In the Eighties, Top 40 evolved into 'Contemporary Hit Radio,' or CHR.

Top 40 AM stations began their gradual slide when listeners abandoned the AM band for the sonic clarity of FM stereo. In Austin, Wendell Mayes' KNOW was the prime Top 40 player at 1490 on the AM dial. McLendon's KILT in Houston and KTSA in San Antonio had similar success in their respective markets. 1 station in Dallas from the mid-Fifties through the early Seventies, a period generally thought of as the 'Golden Age' of Top 40. McLendon gradually homed in on a listener-driven music policy - as opposed to just letting deejays pick records - and assembled a stellar lineup of on-air talent, including Art Nelson, Don Keyes, Jimmy Rabbitt, and Russ 'Weird Beard' Knight. Dallas-based PAMS Productions was the nation's leading maker of station ID jingles, and when programmers from around the country visited Dallas to work with PAMS, they heard KLIF and took notes. McLendon dubbed KLIF 'America's Most Imitated Radio Station,' and there was definitely some truth to the claim. Although Omaha programmer Todd Storz is generally credited with actually codifying the Top 40 format based on his study of jukebox play patterns, Gordon McLendon's KLIF in Dallas was one of the format's earliest adapters and most influential adherents. In 1955, Chuck Dunaway and Kent Burkhart initiated what's thought to be the very first radio station music survey at KXOL in Fort Worth. Top 40 radio and Texas go way back together.

Nash from the geto boys