Casey Kasem

Kemal Amin Kasem was born on April 27, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan, to Lebanese Druze immigrants Helen and Amin Kasem, who were grocers. He was named after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, whom his father respected. Kasem's parents did not allow their children to speak Arabic and insisted that they assimilate into American life. He received his first experience in radio covering sports at Northwestern High School in Detroit. In 1952, he was drafted into the Army and sent to Korea where he worked as a disc jockey and announcer on the American Forces Korea Network (AFKN). ==Career==

Early career After the war, Kasem began his professional broadcasting career in Flint, Michigan, then worked at Detroit's WJLB and WJBK—and portrayed children's television host "Krogo the Clown"—but left broadcasting to help tend to the family grocery store in Fenton, Michigan. Kasem unsuccessfully attempted work as a stage actor in New York City for six months, auditioning for a role in the off-Broadway production Ivan Of, but lost out to Ed Asner. Returning to Detroit, Kasem re-applied at WJBK but was promptly referred to co-owned WJW, which not only had a late-evening slot open but a hosting role for Cleveland Bandstand over WJW-TV as well. Cleveland's emerging status as a popular music epicenter appealed to Kasem, having been aware of WERE's Bill Randle dating back to when Randle worked in Detroit. Kasem identified himself as "Casey at the Mike" owing to varied misspellings of his name in both contemporary news accounts and station promos. Kasem's tenure in Cleveland was a brief but successful one, entering the market "with a vengeance" against Top 40 stations WHK and KYW. Within three months, Kasem reached second place behind WHK in ratings surveys on weeknights and number one on Saturday nights. Kasem's predecessor in the time slot, Pete "Mad Daddy" Myers, partially inspired Kasem's presentation on-air, but Kasem felt compelled to develop a unique on-air persona to distinguish himself. The first three hours of his evening show remained devoted to R&B recordings in a "high-energy rock" style, while the fourth hour was more laidback with his news reader as a co-host. The R&B selections and "wild-tracking" by Kasem also distinguished himself from WJW's daytime pop-oriented fare, which typically featured Perry Como and The McGuire Sisters as core artists. Nightly features included Kasem labeling songs as "...of the night", with random phrases or names as a descriptor. After the payola scandal broke out and enveloped Alan Freed's career, Kasem began a regular comedy bit called the "Payola Tune of the Night," which WJW management encouraged under the assumption it would dissuade listeners from thinking he was under investigation as well. Ultimately, Kasem's career was not negatively impacted by the payola scandal. One notable stunt involved Kasem and Diana Trask engaging in an 85-second-long kiss for a "world record" distinction on September 14, 1959, with a news reader describing the kiss on-air. While hosting Cleveland Bandstand, Kasem started to take pep pills to lose weight; one day, he forgot them when he went to the station, and the pang of conscience he experienced upon returning for them to his apartment prompted him to give up the habit. After WJW switched formats to beautiful music, which Kasem attributed directly to the payola scandal, he left WJW for Buffalo's WBNY but remained in contact with friends in the Cleveland area. At KYA in San Francisco, the general manager suggested he tone down his delivery and talk about the records instead. At KEWB in Oakland, California, Kasem was both the music director and an on-air personality. He created a show that mixed biographical tidbits about the artists he played, and attracted the attention of Bill Gavin, who tried to recruit him as a partner. After Kasem joined KRLA in Los Angeles in 1963, his career began to blossom and he championed the R&B music of East L.A. Kasem acted in a number of low-budget movies and radio dramas. At the end of the 1960s, he began working as a voice actor. In 1969, he started one of his most famous roles, the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. At the time, top 40 radio was on the decline as DJs preferred to play album-oriented progressive rock. The show debuted on seven stations but soon went nationwide. In 1971, Kasem provided the character voice of Peter Cottontail in the Rankin/Bass production of Here Comes Peter Cottontail. He also voiced Alexander Cabot III on Josie and the Pussycats and Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, and supplied a number of voices for Sesame Street. There were only five award shows. The final show aired in 1987. 1988–1998: ''Casey's Top 40'' In 1988, Kasem left American Top 40 because of a contract dispute with ABC Radio Network. He signed a five-year, $15 million contract with Westwood One and started ''Casey's Top 40, which used a different chart, the Radio & Records Contemporary (CHR)/Pop radio airplay chart (also employed contemporaneously by Rick Dees Weekly Top 40). He also made cameo appearances on Saved by the Bell and ALF in the 1990s. In 1997, after voicing Shaggy Rogers on an episode of Johnny Bravo'', Kasem quit his role in a dispute over a Burger King commercial, with Billy West and Scott Innes taking over the character in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At the end of 2003, Kasem announced he would leave AT40 once his contract expired and would be replaced by Ryan Seacrest. In 2008, Kasem did the voice-over for WGN America's Out of Sight Retro Night. Kasem, by this point at age 77, decided against finding another syndicator or replacement host, citing a desire to explore other avenues such as writing a memoir. He sent a press release announcing he would retire from radio on the July 4 weekend, the 39th anniversary of the first countdown show. Kasem also performed TV commercial voice-overs throughout his career, appearing in more than 100 commercials. He did voice Shaggy again for "The Official BBC Children in Need Medley", but went uncredited by his request. Although officially retired from acting, Kasem provided the voice of Colton Rogers, Shaggy's father, on a recurring basis for the 2010–2013 series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, once again uncredited at his request. As for Kasem's distinctive voice quality, "It's a natural quality of huskiness in the midrange of my voice that I call 'garbage,'" he stated to The New York Times. "It's not a clear-toned announcer's voice. It's more like the voice of the guy next door." ==Personal life==

