"Dear Casey..."

“Here we go with the Top 40 hits of the nation this week on American Top 40…”

If I recall correctly, it was during our first year in High School when a group of classmates – Regan Bernabe, Nelson Juinio, Boyd Monje, Jonathan de Veas, and yours truly – first stumbled into this radio show being aired on 99.5RT FM, The Rhythm of the City. Manny Santana, whom we then referred to as “Australian Kid” later joined our group during our fourth year in High School. Hosted by Casey Kasem, the show was aired every Sunday from 2pm to 6pm, and played the top 40 songs on Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100 singles chart for that week - from 40 to 1. If you know your division, it’s about 10 songs per hour with additional portions for long-distance dedication and music trivia (speaking of trivia, Careless Whisper by Wham! was the number 1 song that time we first listened to the countdown).

“Now on with the countdown…”

Almost every Sunday, we would meet at my house in P.Burgos Street, armed with our big composition notebooks (which most of you have probably seen at one time or another) and pens, to listen to each week’s countdown. I would turn up the silver cassette radio my father had sent me from the US – which had proved to be a very vital member of our AT40 family. At one time, when I had mistakenly plugged in the poor radio into the wrong electrical outlet, I had to cry for help from my mother’s friends in Bagong Katipunan to help save the burnt out radio – I was so thankful when they were able to fix it! We would all go to my room and listen to the radio for the whole duration of the show, chat about goings-on at school, compare notes, and do our homework. Most of the time, my mother would also prepare us snacks or order one of us to stop by the bakery so we can get some pastries to eat. During the few times that we were unable to meet at my place to listen to AT40, at least one of us would be tasked to listen to the countdown – sometimes I would listen to the first hour, then Regan would listen to the second hour, then Nelson would listen to the third hour, and so on. Ultimately, we also discovered that Odyssey Records posted the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart on one of their walls and we would flock in front of the list to our hearts’ content. That following Monday, we would all exchange notes so we would have a complete top 40 countdown in our notebooks. The notebooks had become a reference material not only for us, but to most of our classmates, when it came to music. We would get asked a lot of questions about what song dropped off from the countdown, which songs made it to the top 10, and why some songs we listen to that were very popular at that time never made it to the countdown (as Casey would often say, “AT40 originates in Hollywood”). It was the last question that even prompted us to do our own countdowns; suddenly it was countdown fever in PCC High! I think I kept myself in control (and I’ve got lots of it! Sorry I had the urge to put that in somewhere Ms. Jackson) amid the pressure I felt during high school through those countdowns. I made countdowns of my own top 40 – so that songs that never made it to the AT40 countdown such as (Feels Like) Heaven, Blue Monday, Body Dancer, 628, A Smile in Your Heart, and the eternal Bituing Walang Ningning would all have their chance at being the “number 1 song in the country” – or at least in my book. It didn’t stop there, I found myself conducting surveys of all our classmates to find out the top 10 most handsome, most popular, and nicest classmates – and then count them down. At one of our class Christmas parties, we even had our own top 10 countdown of the songs we liked – Wishful Thinking beat Tenderness for the number 1 spot on that fateful day (I think I even sang It's A Miracle, too).

“Before we reveal the number one song on AT40, let’s check out the other number ones on other charts…”

Fourth year High School – Jonathan Manalad was #1 in our Student Council chart. Manny Santana was #1 in our Crusader Editor chart. Irving Raymundo was #1 in our Spelling Bee chart. Ferdinand Evangelista was #1 in our Academic chart. And holding on to #1 for the sixteenth (or seventeenth to some) consecutive year (insert drum roll here) – each one of us in the eyes of our family and friends! My last day in high school felt like the numerous Sundays when the pendulum clock at our house stroke six o’clock in the evening, when the number one song is revealed. Regan, Nelson, Boyd, Manny, Jonathan would gather all their belongings and head home and bid farewell to me as I looked out by the gate, our house dog Tutu barking his goodbyes, until I could hardly see them from the distance. In June of 1988, I migrated to San Francisco, California. My grandmother kept my silver cassette radio until it finally puffed its last breath of melody. Manny, the Australian Kid, returned to the Land Down Under to go to college and live there permanently. Regan, Nelson, Boyd, and Jonathan remained close even after high school. While miles apart, we continued to listen to AT40 and wrote each other – making sure we had a listing of the latest top 40 songs enclosed in our letters to each other. Regan would even write to Manny and include the AT20 listing he had cut out of the current TEMPO he got from the Sari-Sari store next to their multi-story house in Pinagbuhatan. As the years went on, the Internet technology caught up with snail mail (and maybe to some of us technologically-challenged). Billboard Magazine started hosting its own website listing the Hot 100 Singles chart, along with its other charts for quicker access, and all of us kept in touch via emails throughout the day. Just like old days, we would chat about goings-on in our lives, movies, music, and once in a while one of us would mention quotes from those memorable days in High School. Right now, as I imagine our old pendulum clock striking six o’clock, I smile and recall Casey Kasem saying…

“Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars!”

By B Espiritu