Casey Kasem has died, ABC News reports. He was 82.
Born Kemal Amin Kasem in Detroit to Lebanese immigrants, Kasem began his career in the radio club at Northwestern High School and later became a disc jockey on WJBK radio in Detroit, initially calling himself Kemal Kasem. He graduated from what is now Wayne State University.
In a 1997 visit with high school students in Dearborn, a student 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.
His professional career began in Flint, then he became an announcer on Armed Forces Radio Korea Network in 1952. Upon his return, he went on to work at radio stations in California, Ohio and New York before launching "American Top 40" in 1970. He hosted that show until 1988, and then a revived version from 1998 until 2004, when Ryan Seacrest took over. From 1988 until 1998, Kasem hosted a show called "Casey's Top 40."
"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars," was how he ended every program.
"I just didn't want to say goodbye. Every station I was at, I never said goodbye," he later explained to the New York Times of his famous sign-off. "I don't know why."
“American Top 40” began on July 4, 1970, in Los Angeles. The No. 1 song on his list then was “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” by Three Dog Night.
Kasem, who was married twice and has four children, also had a colorful TV career, which included doing the voice for Shaggy on "Scooby-Doo" as well as voice-overs for many commercials. A devout vegan, he supported animal rights and environmental causes, as well as political organizations that spoke to him. Originally of Lebanese origin, Kasem felt it was important to improve Arab-Jewish relations.
In recent years, the radio personality's health declined and in 2013, his daughter Kerri said he was suffering from a form of dementia. Around that time, his three oldest children and brother launched a claim that his wife Jean was not letting them see their father. A court denied a petition his daughter Julie launched to take care of her father in October 2013, but just last month, Kerri was granted conservatorship amid a battle with Kasem's second wife, her stepmother, Jean.
The Muscular Dystrophy Association posted this tribute Sunday:
