cell count, culture for bacteria, and examination for crystals, such as uric acid or calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate ram crystals found in gout or pseudogout.


title: Knee effusion

text: An X-ray is useful to verify that there is no break or dislocation when there is a history of trauma. May show signs of osteoarthritis.


title: Knee effusion

text: Magnetic Resonance Imaging detects abnormalities of the bone or knee joint, such as a tear in the ligaments, tendons or cartilage.


title: Knee effusion

text: If the knee is swollen and red and warm to the touch when compared to the other knee, a doctor may be concerned about inflammation due to rheumatoid arthritis or a crystalline arthritis, such as gout or pseudogout, or joint infection. Besides sending the joint fluid to a laboratory for analysis, blood tests may requested to determine a white blood cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and perhaps the level of C-reactive protein or uric acid. If blood tests reveal Lyme disease antibodies forming, the condition may be attributed to it.


title: Knee effusion

text: Treatment of fluid in the knee depends on the underlying cause of the swelling. General measures such as rest, ice, and analgesics such as acetaminophen (paracetamol) and NSAIDS are often recommended. Chymotrypsin, trypsin and Diclofenac are also recommended.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: Cameroon is home to at least 250 languages. However, some accounts report around 600 languages. These include 55 Afro-Asiatic languages, two Nilo-Saharan languages, four Ubangian languages, and 169 Niger–Congo languages. This latter group comprises one Senegambian language (Fulfulde), 28 Adamawa languages, and 142 Benue–Congo languages (130 of which are Bantu languages).


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: French and English are official languages, a heritage of Cameroon's colonial past as a colony of both France and the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1961. Eight out of the ten regions of Cameroon are primarily francophone, representing 83% of the country's population, and two are anglophone, representing 17%. The anglophone proportion of the country is in constant regression, having decreased from 21% in 1976 to 20% in 1987 and to 17% in 2005, and is estimated at 16% in 2015 (whose fourth census should take place in 2015).


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: The nation strives toward bilingualism, but in reality very few (11.6%) Cameroonians are literate in both French and English, and 28.8% are literate in neither. The government has established several bilingual schools in an effort to teach both languages more evenly; however, in reality most of these schools separate the anglophone and francophone sections and therefore do not provide a true bilingual experience. Cameroon is a member of both the Commonwealth of Nations and La Francophonie. German, the country's official language during the German colonial period until World War I, has nowadays almost entirely yielded to its two successors. However, as a foreign language subject German still enjoys huge popularity among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010. Today, Cameroon is one of the African countries with the highest number of people with knowledge of German.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: Most people in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest provinces speak Cameroonian Pidgin English, also called Kamtok, as a lingua franca. Fulfulde serves the same function in the north, and Ewondo in much of the Center, South, and East provinces.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: Camfranglais (or Frananglais) is a relatively new pidgin communication form emerging in urban areas and other locations where Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians meet and interact. Popular singers have used the hybrid language and added to its popularity.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: Education for the deaf in Cameroon uses American Sign Language, introduced by the deaf American missionary Andrew Foster.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: There is little literature, radio, or television programming in native Cameroonian languages. Nevertheless, many Cameroonian languages have alphabets or other writing systems, many developed by the Christian missionary group SIL International, who have translated the Bible, Christian hymns, and other materials. The General Alphabet of Cameroon Languages was developed in the late 1970s as an orthographic system for all Cameroonian languages.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: In the late 19th century, the Bamum script was developed by Sultan Ibrahim Njoya to write the Bamum (Shüpamom) language.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: Literacy in French for individuals of age 12 and above rose from 41.3% to 57.6% between 1987 and 2005 while that of English rose from 13.4% to 25.3%. The global proportion of individuals literate in official languages has thus markedly increased between 1987 and 2005, rising from 53.3% to 71.2%.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: In 2005, the probability to be literate in French while being anglophone was 0.46 while that of being literate in English while being francophone was 0.20, resulting from the predominant status of the French language in Cameroon as a whole.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: Most of the 260 languages spoken in Cameroon are indigenous languages. With a population estimated in 25 million people, UNESCO classified the country as a distinctive cultural density. The National Institute of Statistics of Cameroon reported that four percent of the indigenous languages have disappeared since 1950. Currently, ten percent of them are neglected, and seven percent of them are considered as threatened.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: The "Atlas linguistique du Cameroun" ("ALCAM", or "Linguistic Atlas of Cameroon") lists about 250 languages in Cameroon. The list is provided below.


title: Languages of Cameroon

text: The 2012 edition of the "Atlas linguistique du Cameroun" ("ALCAM") provides the following classification of the Niger–Congo languages of Cameroon.


title: Social simulation game

text: Social simulation games are a subgenre of life simulation game that explore social interactions between multiple artificial lives. Some examples include "The Sims" and "Animal Crossing" series.


title: Social simulation game

text: When "The Sims" was released in 2000, it was referred to as "almost the only game of its kind". But there are several important precursors to "The Sims" and the social simulation genre. Firstly, the game's creator Will Wright acknowledged the influence of "Little Computer People", a Commodore 64 game from 1985. The games are similar, although "The Sims" is described as having a richer gameplay experience. Secondly, Will Wright also acknowledged the influence of dollhouses on "The Sims", which have generally also informed the gameplay of this genre.


title: Social simulation game

text: "Animal Crossing" was released in 2001 for the Nintendo 64 in Japan. While released towards the end of the life cycle of the Nintendo 64, it developed a following that led to it being ported to the Nintendo Gamecube and released throughout the world. As the game's popularity has surged, this series has also been described as a social simulation game. "Story of Seasons", a series that began in 1996 and is often compared to "Animal Crossing", has also been described as a social simulation game. Its social simulation elements are derived from dating sims, a subgenre that dates back to the early 1980s, with games such as "Tenshitachi no gogo" in 1985 and "Girl's Garden" in 1984.


title: Social simulation game

text: Since the initial success of these games in the early 2000s, video game journalists have begun to refer to a group of similar games as belonging to the social simulation game genre.


title: Social simulation game

text: Several other social simulation games have emerged to capitalize on the success of "The Sims". This includes several sequels and expansion packs, as well as games like "" with heavy similarities.


title: Birkhall

text: Birkhall (from the Scots "Birk Hauch": "Birch River-meadow") is a estate on Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, owned by King Charles III. It is located alongside the River Muick to the south-west of Ballater.


title: Birkhall

text: The property was built in 1715. It was acquired from the Gordon family (owners of the Abergeldie Estate) who had acquired it from the Farquharsone family. Birkhall was acquired by Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria, as part of the Balmoral Castle estate in 1849 and given to his eldest son, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. Victoria bought Birkhall back to provide accommodation for her staff and extended family in 1884; Prince Albert Edward had only visited Birkhall once, as he preferred the larger Abergeldie Castle. Birkhall was occupied by General Sir Dighton Probyn, Keeper of the Privy Purse to King Edward VII and Comptroller to Queen Alexandra, in the late 19th century and early 20th century.


title: Birkhall

text: King George V lent Birkhall in the 1930s to the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth), who holidayed there with their children, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. The house was redecorated by the Yorks, who also replanted the gardens. After the Duke of York ascended to the throne in 1936, the new King and Queen occupied Balmoral during the summer while later on Princess Elizabeth, her husband Prince Philip and their children occupied Birkhall during the late summer season.


title: Birkhall

text: David Bowes-Lyon, the brother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, died at Birkhall of a heart attack after suffering from hemiplegia on 13 September 1961, aged 59. The Queen Mother discovered him dead in bed.


title: Birkhall

text: Birkhall was inherited by Charles III, from the Queen Mother upon her death in 2002, when he was Prince of Wales. He also spent his second honeymoon at Birkhall in 2005 with The Queen Consort, when she was Duchess of Cornwall. In 2011, the Duke of Cambridge and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, celebrated Hogmanay at Birkhall.


title: Birkhall

text: In March 2020, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall self-isolated at Birkhall after the prince tested positive for COVID-19.


title: Birkhall

text: It has been reported after the accession of Charles III, he will not take up residence at Balmoral Castle while he is on the estate but rather will continue stay at Birkhall during the Balmoral holidays.


title: Tsipouro

text: Tsipouro () is an un-aged brandy from Greece and in particular Thessaly, Epirus, Macedonia, and the island of Crete (where Cretans call it tsikoudia). Tsipouro is a strong distilled spirit containing 40–45% alcohol by volume and is produced from either the pomace (the residue of the wine press) or from the wine after the grapes and juice have been separated. It comes in two types, pure and anise-flavoured, and is usually not aged in barrels, although barrel aged versions do exist.


title: Tsipouro

text: According to tradition, the first production of tsipouro was the work of Greek Orthodox monks in the 14th century on Mount Athos in Macedonia, Greece.


title: Tsipouro

text: Ripe dark grapes are passed through crusher/destemmers. The mass is left to settle for a few days, just enough to get fermentation started. Formerly, wine would be collected and only the solid residue would be used for "tsipouro" in an attempt to get the most out of the plant. Today some producers use the whole of the pulp, without taking out the must for wine production. This results to a superior product, called “apostagma”, sold at approximately twice the price of tsipouro.


title: Tsipouro

text: In the next stage, the mass is fed into distillation units, where temperature and pressure are closely monitored. The first and last distinct batches (the 'head' and the 'tail') are discarded. Only the intermediate batch (known as the 'heart') is kept to make tsipouro. This process is repeated to obtain doubly distilled tsipouro, which might be superior.


title: Tsipouro

text: Finally, the distillate is left to settle and mature in stainless steel tanks. It can also be aged in wooden barrels to give 'aged tsipouro', a relatively new beverage that can be compared to whiskey.


title: Tsipouro

text: Depending on the time of year, tsipouro is used either as refreshment or as a hot beverage, and depending on the time of day, it replaces the drinking of coffee or wine. Tsipouro and tsikoudia, like all alcoholic beverages in Greece, are generally consumed at social gatherings.


title: Tsipouro

text: According to Greek manufacturers, the best way to enjoy tsipouro is straight from the fridge. Some people prefer to either dilute with water or add ice.


title: Tsipouro

text: Tsipouro is usually served in shot glasses with meze (a small side dish) such as nuts, dried fruit, raisins, cheese, olives, seafood, meat, halva, or paximadi (rusk).


title: Tsipouro

text: In 2006, Greece filed a request for tsipouro to be recognized as a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) product, which was granted later that year.


title: Tsipouro

text: Anise-flavoured tsipouro is also available, produced especially in Macedonia and Thessaly. Anise-flavoured tsipouro and ouzo have almost identical taste but vary enormously in their method of production. The alcohol used to produce ouzo is 96% ABV rectified spirit (ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin) and therefore does not retain the flavours of the primary distilled products, whereas the lower degree of distillation of tsipouro allows it to retain the aroma of the pomace.


title: Calpernia Addams

text: Calpernia Sarah Addams (born February 20, 1971) is an American actress, musician, spokesperson and activist for transgender rights and issues.


title: Calpernia Addams

text: Addams grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. She served as a Hospital Corpsman with the Navy. During her last year in the military, she came out as a transgender woman. Addams chose the name "Calpernia" from the William Shakespeare play "Julius Caesar" (a variant spelling of Caesar's wife Calpurnia) and its appearance on a tombstone in the film "The Addams Family".


title: Calpernia Addams

text: In 2002, she formed Deep Stealth Productions in Hollywood with Andrea James. Deep Stealth creates educational and entertainment material around gender-identification issues and the experiences of differently-gendered people. Addams and James coached Felicity Huffman for her Academy Award-nominated performance as a transgender woman in the film "Transamerica".


title: Calpernia Addams

text: At the Sundance debut of "Soldier's Girl", Addams met Jane Fonda, whose son Troy Garity had played Winchell. Fonda suggested Addams mount an all-transgender production of "The Vagina Monologues". The production was to contribute funds and help raise awareness of violence against women; it became the subject of the 2006 documentary film "Beautiful Daughters".


title: Calpernia Addams

text: A reality television series entitled "Transamerican Love Story", featuring Addams choosing among eight suitors, debuted February 11, 2008 on Logo TV.


title: Calpernia Addams

text: In April 2008, Addams performed alongside Fonda, Glenn Close, Salma Hayek, Alicia Keys, and others in a tenth-anniversary production of "The Vagina Monologues" at the Louisiana Superdome.


title: Calpernia Addams

text: In May 2008, PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) chose Addams as PFLAG's spokesperson for their educational campaign, "This Is Our Love Story". Addams said, "I hope "This Is Our Love Story" will help young transgender people as they come out. By seeing the happy, confident woman I've become, I hope I can act as a role model for these young people at a critical moment in their development." Addams writes a blog on gender issues for "Psychology Today".


title: Calpernia Addams

text: Addams has released a single entitled "Stunning", available on iTunes. Addams co-produced the song "The Vagina Song" by Willam Belli, from his debut album "The Wreckoning", and made a cameo in the song's music video.


title: Calpernia Addams

text: In 2015, Addams appeared in the international premiere of "Trans Scripts" a new play by Paul Lucas at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The production received 24 four- and five-star reviews, a Fringe First Award, a High Commendation from Amnesty International and was shortlisted for the Feminist Fest Award, the Best of Edinburgh Award, and the Holden Street Theater Award.


title: Calpernia Addams

text: In 1999, while working as a performer, Addams began dating PFC Barry Winchell. Word of the relationship spread at Winchell's Army base where he was harassed by fellow soldiers and ultimately murdered. Winchell's murder and the subsequent trial resulted in widespread press and a formal review of the U.S. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) military policy, ordered by President Bill Clinton. The case became a prominent example used to illustrate the failure of DADT to protect LGBT service members. Addams' and Winchell's romance and the crimes of their abusers are depicted in the film "Soldier's Girl", released in 2003. Addams was portrayed by Lee Pace. A subsequent "The New York Times" article, "An Inconvenient Woman", documented the marginalization and misrepresentation of transgender sexuality even by gay rights activists.


title: William Monahan

text: William J. Monahan (born November 3, 1960) is an American screenwriter and novelist. His second produced screenplay was "The Departed", a film that earned him a Writers Guild of America Award and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.


title: William Monahan

text: Monahan was born in Dorchester, Boston. He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. He moved to New York City and contributed to the alternative weekly newspaper "New York Press" and the magazines "Talk", "Maxim", and "Spy". In 1997 Monahan won a Pushcart Prize for his short story "A Relation of Various Accidents Observable in Some Animals Included in Vacuo". Monahan was an editor at "Spy" during the magazine's final years, where he would come in at the close of the monthly issue to rewrite articles and improve jokes.


title: William Monahan

text: In 1999 "Talk" magazine debuted, and Monahan contributed a travelogue on Gloucester, Massachusetts, to the first issue. In 2000 Monahan's first novel, "Light House: A Trifle", was finally published, and it garnered critical acclaim; "The New York Times" proclaimed, "Monahan's cocksure prose gallops along" and "BookPage Fiction" called Monahan "a worthy successor to Kingsley Amis." In the second half of 2001 Monahan wrote a fictional column at the "New York Press" under the pseudonym of Claude La Badarian, which ran for 13 weeks.


title: William Monahan

text: Warner Bros. optioned the film rights to the novel "Light House: A Trifle". The screenplay adaptation has not been produced. "Light House" was released in 2000. A few years later, he bought back the rights and took the novel off the market.


title: William Monahan

text: In 2001 20th Century Fox bought Monahan's spec script "Tripoli", about William Eaton's epic march on Tripoli during the Barbary Wars, in a deal worth mid-six figures in American dollars, with Mark Gordon attached as producer. The script was given to Ridley Scott to direct. Monahan met with Scott to discuss "Tripoli", and Scott mentioned his desire to direct a film about knights. Monahan suggested the Crusades as a setting, reasoning that "you've got every conceivable plot imaginable there, which is far more exotic than fiction". Scott was captivated by Monahan's pitch and hired him to write the screenplay for "Kingdom of Heaven". "Tripoli" was eventually shelved, but Monahan retained ownership of the screenplay and therefore the right to consider new offers at a later date.


title: William Monahan

text: Monahan steadily secured work in the film industry throughout the 2000s. Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, hired Monahan to write an adaptation of Hong Kong director Andrew Lau's gangster film "Infernal Affairs". Monahan respun "Infernal Affairs" as a battle between Irish American gangsters and cops in Boston's Southie district, and Martin Scorsese directed the completed screenplay under the title "The Departed" for Warner Bros. Monahan's work on the film would later earn him two Best Adapted Screenplay awards, from the Writers Guild of America and the Academy Awards.


title: William Monahan

text: "Kingdom of Heaven" was the first of Monahan's screenplays to be produced into a film. Monahan had negotiated a production write-through contract for "Kingdom of Heaven", which allowed him to be present on the movie sets to make modifications to the shooting script during production. It was poorly received by critics when it was released in theaters in 2005. "Kingdom" was critically reappraised when it was released on DVD in the form of a director's cut that contained an additional 45 minutes of footage previously shot from Monahan's shooting script. Some critics were pleased with the extended version of the film.


title: William Monahan

text: Monahan's second produced screenplay was "The Departed", an adaptation of the Hong Kong action film "Infernal Affairs". Jack Nicholson, one of the leads in the film, influenced the screenplay. "I had written the role as a post-sexual 68-year-old Irishman. Jack is post-sexual exactly never," Monahan said later. "What Jack did is great. Did he change the words? Not any of the good ones." Monahan received considerable praise from critics when the film was released in theaters, in 2006, and was applauded for accurately depicting the city of Boston. Monahan used his intimate knowledge of the way Bostonians talk and act, learned from his youth spent in the many neighborhoods of Boston, to create characters that "The Boston Globe" described as distinctly indigenous to the city.


title: William Monahan

text: By the end of 2006 "The Departed" had won many critics' prizes. Monahan was honored by The Boston Society of Film Critics with the award for best screenplay, by the Chicago Film Critics Association for best adapted screenplay, and by the Southeastern Film Critics Association with another best adapted screenplay award. Monahan took an unusual route for a screenwriter and hired a publicist to run a campaign promoting his screenplay during awards season. Monahan ended up winning two Best Adapted Screenplay awards for "The Departed", from the Writers Guild of America and the Academy Awards. He received an award for his writing in film at the US-Ireland Alliance's second annual "Oscar Wilde: Honoring Irish Writing in Film" ceremony.


title: William Monahan

text: In 2006 Monahan negotiated a first-look producing deal with Warner Bros., which gave the studio a right of first refusal on any films produced by Henceforth, the production company he started. In return Henceforth received the film rights to produce John Pearson's true crime book "The Gamblers", a property which Warner Bros. had previously acquired.


title: William Monahan

text: In 2007 Monahan was hired to work on two film projects: an adaptation of the Hong Kong film "Confession of Pain" and an original rock and roll film, "The Long Play". Monahan was initially assigned to executive produce and write the adaptation for "Confession of Pain", under production by Leonardo DiCaprio's company, Appian Way, for Warner Bros. Pictures. It would represent his second adaption of an Andrew Lau and Alan Mak film. Monahan's other assignment was to rewrite a screenplay about the history of the rock music business called "The Long Play", the brainchild of Mick Jagger, lead singer of The Rolling Stones, which had been incubating at Jagger's production company, Jagged Films at Disney. Martin Scorsese became involved while the film project was at Disney and subsequently negotiated a turnaround deal to bring "The Long Play" to Paramount. However, neither of these projects were completed.


title: William Monahan

text: Monahan's directorial debut was "London Boulevard", released in 2010, which he also produced. An adaption of a Ken Bruen work by the same name, it was received with both criticism and praise, with "The Hollywood Reporter" stating that as director he "sashays winningly" into the premise of Bruen's "stylish line in mean-streets poetry", further commenting the film as "adapted sharply". "The New York Post"'s Kyle Smith excitedly wrote "one of Hollywood’s most in-demand writers whips up a potent directorial debut"; however, others adjudged the film as unfocused, complaining of "a surplus of plot threads that don't have space to play out, and accordingly com[ing] across as clichés", that he "ended up with more than he can chew for his first time in the director's chair".


title: William Monahan

text: A few years later, a version of "The Gambler" was finally generated, as written and executive produced. The film received mixed reviews, with some people complementing Jessica Lange's performance, while others, including Peter Travers from Rolling Stone, calling the film's unclear character motivations "wearying". This remake also suffered from comparison and contrasting with the original film on which it's based.


title: William Monahan

text: His most recent directorial and producer credit was the film "Mojave", which he also wrote"." Announced on March 22, 2012, and cast between December 4 until well past principle photography began, production was stalled until September 27, 2013. The film was released on DirecTV Cinema on December 3, 2015, prior to opening in a limited release on January 22, 2016. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus for the movie is that it "has no shortage of talent on either side of the camera; unfortunately, it amounts to little more than a frustrating missed opportunity." Sean Burns ripped into the movie, calling it "elliptical and at times preposterously entertaining, [a movie] that both sends up and embraces every chest-beating trope in that old alpha 'He-Man of letters' tradition", and dances with the idea that some of the movie "is Monahan indulging in a bit of sardonic self-flaggelation [sic] for all his success in the industry". The "Observer"'s Rex Reed labeled it "gibberish with guns and phony literary pretentiousness about two thugs in a duel of weapons and words that goes nowhere fast", contending that his high-quality work on "The Departed" was inexplicable, as he had "written nothing of value since". Continuing, he said that "as a director he evokes gales of guffaws".


title: American Top 40

text: American Top 40 (previously abbreviated to AT40) is an internationally syndicated, independent song countdown radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs. The program is currently hosted by Ryan Seacrest and presented as an adjunct to his weekday radio program, "On Air with Ryan Seacrest".


title: American Top 40

text: Originally a production of Watermark Inc. (later a division of ABC Radio known as ABC Watermark, now Cumulus Media Networks), "American Top 40" is now distributed by Premiere Networks (a division of iHeartMedia). Nearly 500 radio stations in the United States, and several other territories worldwide air "American Top 40", making it one of the most listened-to weekly radio programs in the world. It can also be heard on iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and the official "American Top 40" applications on mobile smartphones and tablets as well as on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 consoles (via iHeartRadio's console app), and the Armed Forces Network. GEICO is the main sponsor for the show.


title: American Top 40

text: Co-creator Casey Kasem hosted the original "American Top 40" from its inauguration on July 4, 1970, until August 6, 1988. Shadoe Stevens took over the program on August 13, 1988, and hosted until January 28, 1995, when the original program came to an end. Three years later, Kasem teamed up with Premiere's predecessor AMFM Radio Networks to relaunch "American Top 40". Kasem, who had spent nine years hosting his own countdown "Casey's Top 40" for Westwood One, returned to hosting his creation on March 28, 1998. Seacrest took over "American Top 40" on January 10, 2004, following Kasem's retirement from the series.


