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Watermark Inc. was a radio syndication company that was founded in 1969 by Tom Rounds and Ron Jacobs. Watermark's best known programs were American Top 40 and its spinoff American Country Countdown . Both shows were created by Casey Kasem and Don Bustany.
Watermark also syndicated other shows including The Robert W. Morgan Special of the Week, Alien Worlds , Soundtrack of the 60's (hosted by "Murray the K" from 1980 to 1981 and Gary Owens to series end), TV Tonite with Ron Hendren , Profiles in Rock (hosted by Terry McGovern), Ringo's Yellow Submarine, and The Elvis Presley Story, as well as occasional specials. The company also produced the "Cruisin'" series of albums, recreating top 40 disk jockey shows of the 1950s and 1960s and released on Increase Records (which at the time was a unit of Watermark), and Jack S. Margolis' comedy album, A Child's Garden of Grass, for Elektra Records.
In 1982 Watermark was bought by ABC Radio Networks in order to acquire its flagship shows AT40 and ACC. Watermark became a subdivision of ABC Radio and would continue to exist until 1995 when the original AT40 program ceased production. The last new Watermark program, American Gold , debuted in 1991 with Dick Bartley as host. American Gold ended its run in March 2009, when Bartley left ABC (by this time being dissolved into Citadel Media).
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Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem was an American disc jockey, radio personality, and voice actor, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably American Top 40. He was the first actor to voice Norville "Shaggy" Rogers in the Scooby-Doo franchise.
Westwood One was an American radio network that was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, and was later purchased by the private equity firm, The Gores Group. Due to purchases, mergers and other forms of consolidation in the 1980s and 1990s, at one time or another, it had ownership stakes in or syndication rights to some of the most famous brands in network radio, including CBS, NBC, Mutual, CNN, Fox, and Unistar. The company was one of the largest producers and distributors of radio programming in the United States. It broadcast entertainment, news, weather, sports, talk, and traffic programming to about 7,700 radio stations across the United States. The company was the top provider of local traffic reports in the US through its subsidiaries, Metro Networks, Shadow Broadcast Services, SmartRoute Systems, and Sigalert.com. Westwood One also offers weather services; originally using Accuweather, Westwood switched to The Weather Channel in 2009.
American Top 40 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.
Premiere Networks is an American radio network. It is the largest syndication company in the United States. Founded independently in 1987, it is now a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia and is headed by Julie Talbott, who serves as president.
Solid Gold is an American syndicated music television series that debuted on September 13, 1980 and ran until July 23, 1988. The program was a production of Brad Lachman Productions in association with Operation Prime Time and Paramount Domestic Television.
Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which was broken up in 2007; Cumulus owned the portion of the network that was purchased by Citadel Broadcasting that year.
American Country Countdown, also known as ACC, is a weekly internationally syndicated radio program which counts down the top 40 country songs of the previous week, from No. 40 to No. 1, according to the Billboard Country Airplay chart. The program premiered in 1973 and as of January 2006 is hosted by Kix Brooks.
Radio & Records (R&R) was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister trade to Billboard, until its final issue in 2009.
Dick Bartley's Classic Hits is a syndicated weekly, four-hour, classic hits program written, produced and hosted by Radio Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Dick Bartley. It is syndicated across the country by United Stations Radio Networks and internationally via Radio Express.
Casey's Top 40 was a syndicated radio music program that was distributed by the Westwood One radio network. The show was a vehicle for former American Top 40 host and co-creator Casey Kasem and ran for over nine years. Like Kasem's prior show, Casey's Top 40 aired on weekends, emanated from Hollywood, California, and was a countdown of the 40 biggest hits of the week on the popular music chart.
Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 is an internationally syndicated radio program created and hosted by American radio personality Rick Dees. It is currently heard on over 200 radio stations worldwide. It is distributed domestically by Compass Media Networks and internationally by Radio Express. It is also heard on Dees's official website for listeners in the United States only.
American Top 20 was the name given to two weekly spinoffs of the music countdown program American Top 40. They were both hosted by Casey Kasem for Premiere Networks and premiered on the weekend of March 28, 1998, the same weekend Kasem returned to host American Top 40.
America's Top 10 was a popular weekly syndicated music television chart show that began airing in 1980 and ran until 1992.
The year 1970 in radio saw the debut of a nationally syndicated music countdown show and the incorporation of NPR.
The year 1982 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting history.
WQMA was a broadcast radio station licensed to Marks, Mississippi. The station was owned by Jason Konarz with an oldies format on 1520 kHz. Its F.C.C. license was cancelled May 31, 2006. WQMA had operated under Special Temporary Authority from the F.C.C., but it was denied August 20, 2010. The station exhausted its appeal options, and its application for license renewal was dismissed by the FCC on May 20, 2015.
"Shuckatoom" is theme music written by James R. Kirk for Casey Kasem's weekly radio program, American Top 40.
Leland (Lee) Hansen, is an American radio personality and voice actor best known for creating the popular Alien Worlds radio drama in the late 1970s.
Tom Rounds was an American radio broadcasting executive, founder and chief executive officer of Radio Express in Burbank, California.
ABC Watermark was a radio syndication entity that existed from 1982 until 1995.