Kasem was a dedicated vegan, supported animal rights and environmental causes, and was a critic of factory farming. He initially quit voicing Shaggy in the mid to late 1990s when asked to voice Shaggy in a Burger King commercial, but returned in 2002 after negotiating to have Shaggy become a vegetarian once again. an interest triggered by the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He wrote a brochure, "Arab-Americans: Making a Difference", published by the Arab American Institute. He called for a more fair depiction of heroes and villains on behalf of all cultures in Disney's 1994 sequel to Aladdin called The Return of Jafar. Kasem campaigned against the Gulf War, advocating non-military means of pressuring Saddam Hussein into withdrawing from Kuwait, and arranged conflict-resolution workshops for Arab Americans and Jewish Americans. A political liberal, Kasem narrated a campaign ad for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, hosted fundraisers for Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988, Kasem supported a number of other progressive causes, including affordable housing and the rights of the homeless. Kasem was married to Linda Myers from 1972 to 1979. They had three children: Mike, Julie and Kerri Kasem. at the 1993 Emmy Awards Kasem was married to actress Jean Thompson from 1980 until his death in 2014. They had one child, Liberty Jean Kasem. In 2013, Kasem and his wife put the home on the market for US$43 million. ==Illness and death==

In October 2013, Kerri Kasem announced her father had Parkinson's disease, diagnosed in 2007. However, a few months later, she said he had Lewy body dementia, which is hard to differentiate from Parkinson's. His condition left him unable to speak during his final months. The older Kasem children sought conservatorship over their father's care. The court denied their petition in November. Jean removed Kasem from his Santa Monica, California, nursing home on May 7, 2014. On May 12, 2014, Kerri Kasem was granted temporary conservatorship over her father, despite her stepmother's objection. The court ordered an investigation into Casey Kasem's whereabouts after his wife's attorney told the court that Casey was "no longer in the United States". He was found soon afterward in Washington state. On June 6, 2014, Kasem was reported to be in critical but stable condition in hospital in Washington state, receiving antibiotics for bedsores and treatment for high blood pressure. It was revealed he had been bedridden for some time. A judge ordered separate visitation times for Kasem's wife and his children from his first marriage. Judge Daniel S. Murphy ruled that Kasem had to be hydrated, fed, and medicated, as a court-appointed lawyer reported on his health status. Jean Kasem claimed he had been given no food, water, or medication the previous weekend. Kerri Kasem's lawyer stated that she had him removed from artificial food and water on the orders of a doctor, and in accordance with a directive her father signed in 2007 saying he would not want to be kept alive if it "would result in a mere biological existence, devoid of cognitive function, with no reasonable hope for normal functioning." On June 15, 2014, Kasem died at St. Anthony's Hospital in Gig Harbor, Washington, at the age of 82. The immediate cause of death was reported as sepsis caused by an ulcerated bedsore. His body was handed over to his widow. Reportedly, Kasem wanted to be buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. By July 19, 2014, a judge had granted Kerri Kasem a temporary restraining order to prevent Jean Kasem from cremating the body in order to allow an autopsy to be performed. However, when Kerri Kasem went to give a copy of the order to the funeral home, she was informed that the body had been moved at the direction of Jean Kasem. Kasem's wife had the body moved to a funeral home in Montreal on July 14, 2014. Jean Kasem had him interred at Oslo Western Civil Cemetery on December 16, 2014, more than six months after his death. In November 2015, three of Kasem's children and his brother sued his widow for wrongful death. The lawsuit charged Jean Kasem with elder abuse and inflicting emotional distress on the children by restricting access before his death. A 2018 police investigation initiated by a private investigator working for Jean found that he had received appropriate medical care while in Washington, and that there was no evidence pointing to homicide. The suits were settled in 2019. ==Honors==

In 1981, Kasem was granted a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame radio division in 1985, and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1992. Five years later, he received the Radio Hall of Fame's first Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2003, Kasem was given the Radio Icon award at the Radio Music Awards. ==Filmography==

Film Television Video games Theme parks ==See also==