title: American Top 40

text: Currently, "American Top 40" with Seacrest airs in two formats, with one distributed to Contemporary Hit Radio (Top 40) stations and the other to Hot Adult Contemporary stations. However, there is no distinction made between the two shows on air. There are also two classic editions of the original "American Top 40" distributed every weekend, featuring past Kasem-hosted shows from the 1970s and 1980s.


title: American Top 40

text: In its early years, "American Top 40" used the "Billboard" charts to compile the countdown, touting it as "the only source". The program subsequently switched to being based on "Radio and Records" airplay data upon its late 1990s return, until R&R was folded into Billboard in 2009. The current source for the "American Top 40" charts are unpublished mainstream Top 40 and hot adult contemporary charts compiled by Mediabase.


title: American Top 40

text: In October 2021, the show stopped using the AT40 abbreviation and now uses its full name on air. Despite this, some affiliates still use the abbreviation when promoting the show.


title: American Top 40

text: "American Top 40" fittingly began on the Independence Day weekend in 1970, on seven radio stations, the first being KDEO in El Cajon, California (now KECR), which broadcast the inaugural show the evening of July 3, 1970. "Billboard" reported prior to the release of the show that it had been sold to stations in 10 radio markets.


title: American Top 40

text: The chart data broadcast actually included the top 40 songs from the week ending July 11, 1970. The first show featured the last time both Elvis Presley and The Beatles had songs simultaneously in the Top 10. It was originally distributed by Watermark Inc., and was first presented in mono until February 24, 1973, when the first stereo vinyl copies were distributed. In early 1982, Watermark was purchased by ABC Radio and "AT40" became a program of the "ABC Contemporary Radio Network". The program was hosted by Casey Kasem and co-created by Kasem; Don Bustany, Kasem's childhood friend from Detroit, MI; radio veteran Tom Rounds; and 93/KHJ Program Director Ron Jacobs, who produced and directed the various production elements. Rounds was also the marketing director; the initial funder was California strawberry grower Tom Driscoll.


title: American Top 40

text: The show began as a three-hour program written and directed by Bustany, counting down the top 40 songs on "Billboard"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Hot 100 Singles chart. The show quickly gained popularity once it was commissioned, and expanded to a four-hour-program on October 7, 1978, to reflect the increasing average length of singles on "Billboard"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Hot 100 chart. The producing staff expanded to eight people, some of them still in the business: Nikki Wine, Ben Marichal, Scott Paton, Matt Wilson, Merrill Shindler, Guy Aoki, Ronnie Allen, and Sandy Stert Benjamin. (Bustany retired from "AT40" in 1989; beginning in 1994, he hosted a political talk show on listener-sponsored KPFK.) By the early 1980s, the show could be heard on 520 stations in the United States and at its zenith, the show was broadcast on 1,000-plus stations in some 50 countries. In the 1980s, it aired in the United Kingdom on Signal Radio, DevonAir, Radio 210, County Sound, Chiltern Radio, Radio Tees and Saxon Radio and was also transmitted on Manx Radio. Kasem told the New York Times in 1990 "I accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. That is the timeless thing."


title: American Top 40

text: During Kasem's run as host, the "AT40" show had a number of popular and distinguishing features, some of which Kasem had done for some time at stations like KRLA in Los Angeles:


title: American Top 40

text: The top-ranking song on the chart always was introduced with one of these stories, which would be followed with a drum roll and the final reveal. Here is an example from the week of October 8, 1983:


title: American Top 40

text: In a 2007 Valentine's Day special edition of "American Top 10" (and explained earlier in Rob Durkee's book "American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century"), Kasem explained that the LDD feature was intended to be part of the show from the beginning. He knew, however, that it was going to take some time before a listener wrote in with a request and let the process proceed organically. Kasem's patience proved correct, as staffer Matt Wilson found such a letter while checking the show's mail in August 1978. The listener asked Kasem to play the song "Desiree" by Neil Diamond, which he dedicated to his girlfriend of the same name who was moving to West Germany to live with her family on an Army base. The request was fulfilled on the weekend of August 26, 1978; when that show was rebroadcast the weekend of August 25–26, 2007, Kasem recorded two optional segments (played at the discretion of the station) in which he did phone interviews with the man and his former girlfriend about the LDD. Most shows featured two long distance dedications, usually with one during each half of the show. (Sometimes, a song currently in the countdown was requested as a LDD; in such cases, Kasem would typically read the dedication first, and sometimes not even announce the song's chart status until after the song was played.) This feature endured on "AT40" into Shadoe Stevens' run as host of the show, from 1988 to 1995, and also followed Kasem on his Westwood One shows, first as "Request and Dedication", and then back to LDD when he returned to "AT40" in 1998. Long Distance Dedications were dropped after Ryan Seacrest became host in 2004, but they continued as part of Kasem's adult contemporary countdowns.


title: American Top 40

text: Although the show's format implied an average of ten countdown songs per hour (once the show had gone to a four-hour format), this was not rigidly enforced; however, by the mid-1980s, it had become increasingly rare for the final hour of the show to have any more than the top eleven or any fewer than the top nine songs left to play. The songs' run times determined how many would comfortably fit into each hour. The show bent to fit the "Billboard" rankings, and some songs had to be edited (in addition to whatever edits had been done for the single release), with a verse or chorus cut (usually for songs on their way out of the countdown), in order to fit into the show. But Kasem and his producers never lost sight of the stations carrying their show, and that the stories behind the songs were the chief reason that listeners tuned to "AT40".


title: American Top 40

text: In 1988, Kasem left the show over contract concerns with ABC and signed with Westwood One to host a competing weekly countdown. Industry trade paper "Billboard" magazine reported that the main disputes between Kasem and Watermark/ABC were over his salary (which Westwood One tripled upon his signing), because of declining ratings and a smaller group of stations airing the show. Casey's final "AT40" show, the 940th in the series, aired on August 6, 1988. At no point during that final show did Kasem ever let on that any changes were afoot. However, he closed the show by telling the audience to catch him on the television show "America's Top 10" and did not plug the following week's "AT40" (since December 19, 1987, he had always plugged both during his signoff). The #1 song during Casey's final show in the original "AT40" era was "Roll with It" by Steve Winwood. The Moody Blues were the only artist included in both Casey's first and last countdown of the original show.


title: American Top 40

text: Kasem was replaced by Shadoe Stevens, whose first "American Top 40" show aired on August 13, 1988, on 1,014 stations. To introduce Stevens to the audience, a two-minute cold open was recorded to start the show with Stevens making his way to the studio through the show's fictitious hall of history; Kasem was mentioned during the course of the open, as a "giant marble statue" of him helped guide Stevens to the studio. The change did not do much to stem the decline as loyal listeners did not take to Stevens as they had to Kasem.


title: American Top 40

text: Later, Stevens and "AT40" lost a significant number of affiliates when, on January 21, 1989, Kasem's Westwood One show launched. The program, titled "Casey's Top 40", used the weekly chart survey published by "Radio & Records" ("R&R", which is based on radio airplay) instead of the "Billboard Hot 100" chart "AT40" was still using (which at the time was based on record sales). Further complications arose when some stations that stayed with Stevens also added Kasem's new show.


title: American Top 40

text: In an attempt to win back an audience, "AT40" tried new features, including interview clips, music news, top 5 flashbacks, and previews of upcoming chart hits (called the ""AT40" Sneek Peek"). It also stopped using the Hot 100 chart, switching first to the Hot 100 Airplay chart and finally to the Mainstream Top 40 chart. Later still, the countdown would use what was called a "No Nuttin'" gimmick that drew criticism; at various points of the show, a song would start immediately after the jingle for its position on the chart was played and Stevens would not offer any commentary until it concluded.


title: American Top 40

text: ABC kept "American Top 40" in its syndication lineup despite the continued lack of improvement in ratings, but in 1994 the network finally decided to look elsewhere. ABC announced it would be acquiring the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40", which was using the same charts that "Casey's Top 40" was, and that they would no longer carry "American Top 40" as a result. The final "AT40" for ABC aired on July 9, 1994, five days after its twenty-fourth anniversary. Radio Express, founded by original show creator Tom Rounds, kept "AT40" in production following the move by ABC as the program was still carried in foreign markets. It was under Radio Express that the show finally came to an end nearly seven months later in the remaining markets that were carrying it, which by this point consisted entirely of overseas affiliates.


title: American Top 40

text: The very last original "AT40" aired on January 28, 1995, and it ended with an extended last segment. As usual, the No. 2 song on the chart led it off; that song was "Another Night" by Real McCoy, which had been the No. 1 song one week earlier. Stevens then took a moment to thank the listeners for their support over the previous twenty-four plus years and played one last Long Distance Dedication, sent by him to the fans. After going into depth about his potential choices, Stevens revealed his selection to be "(So Tired of Standing Still We Got to) Move On" by James Brown. Stevens then gave a rundown of how many songs had been played over the series' entire run to that point, with a final total of 552 chart toppers, including the one he was about to play as it returned to the top of the chart that week: "On Bended Knee" by Boyz II Men. As Stevens then read the credits and signed off for the final time, he played one final song. Perhaps appropriately, considering the circumstances, the song was "Happy Trails".


title: American Top 40

text: As fate would have it, a chain of events happening approximately three years after the original "American Top 40" came to an end would soon result in the return of the program to the airwaves with its original host at the helm.


title: American Top 40

text: When Casey Kasem left "AT40" to join Westwood One, part of his exit agreement with ABC Radio involved their continued use of the branding after Shadoe Stevens took over the show. The terms were as follows.


title: American Top 40

text: If ABC had, at any point in the future, cancelled "AT40" outright, they could hold onto the rights as long as:


title: American Top 40

text: In 1997, the agreement lapsed. Per the original terms of the arrangement, Kasem and Bustany's production company was to receive the rights to the branding. Although Bustany remained involved with "AT40" for a brief period after Stevens took over, he did not remain there for very long and, following his departure from the show, he chose not to have any further involvement with the production. This resulted in Kasem gathering sole possession of the branding.


title: American Top 40

text: As this was going on, Kasem was about to end his eighth full year working for Westwood One after having re-signed with the network in 1993. The relationship, however, had significantly deteriorated over the previous four years. Over the course of that period, Westwood One had been acquired by Infinity Broadcasting, which was later absorbed into CBS Radio. Kasem was not pleased by what he perceived to be missed opportunities for cross promotion with other CBS properties as well as being treated as a less important figure than some of the other hosts on the network. Westwood One, meanwhile, had a series of issues of their own with "Casey's Top 40"; while the show was still successful, it had been dropped in both New York and Los Angeles, and the advertising revenue generated by the show did not justify the salary demands Kasem was making. The network also did not want to use the "AT40" branding.


title: American Top 40

text: The sides eventually put aside their differences, with Westwood One deciding that losing Kasem to a competitor was not worth their trouble and Kasem signed on for one more year in December 1997. However, after the February 21, 1998, edition of his weekend countdowns, Kasem disappeared from the airwaves without notice and, unbeknownst to Westwood One, with no intention of returning to work.


title: American Top 40

text: Chancellor Media, the media company founded by Roy Masters, and Kasem began negotiations to relaunch "AT40" for its newly launched syndication service called AMFM Radio Networks. A deal was finalized shortly after Kasem's abrupt departure from Westwood One where Chancellor would become owners of the "AT40" franchise and Kasem would return to his creation as host. Westwood One was not happy with this development and filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Kasem, who claimed contractual vagueness gave him the right to seek employment elsewhere.


title: American Top 40

text: The revival of "AT40" premiered the weekend of March 28, 1998, one week after Westwood One finally cancelled the three countdowns Kasem was hosting for them after four weeks without him. Chancellor also brought Kasem's AC countdowns to their network, with both now being branded as "American Top 20" (see Spin-off programming below). Masters sold Chancellor/AMFM to Clear Channel Communications (the predecessor of what is now iHeartMedia) in 1999, at which point "AT40" and other syndicated shows from AMFM Radio Networks were transferred into Premiere Radio Networks, which continues to syndicate the show as of today.


title: American Top 40

text: The resurrected "American Top 40" kept the "Radio and Records" CHR/Pop chart previously used for "Casey's Top 40" and was used as the basis for the show for the majority of this period. The only exception was a brief period from October 2000 to August 2001 when an obscure Mediabase chart was used. This chart had a rather ambiguous recurrent rule, which would see songs removed weekly from the chart from as high as No. 10, while that chart also resulted in songs that charted/peaked lower than No. 40 on "Radio & Records" pop charts to appear on the "AT40" charts. By the time Kasem's last show aired, the show had gone back to using Mediabase's charts.


title: American Top 40

text: In December 2003, as part of a new deal with Premiere Radio Networks, Kasem announced that he would retire from hosting "American Top 40" so he could focus on his duties hosting Hot AC and AC versions of the show, "American Top 20." He also announced that the new host of "AT40" would be Ryan Seacrest, an afternoon DJ host from KYSR who was rapidly gaining stardom from his hosting of the successful music reality TV show. "American Idol".


title: American Top 40

text: Kasem's last show as host of "AT40" aired on the weekend of January 3/4, 2004. His final No. 1 was Outkast's "Hey Ya!", which hit the top of the chart on the weekend of December 13, 2003.


title: American Top 40

text: On January 10, 2004, American Idol host Ryan Seacrest took over the hosting duties of "American Top 40" from Kasem, although Kasem would continue to host "American Top 20" and "American Top 10" until his retirement in July 2009. With the host change, "AT40" underwent a makeover, using a new theme song and introducing several new features. These extras included interviews with celebrities (which were not restricted to musical or countdown artists), a gossip section, and an update on movies screening in cinemas. Other extras inducted on a regular basis include "AT40 Breakout", a song predicted to crack the chart within the next few weeks (formerly known as the "Out of The Box" hit); "AT40 On The Verge" (an expansion of the AT40 Breakout; formerly known as the "Subway Fresh Buzz Song"), songs that are close towards entering the chart, many of which holding the position for multiple weeks; "Request Line", a segment in which Ryan Seacrest will play a song requested by a listener; "Double Play", a former hit from the artist just played; "AT40 Sleaze" (inspired by the "Dees Sleaze" segment of the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40" radio show); and "AT40 Rewind", a hit song from the past decade or so. In between songs, Seacrest and his guest hosts often make deadpan one-liners while writers and producers can be heard laughing frequently, including the security guard "Roger". Additionally, Seacrest initially opened most shows by playing the previous week's No. 1 song, as Kasem often did in the 1980s; this was discontinued after 2006, but in mid-2009 Seacrest began including a shorter recap segment in the show's introduction, in which he would play brief segments of the previous week's top three hits. In December 2004, the Hot AC version of the show debuted, giving both Seacrest and Kasem competing countdowns in the same format until 2009.


