Monday, June 16, 2014

Casey Kasem Was a Star

  More than anything else, Casey Kasem was a star; a larger-than-life figure in radio that is today, bereft of anyone in that category.


I first heard Kasem's Top 40 show as a sophomore in high school in the fall of 1977.


I remember the long-distance dedications and "OK, on with the countdown..." Kasem's popularity was largely due to the fact he sounded sincere.


It worked.


He could tell a story too which in today's radio amounts to a cacophony of noise; human noise and sound, artificial sound, gimmicks really--a real honest-to-goodness story with style and grace. When Casey told a story about Andy Gibb, I recall back in '77, the #1 hit song, "I Just Want To Be Your Everything", even if you didn't particularly like the Bee Gees, you'd be compelled to listen to the story, it was that good.


Nobody today comes even close. Ryan Seacrest? Sure, he has built up a bank but he couldn't carry Casey Kasem's jockstrap. About as warm and engaging as a cold celery stick. Sort of like today's state of radio. No stars. More posers. Noise. Lots of noise. The lost art of story-telling and simple conversation.


Sad.


*Follow me on Twitter







9 comments:

  1. Casey at the Mike is how they publicized his program on KEWB, channel 91, in Oakland long ago. That's where I first heard his voice. RIP Casey.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I first heard him when he was the regular afternoon drive-time DJ on KRLA in Pasadena. He had a cute feature called "The Sweetheart Tree." He would read a (usually mushy) letter from a girl to a boy, or a boy to a girl, that included a song dedication. It was always the same time each day. His closing, "Keep Your Feet on the Ground, Keep Reaching for the Stars," was classic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's Casey with "The Sweetheart Tree" in 1967 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F9O8q7dqwI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

      Delete
  3. With all due respect to someone who has just passed away, glorifying Casey Kasem, as Lieberman is doing here for the sole purpose of complaining yet again about how mediocre radio has become, is just plain ludicrous.

    In Lieberman's book, everything from the past was magnificent and everything in the present is drek. It's sentimental argument that appeals to a bunch of grumbling old-timers, or younger timers in Lieberman's case, who are searching for an explanation for their own discontent.

    Casey Kasem thrived in his day just as Ryan Seacrest does in his day. Elevating Kasem to dismiss Seacrest is part of Lieberman's shtick. Kasem and Seacrest are both the same guy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just don't.come out of an up tempo record before doing a death dedication or casey would drop f bombs and gdamnits.

    ReplyDelete
  5. some real sincere and warm thought regarding Casey Kasem. Too bad you couldn"t just leave it at that - but no, you had to throw in your signature negativity there at the end. The lost art of simply remembering a good broadcaster.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Everything was okay until the last, typical Lieberman paragraph.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rich,
      Wish You'd Eliminate the "nattering nabobs of negativity/negativism".
      An...Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive!
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3jdbFOidds&feature=kp

      Delete
  7. RICH IS RIGHT. TODAY;S RADIO IS CRAP.

    ReplyDelete