The center of a family feud and a media circus in his final days, the veteran radio and TV personality died today at 82. Beginning as a child actor in his native Detroit on "The Lone Ranger" and "The Green Hornet," Mr. Kasem became a DJ as radio changed, being more of a wacky type early until one of his bosses suggested that instead he "talk about the artists and their music, like Martin Block (the New Yorker who was arguably the first radio DJ)." Luckily, Mr. Kasem found a book about pop music artists in the station trash can and developed the "teaser bio" style that took him eventually to KRLA in LA and to inventing with Tom Rounds and producer Don Bustany "American Top 40," that weekend radio institution. Mr. Kasem hosted the show for its first 18 years, moved from ABC (who had acquired original syndicator Watermark) to Westwood One for the similar "Casey's Top 40" and then in 1998 bought back the rights to the title along with Chancellor Media (who would be acquired by Clear Channel) and returned to the show until 2003, when he handed the Billboard charts over to Ryan Seacrest (although he continued to host the spinoff versions for adult contemporary formats until 2009). In addition, he did a spinoff TV show called "America's Top 10" (that Brits know him better for thanks to its regular appearance on the overnight schedules of ITV when that network went 24/7 in the mid-80s), many, many commercials, was NBC's primary promo voice for some years in the 80s, played one of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Players doing "The War of the Worlds" in the TV film "The Night That Panicked America" and lots of cartoon voices, notably Shaggy on "Scooby-Doo":
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-casey-kasem-dead-20140615,0,21710.story And may Mr. Kasem's soul keep its feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