title: American Top 40

text: The show also began using a new chart that used no recurrent rule. On the first show with Ryan Seacrest, this led to several older songs reappearing after having dropped off many weeks earlier. Over the long term, it meant songs could spend long runs for about a year on the chart even after they went to recurrent status on other published charts. "Here Without You" by 3 Doors Down set a longevity record in 2004 for the CHR show by lasting 50 weeks before finally falling off. In 2006, "Scars" by Papa Roach would go on to tie the record. In 2011, Taio Cruz set AT40's all time longevity record with his song "Dynamite". This hit remained on the chart for 72 weeks, from July 2010 to November 2011. On the Hot AC version of AT40, "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon set the all-time record in 2011 at 117 consecutive weeks. "American Top 40" also became more interactive, involving online song voting and e-mail. In December 2006, the series' website was revamped, and the online song voting was discontinued in favor of publishing the Hot AC chart. The website also includes a toll-free number where fans can make requests and "shoutouts", as they would to a local radio station, and by 2009 replayed clips of shoutouts became part of the show. Online song voting was later reinstated, with results of votes on American Top 40's website factored into the chart rankings. AT40 was also expanded to social media through Twitter and Facebook where listeners from around the world will request a song to be included in the AT40 Extra segment, as well as their own mobile application which is available for free download on the Apple AppStore for iOS devices and on Google Play for Android devices.


title: American Top 40

text: In March 2010, Premiere Radio Networks announced that "American Top 5," a condensed daily top-5 countdown, would begin airing as part of the daily radio program "On Air", also hosted by Seacrest.


title: American Top 40

text: In March 2016, the show underwent some minor changes. "Tell Me Something Good", a segment from Seacrest's weekday show "On Air", was added to "American Top 40". Additionally, any "extra" songs that aired during the show are announced by Seacrest before playing. The following month, the show resumed mentioning some of its affiliates around the world during the show.


title: American Top 40

text: When Seacrest was named the new co-host of "Live with Kelly" on May 1, 2017, he began to host the show from WHTZ in New York. Another studio near the "Live with Kelly" set was set up for "On Air". Various guest hosts, however, will continue to do hosting duties from its original Hollywood studios when Seacrest is not around.


title: American Top 40

text: In February 2018, the show introduced new jingles with new voiceover artists replacing Dave Foxx and Kelly Doherty, who departed iHeartMedia (Premiere's parent company) in January.


title: American Top 40

text: In March 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Seacrest started to host AT40 from his house; the show also included pre-recorded messages from artists thanking healthcare workers and encouraging listeners to stay home, practice social distancing, and to keep in touch with loved ones.


title: American Top 40

text: In August 2020, the show rebranded their logo for the 50th anniversary. It features lines similar to those on the edges of vinyl records. It was changed again in September 2021;


title: American Top 40

text: "American Top 40" has faced numerous competitors since its debut in 1970. These include "The Weekly Top 30 with Mark Elliott" (1979–1982); several Dick Clark-hosted shows starting in 1981 with the "National Music Survey" and "Countdown America", the latter of which was originally hosted by former R&R CHR editor John Leader and later by Clark; "Rockin' America Top 30 Countdown" with then Z100 Program Director and personality Scott Shannon; and the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40", which has run continuously since 1983 with Rick Dees as host. Numerous other shows following the same format, both in the general top-40 category and in various specific radio formats, have aired over the course of "AT40's" history as well. In addition to Dees' show, Mario Lopez, Carson Daly, and (in overseas via "World Chart Show") Mike Savage, all host competing countdown shows targeted at the pop top 40 market.


title: American Top 40

text: From December 2000 to December 2002, many radio stations aired reruns of 1980–88 episodes under the title "American Top 40 Flashback". The show was syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks. In its early weeks the shows were the original four-hour format of an "American Top 40" episode, but after the first month and a half the show was reduced to three hours. Although the national syndication of "American Top 40 Flashback" ceased in December 2002, radio station WMMX in Dayton, Ohio, continued to carry "American Top 40 Flashback" on Saturday mornings until the premiere of "Casey Kasem's American Top 40: The 80s".


title: American Top 40

text: On August 4, 2006, XM Satellite Radio began replays of the original 1970s and 1980s AT40 shows with Casey Kasem that were digitally remastered from the original vinyl LPs and open-reel master tapes by Shannon Lynn of Charis Music Group. The event began with a weekend long marathon of original shows, with AT40 then being added as a regular show on two of XM's Decades channels, "The 70s on 7" and "The 80s on 8". With the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, these AT40 shows began airing on both services on November 15, 2008. On the 70s on 7, it replaced the 'Satellite Survey', a Top 30 countdown of 1970s hits, produced by Sirius and hosted by Dave Hoeffel. On the 80s on 8, it replaced 'The Big 40' countdown produced by Sirius and hosted by Nina Blackwood. As of October 11, 2009, Sirius XM replaced the AT40 countdown on 80s on 8 and debuted a revised version of 'The Big 40' countdown now co-hosted by three of the five original MTV VJs: Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman and Alan Hunter (Martha Quinn was a fourth co-host from 2009 to 2015).


title: American Top 40

text: Sirius XM "70s on 7" currently runs AT40 each Saturday at 12 pm with encore broadcasts the following Sunday at 9 am and at 12 midnight (Eastern Time). Most show dates roughly correspond to the current week in real time. A random episode is also featured on J.J.Walker's show on "70s on 7" Thursdays at 9 pm ET. The mix of AT40 episodes being run on XM include the year-end countdowns, which are typically run in two parts: the first half (#100-#51) in one time slot, and then the second half (#50-#1) in the following time slot. The AT40 specials are also part of XM's rotation; for instance, "AT40 Goes to the Movies" aired prior to the 2007 Academy Awards, and on February 24, "The Top 40 Acts of the 80s So Far" aired on XM 80s the first week of July 2007. Also, "The Top 40 Songs of the Disco Era (1974–1979)" aired on Sirius XM "70s on 7" the second weekend of July 2011.


title: American Top 40

text: From October through early November 2006, oldies radio station KQQL in Minneapolis/St. Paul, which is owned by iHeartMedia, ran a series of American Top 40 episodes from the 1970s. Aside from one week, when the station attempted to air a four-hour episode from 1979 in the three-hour time slot (resulting in the show getting cut off at No. 11 and the top 10 not being heard), this test run was largely successful. Because of the success, Premiere Radio Networks decided to launch "Casey Kasem's American Top 40: The 1970s" into national syndication featuring the three-hour shows from 1970 to 1978, and the last three hours of shows originally aired from October 1978 through December 1979. (One original four-hour program, first aired in October 1978, was edited into a three-hour program for re-airing in 2007, and the four-hour "Disco Hits" special from July 1979 with the first hour optional was aired in 2008, but until the fall of 2010, no other program from the last 15 months of the 1970s was included in the "AT40: The 70s" package. Starting in late 2010, Premiere began airing three-hour versions of four-hour AT40s from 1978 to 1979, beginning the broadcasts at the start of the countdown's second hour; during the spring of 2012, Premiere began making the first hour of these programs "optional," meaning that stations can choose to air all four hours of the four-hour programs, or just the last three.) Starting in 2012, whenever programs from 1970 to 1972 were scheduled to air, Premiere began offering affiliates the option of airing a later 1970s program instead (typically, a corresponding year from seven years later, or 1977–1979).


title: American Top 40

text: The 1980s version premiered on April 8, 2007, replacing the "American Top 40 Flashback" reruns. The shows are available in either their full original four-hour format, or an abbreviated three-hour version that omits the first hour of the show. To date, the latest program to air as part of the "AT40: The 80s" package has been August 6, 1988 – Kasem's last show with the original program. Because the rights to Shadoe Stevens-era episodes were held by Cumulus Media, no programs from August 13, 1988, to 1995 have been re-aired as part of this or any similar block.


title: American Top 40

text: To date, the only re-aired classic AT40 programs that featured a host other than Kasem are the shows of March 25, 1972, with Dick Clark as host; September 12, 1981, with Gary Owens as host; and May 13, 1978, and July 17, 1982, both with Mark Elliott as host. All were aired as tributes after Clark's, Owens' and Elliott's deaths, respectively.


title: American Top 40

text: Newly produced extra segments hosted by voiceover talent Larry Morgan are available for use at stations' discretion. Prior to Casey leaving Premiere Radio, these segments were hosted by his son Mike; when the series first began, these segments were hosted by one of Casey's former guest hosts, Ed McMann. These extra segments are also heard on the 80s show. KQQL was the first to sign on, airing programs beginning on December 30, 2006. Typically, the "optional extras" were songs that had yet to enter the top 40 of the Hot 100. However, some songs never reached the top 40 but had since become popular at classic hits/oldies/classic rock stations or certain novelty songs that were popularized by certain media events like the "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger (recorded by Gary Burbank) and the Chicago Bears 1985–86 NFC win and the team itself recording a rap tune about going to the Super Bowl, while others were tributes to performers who had just died. For early 1970s programs, some of the "optional extras" were actually extras (i.e., "oldies") that were originally a part of the original program; in this case, Kasem's original commentary and introduction of the song were kept intact, in lieu of Morgan's voiceover.


title: American Top 40

text: In March 2008, XM Satellite Radio rebranded the XM broadcasts with the "Casey Kasem's American Top 40" name and logo used for terrestrial broadcasts, although XM still aired the commercial-free broadcasts, while Premiere Radio carries edited and recut broadcasts with commercials. Following the merger of Sirius and XM, the AT40 shows airing on those platforms have occasionally been edited. In some cases, extras and LDDs have been cut from the original broadcasts.


title: American Top 40

text: Sirius XM 70s on 7 aired the inaugural AT 40 (which originally aired July 4, 1970) on July 4, 2013, as part of a special July 4 broadcast.


title: American Top 40

text: As of 2017, "American Top 40: The 70s & 80s" are produced by Toby James Petty and engineered by Shannon Lynn, both of whom had been members of the current "AT40" production staff prior to Kasem's 2004 departure.


title: American Top 40

text: As of 2014, "American Top 40: The 70s" shows that were originally produced in mono are being converted to true stereo by Ken Martin, a program director and disk jockey for AT40 affiliate WTOJ in Carthage, New York. With some 1970s episodes featuring songs that were originally further edited by Watermark staff, Martin restored those songs to their original broadcast length; many of these extended editions were broadcast exclusively on Martin's station, WTOJ.


title: American Top 40

text: As of 2019, shows from the 1970s and 1980s are airing continually, without commercials, on the iHeartRadio station "Classic American Top 40". Most of iHeart's branded stations use an HD Radio subchannel in one of their markets to originate their app-only stations, and in this case, WMMX-HD2 in Dayton, Ohio, carries it over-the-air in that market.


title: American Top 40

text: As of April 2020, rebroadcast shows are currently aired on 200 radio stations in 7 countries and every U.S. state except Montana. Foreign rebroadcast shows are heard in four of the eastern provinces of Canada, as well as the American Forces Network, Australia, Bangalore, Berlin, Aruba, Hyderabad, Mozambique, and the United Kingdom.


title: American Top 40

text: AT40 used the top 40 songs from the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart from the show's inception in 1970 to November 23, 1991. The chart was widely regarded as the industry standard for tracking the popularity of singles, and was thus a natural choice to be used. Kasem would frequently announce during the show that Billboard was the only source for the countdown. While using these charts worked well for the first half of the 1970s, as music changed during the decade and disco became popular on the charts, some rock stations began to drop the show because of complaints from program directors that AT40 was playing too many songs not normally heard on their stations.


title: American Top 40

text: This gradually became a wide schism as rock splintered into several formats in the early 1980s. As a result, AT40's weekly playlist could be very diverse in the styles and formats of the songs played. Historians have noted that no one station actually played all of the songs on the "Billboard" Hot 100 list, because they represented overlapping formats, such as hard rock, mainstream rock, heavy metal, dance, new wave, punk, rap, pop, easy listening/adult contemporary and country. Stations tended to specialize in only one or two of these formats and completely ignore the others.


title: American Top 40

text: One solution for the AT40 producers was to air frequent specials (at least three or four times a year) that concentrated on the classic music of the past, such as "Rock in the Movies" and "Top Hits of the Seventies". But as Top 40 stations evolved into CHR, they began to avoid syndicated shows like AT40, preferring to stick with their own special niche formats.


title: American Top 40

text: By the early 1990s, many singles, mostly of the rap, heavy metal or grunge genres, reached the chart based on strong sales despite low airplay; several were very long, others were too controversial or risqué for mainstream airplay (for instance, the sexually explicit "Me So Horny" by 2 Live Crew made it to No. 26 on the Hot 100 in 1989). These songs would generally only be aired in brief snippets during the show.


title: American Top 40

text: Because of this, "American Top 40" switched to the Hot 100 Airplay chart (then known as the Top 40 Radio Monitor). These songs generally scored much higher radio airplay, and some were not even released as singles (such as "Steel Bars" by Michael Bolton). During this time, a few songs made very high debuts, including two that almost debuted in the No. 1 spot: "I'll Be There" by Mariah Carey, which entered at No. 4, and "Erotica" by Madonna, which entered at No. 2.


title: American Top 40

text: In January 1993, "American Top 40" switched charts again, this time to the "Billboard" Top 40 Mainstream chart. This chart had more mainstream hits but fewer urban, dance and rap songs.


title: American Top 40

text: AT40 did not always use the official year-end Billboard chart during the 25 years in which the show used Billboard charts. In 1972, 1973 and 1977, as well as 1980–1984 and 1990–1994, AT40 compiled its own year-end chart. These charts were often close to Billboard's, but AT40 would use a mid-December to early-December time period while Billboard's survey year varied from year to year. AT40 matched Billboard's No. 1 year-end song every year except 1977, 1984, 1990 and 1993.


title: American Top 40

text: With the show's revival in 1998, a new chart was implemented, the top 40 portion of "Radio and Records" CHR/Pop top 50 chart, which was already in use on "Casey's Top 40". This chart used a recurrent rule that removed songs below No. 25 that had exceeded 26 weeks in the top 50; these removals, if they occurred in the top 40, would be reflected on the appropriate week's program. In 1999, the rule was modified to further restrict long chart runs: songs falling below #20 with at least 20 weeks in the top 50 would now be removed.


title: American Top 40

text: On October 21, 2000, "American Top 40" began using an unpublished chart on a weekly basis for the first time in its history. The chart seemed to be a variant of the CHR/Pop chart provided by Mediabase, the data provider to "Radio & Records". The most noticeable feature of this new chart was its ambiguous recurrent rule. Songs would be removed regularly from within the top 15, seemingly regardless of the number of weeks they had spent on the chart. Additionally, the chart has resulted in songs that otherwise peaked at #41–50 on R&R's charts appearing on the "AT40" charts. This chart lasted until August 11, 2001, when AT40 returned to the "Radio & Records" pop chart. The return coincided with another modification in the recurrent rule; songs would be removed below No. 25 after three consecutive weeks without a bullet (an increase in radio plays). This change would be short-lived, as in November 2001, "Radio & Records" returned to the 20 weeks/below No. 20 rule, which remained in place for the remainder of Kasem's tenure.


