The late Casey Kasem, who grew up in Detroit, owed a lot to the Motor City.
Susan Whitall of the Detroit News details his career and talks to some local radio legends like Robin Seymour and Lee Alan about Kasem.
Whitall writes:
Casey Kasem owed a lot to Detroit. His dramatic baritone was honed on the Motor City airwaves in the 1950’s, acting on radio dramas and spinning doo-wop and Elvis records as a young disc jockey on WJBK-AM.
She adds:
Kasem often credited his love of storytelling and “American Top 40” delivery to his acting days in Detroit
Kasem died Sunday morning at the age of 82. He had advanced Parkinson’s disease and a form of dementia.
Veteran Detroit disc jockey Lee Alan was still a student at Cooley High School when he listened to Kasem’s 7 p.m.-midnight show, ‘Casey at the Mic,” on WJBK (1500 AM) in the mid-’50s, Whitall writes.
“It was a different Casey,” Alan tells her. “He was upbeat, fast, loud, exciting and totally different than his later network shows. But he had a phrase that he would repeat all throughout his WJBK Detroit show, ‘The cream of the crop ‘til 12 o’clock.’ Years later I took his phrase and used it in every opening theme on my shows. I gave him credit, too.”
