American Country Countdown

Country music fan?

With the help of collectors literally all over the world, we have been able to research several rare, hard to find broadcasts of American Country Countdown or ACC. Several lost documents and station memos from 1973 & 1974 along with information about all Year-End specials from 1973 through 1990 continue to be found.  There’s a treasure of information still out there.

If you have any cue sheets, station memos, mailers or any other materials relating to this show, we want to hear from you. It’s been very exciting news to find these lost radio broadcasts, so any help in preserving this history is appreciated.

If you have any questions about this show, feel free to contact us.

The history of the show was based on the success of American Top 40, Casey Kasem and Don Bustany, together with Tom Rounds of Watermark, created a country version of the top 40 program called American Country Countdown. The weekly, three-hour program premiered the weekend of October 6, 1973; was produced by Bustany; and hosted by Don Bowman. The Billboard Hot Country Singles chart was the official chart for this show until August 2009, when ACC began using the Mediabase country chart as its source.

In 1974, Bustany tapped Bob Kingsley, who had been program director at country station KLAC-Los Angeles, to be ACC’s producer.  On May 6, 1978, Kingsley replaced Bowman and hosted the program until December 2005, when Kingsley started Bob Kingsley’s Country Top 40.

Meanwhile, ACC continued to air with Kix Brooks of the duo Brooks & Dunn as the show’s host.

Sample cue sheets from March 2, 1974

For a complete set of 1974, we are looking to locate these dates:

January 5

February 9

February 16

April 20

September 21

September 28

Great progress on this year and collection.  Need help either way, just let us know.