title: American Top 40

text: When Casey Kasem joined what was then AMFM Radio Networks, he had been doing two weekly countdowns for adult contemporary formatted stations. Both of these shows would find a home with him at his new syndicator and were rebranded once he joined. Both shows took the name "American Top 20" ("AT20") and launched the same weekend as Kasem's new "AT40". He would concurrently host both shows with "AT40" until he handed the show over to Ryan Seacrest in January 2004, then continue as host of the AC countdowns until he retired in 2009. After Kasem retired, the Hot AC "American Top 20" and the Adult Contemporary "American Top 10" were discontinued.


title: American Top 40

text: In December 2004, Premiere Networks launched a version of Seacrest's "AT40" for the same hot adult contemporary stations that "AT20" had been targeting. Although such a move made "AT20" redundant, Premiere continued to offer Hot AC countdowns hosted by both Kasem ("AT20") and Seacrest ("AT40") from December 2004 thru July 2009.


title: American Top 40

text: From 1980 to 1992, a video version of the show entitled America's Top 10 was aired in syndication to television stations across the United States. Kasem hosted this version from 1980 to 1989. When Kasem left "American Top 40" in 1988, he remained as host of "America's Top 10" until the end of 1989, when he would be replaced by Siedah Garrett and later Tommy Puett. Kasem returned by 1991, and the show ran until 1992.


title: American Top 40

text: Based on the success of "American Top 40", Kasem and Don Bustany created a spinoff top 40 countdown for Watermark for Country Radio called "American Country Countdown", patterned after Kasem's program. "ACC" premiered in 1973, and was hosted by Don Bowman from its inception until April 1978. Bob Kingsley replaced Bowman and hosted until the end of 2005, after which Kix Brooks of the late country music duo Brooks & Dunn took over; Brooks has been hosting "ACC" since. Kingsley later moved to another program, "Country Top 40" (abbreviating, not coincidentally, as "CT40"), which follows the same format as "AT40" and "ACC"; Kingsley died on Thursday, October 17, 2019. Both "ACC" and "CT40" remain on the air: "ACC" on Westwood One and "CT40", now hosted by Fitz, syndicated by Hubbard Broadcasting.


title: American Top 40

text: After Kasem left ABC, the network launched "American Gold", a spinoff oldies countdown (featuring far fewer songs, and often focusing on a particular artist) hosted by Dick Bartley. American Gold's last show aired at the end of March 2009, replaced with another show hosted by Bartley for United Stations Radio Networks, "Classic Countdown".


title: American Top 40

text: The American Top 40 format was adapted in an Australian show titled "Take 40 Australia", similarly counting down the top 40 songs in the country.


title: American Top 40

text: Casey Kasem and Watermark's policy regarding putting "American Top 40" together was to always play the forty most popular songs in the United States and never to ban a record from the countdown. However, whenever songs with potentially offensive lyrical content made the top 40, Watermark would send out memos to affiliated stations alerting them of the presence of that song in the countdown and sometimes provide stations with suggestions on how to edit the song out of their "AT40" broadcasts.


title: American Top 40

text: When the show became part of Premiere Networks since 1998, a few stations airing "AT40" (especially in most countries around the world) were opted to either change versions of each songs or skipped some portions of the show for various reasons.


title: American Top 40

text: The first song to receive this advisory was in April and May 1971, with a spoken word piece, "The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley", by Terry Nelson and C-Company. Some better-known songs which received this treatment included "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon, "Roxanne" by The Police, "Ain't Love a Bitch" by Rod Stewart, and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meat Loaf.


title: American Top 40

text: Perhaps the most infamous of these songs was Chuck Berry's number-one hit "My Ding-a-Ling", which put some stations in the odd position of having to air "AT40" without playing the number one song; at least one station, KELI in Tulsa, Oklahoma, censored out the song at its No. 1 position, replacing it with a message from station management, explaining why they chose to censor the program. The censorship of this song continued even into the twenty-first century; some stations, such as WOGL in Philadelphia, replaced this song with an optional extra when it aired a rerun of the November 18, 1972, broadcast (where it ranked at #14) on December 6, 2008.


title: American Top 40

text: In the summer of 1977, radio station KRNQ in Des Moines, Iowa, edited out "The Killing of Georgie" by Rod Stewart, because of the subject matter of a homosexual being murdered; that song peaked at No. 30 on the countdown.


title: American Top 40

text: In 1978, when Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young" (wherein Joel urged pre-marital sex by a teen Catholic girl, Virginia) was on the charts, AT40 had placed warnings in shipments to warn affiliates in highly Catholic populated areas along with a special break in the countdown for stations to substitute another song in its place. The affiliates usually used the suggestion, though some did not and no major complaints were ever heard. (Many of these memos have been reprinted in Pete Battistini's book, "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem: The 1970s".)


title: American Top 40

text: In situations where a charting song contained offensive language and the record company was unable to provide AT40 with a clean edit of the song, the producers would often make an edit themselves. Such was a case with Bob Dylan's Top 40 single, "George Jackson", which peaked at #33 in January 1972 and appeared for two weeks on AT40. The offensive lyric in the song was, "He wouldn't take shit from no one." To rectify the problem, AT40 engineer Bill Hergonson edited the lyric, which was now heard as "He wouldn't take "it" from no one." A similar situation occurred again in July 1975, when The Isley Brothers' "Fight the Power" was in the Top 40, but in this case, the substitute version provided by the group's label was unsuitable, resorting to the engineer to substitute grunts and extra drum beats over the offending parts of the original record. However, this was not before AT40 erroneously played the uncensored version (with the lyric "...by all this bullshit goin' down") the first two weeks on the chart, on the July 12 and 19, 1975 editions.


title: American Top 40

text: Songs with offensive words in their titles were often censored for radio airplay, and is reflected in their inclusion on AT40. In 2011, three such songs made it to the #1 position on AT40: "Fuck You" by CeeLo Green (changed to "Forget You"), "Fuckin' Perfect" by Pink (changed to "Perfect"), and "Tonight (I'm Fuckin' You)" by Enrique Iglesias (changed to "Tonight (I'm Lovin' You)"). Other notable songs included "Niggas in Paris" by Jay-Z & Kanye West (becoming "In Paris", peaking at #5), "Ass Back Home" by Gym Class Heroes (became "Get Yourself Back Home", peaking at #12), "I Don't Fuck With You" by Big Sean featuring E-40 (became "I Don't Mess With You," peaking at #34), "Fuck U Betta" by Neon Hitch (becoming "Love U Betta" and peaking at #29; this song was also first played in Subway's "Fresh Buzz Song of the Week"), and Bella Poarch's "Build a Bitch" (became "Build a B", peaking at #27).


title: American Top 40

text: In 2000, "Sexual (Li Da Di)" by Amber and "The Bad Touch" by Bloodhound Gang debuted on AT40 without any censorship despite both songs' context referring to sexual activity. The songs peaked at No. 25 and No. 21 respectively. That same year, the show also used a slightly suggestive version of soulDecision's "Faded" (which peaked at #6), despite a more radio-friendly version of the song being available.


title: American Top 40

text: In 2015, The Chainsmokers's "Roses" (feat. ROZES), Travis Scott's "Antidote", Halsey's "New Americana", and Alessia Cara's "Here" had been edited by censoring one of their chorus in the lyrics dealt with prohibited drugs. In 2018, Khalid's "Young Dumb & Broke" was similarly censored, with the lyric "I'm so high at the moment" being completely edited out of the song because of references to drugs. However, on some versions of the show, the lyric was not censored.