Casey Kasem

Casey Kasem (born Kemal Amin Kasem on April 27 1932, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American radio personality and voice actor.

Radio

Kasem is best known by name as a music historian and disc jockey, most notably as host of the weekly American Top 40 radio program from 1970 to 1988, and again from March 1998 until January 10 2004, when Ryan Seacrest succeeded him. He hosted a spin-off television show called America's Top 10 for a time in the 1980s. He was the host of the short-lived American version of 100% (game show) in 1999. For a period in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kasem was the staff announcer for the NBC television network. More recently, he has appeared on infomercials about CD music compilations. Kasem was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1992. He is a graduate of Wayne State University.

From January 1989 to March 1998 when he was not at the helm of American Top 40, he was host of Casey's Top 40, Casey's Hot 20, and Casey's Countdown syndicated out of the Westwood One Radio Networks. These shows competed with his former show, American Top 40, which was hosted by Shadoe Stevens from 1988-1995.

Currently, Kasem is the host of "American Top 20" a weekly 3-hour countdown show of the Top 20 Hot Adult Contemporary (Hot AC) hits and "American Top 10", a weekly 3-hour countdown show for The Top 10 Soft Adult Contemporary hits (AC), both syndicated through the Premiere Radio Networks. Interestingly enough, when Casey was hosting these shows in addition to American Top 40 Ryan Seacrest would sometimes guest host for Kasem before taking over the hosting duties of "American Top 40".

Casey Kasem developed his rock-trivia persona from his work as a disc jockey in the early 1960s at KEWB in Oakland, California.

Many times, Kasem would start talking (usually after a commercial break or song) with, "Ya know..."

Outtakes

A notorious perfectionist in the studio, recordings of a frustrated Kasem in an extended profane rant during a rehearsal for American Top 40 appeared on Negativland's single "U2". In it, Kasem is heard introducing a U2 single by reading the names and instruments of the entire personnel of the band from a script. Kasem interrupts and says:

This is bullshit! Nobody cares! ... These guys are from England and who gives a shit!

Another notorious Kasem outtake from the September 14 1985 AT40 was also used by Negativland in "U2". It involves reading a "Long Distance Dedication" from a man to his deceased dog "Snuggles." Casey objects to the dedication ("Shannon" by Henry Gross) following an up-tempo song ("Dare Me" by the Pointer Sisters) and explodes:

...I want a goddamn concerted effort to come out of a record that isn't a fucking up-tempo record every time I gotta do a goddamn death dedication! It's the last goddamn time; I want somebody who uses his fucking brain to not come out of a goddamn record... that's up-tempo and I've got to talk about a fucking dog dying!...Boy, is this fucking ponderous man...ponderous, fucking ponderous.

The tape widely circulated among Kasem's fans and on the internet, where it acquired the unofficial name of "The Dead Dog Tape" or the "Snuggles Tape." Despite Kasem's objection, the two mismatched songs were aired as scripted.

Television

Kasem is a prominent voice-over actor, most notably the voice of Shaggy in Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo cartoons from 1969 onwards. He has done work for many other animated series, such as the voice of Robin in the original Batman animated series (1968) and the later SuperFriends series, the drummer Groove from The Cattanooga Cats (1969), Alexander Cabot III from Josie and the Pussycats (1970, 1972), and television specials such as Rankin-Bass' Here Comes Peter Cottontail. Kasem has also done many TV commercial voiceovers for companies and products like A&P, Chevron, Ford, Red Lobster, Raid, Hoover vacuum cleaners, Joy dish soap, Heinz Ketchup, Sears, Prestone, Continental airlines, The California Raisin Advisory Board, The National Cancer Institute, and 1976-1988 promos for the NBC television network. He also played the voice of Mark, the American name of Ken Washio in Battle Of The Planets, the first American version of Gatchaman.

In the 1980s he was a regular voice-actor on The Transformers, providing the voices of good-guy Autobots Cliffjumper and Bluestreak, as well as the Autobots' computer Teletraan I. In 1986, he walked out on the show after a dispute regarding the portrayal of Arab characters. He also walked out on his role as Shaggy in 1995, when he was asked to voice Shaggy in a Burger King commercial. The role had been re-cast with Scott Innes, who, in 1997 after the death of legendary voice actor Don Messick, had also taken over the role of Messick's Scooby-Doo. Kasem – a vegetarian who believed that Scooby-Doo and Shaggy were setting bad examples for children with their overeating habits – felt that it was no longer appropriate for the character, whom he wished also to be a vegetarian. He returned to the character in 2002, after Hanna-Barbera (or rather Warner Bros.) agreed to portray Shaggy as a strict vegetarian, notwithstanding the fact that Shaggy has been seen by countless viewers gorging himself on any food in sight, including plenty of meat, since 1969. Kasem's more recent portrayals of Shaggy can be found on the What's New Scooby-Doo series. In addition to voice-acting, Kasem has appeared on camera on Nick-at-Nite on New Year's Eve, counting down the Top reruns of the year (billed as "The Rerun Countdown"), in which Kasem spoofed his image as the master of countdowns. It had a long run, though, airing annually from 1989 to 1996. Additionally, he has appeared on-camera as a co-host of Jerry Lewis's annual Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association since 1983.

Kasem also made two separate cameo appearances on the TV show Saved by the Bell in the early 1990s.

Personal life

Kasem has been married to actress/singer Jean Kasem since 1980 and they have one child together, daughter Liberty Kasem. He had three children with his first wife, Linda Myers Kasem (to whom he was married from 1969 to 1979). Their son, Mike Kasem, is also a voice-over actor. Their daughter is television host Kerri Kasem.

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