Casey Kasem, the internationally famous radio host and voice talent for several cartoon shows, notably Transformers and Scooby-Doo, died Sunday, 82. Kasem had a cheerful manner and gentle voice and became the king of the top 40 countdown with a syndicated show that ran for decades. A statement issued by the Kasem family said Kasem died at 3:23 a.m. Sunday, on Father’s Day, surrounded by family and friends at a Washington state hospital.
Kasem’s “American Top 40″ began on July 4, 1970, in Los Angeles. In his signoff, he would tell viewers: “And don’t forget: keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”
Kasem’s voice had entertained and informed music lovers worldwide and kept many listeners entertained on Sunday drives. After its debut, Kasem’s “American Top 40″ expanded to hundreds of stations, including Armed Forces Radio, and continued in varying forms—and for varying syndicators—into the 21st century. He stepped down from “American Top 40″ in 2004 and retired altogether in 2009, completing his musical journey with Shinedown’s “Second Chance.”
While many DJs convulsed their listeners with stunts and “morning zoo” snarkiness, Kasem would read “long distance dedications” of songs sent in by readers and introduce countdown records with sympathetic background anecdotes about the singers.
“The idea from the beginning was to do the type of thing on radio that Ed Sullivan did on television, good, honest stories with human interest,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1975.
Scooby-Doo
Kasem’s legacy reached well beyond music. His voice was heard in TV cartoons such as “Scooby-Doo” (he was Shaggy) and in numerous commercials.
In the “Transformers” movie and TV series, Kasem provided the voice for Cliffjumper, as well as Bluestreak and Teletraan I. He also voiced Robin in “Superfriends,” Alexander Cabot II in “Josie and the Pussycats,” Mark in the US version of Gatchaman “Battle of the Planets,” and various characters on Sesame Street.
“They are going to be playing Shaggy and Scooby-Doo for eons and eons,” Kasem told The New York Times in 2004. “And they’re going to forget Casey Kasem—unless they happen to step on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I’ll be one of those guys people say ‘Who’s that?’ about. And someone else will say, ‘He’s just some guy who used to be on the radio.’”
The son of Lebanese immigrants, Kasem was active in speaking out for greater understanding of Arab-Americans—both on political issues involving the Mideast and on arts and media issues.
“Arab-Americans are coming out of the closet,” Kasem told The Associated Press in 1990. “They are more outspoken now than ever before. People are beginning to realize who they really are, that they are not the people who yell and scream on their nightly newscast.”
Kasem was born Kemal Amin Kasem in 1932 in Detroit. He began his broadcasting career in the radio club at Detroit’s Northwestern High School and was soon a disc jockey on WJBK radio in Detroit, initially calling himself Kemal Kasem.
In a 1997 visit with high school students in Dearborn, Michigan, home to a large Arab-American community, he was asked why he changed his name to Casey.
“It didn’t sound like a deejay; it wasn’t hip. So we decided I’d be ‘Casey at the Mike’—and I have been since,” Kasem said.
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