Remembering Casey Kasem

Radio legend Casey Kasem has died at the age of 82. 

Casey Kasem has died following a battle with Lewy Body Disorder, which mimics Parkinson's Disease and recently his health took a dramatic turn for the worse, thanks to that no good money grubbing freak bitch of a wife of his, Jean Kasem.

Jean removed Kasey from their home and took him to Washington State to be with friends. That sparked a nationwide hunt for Casey, and it also caused a serious bedsore that Casey had to quickly become infected. It also caused Casey's daughter Kerri to go to court over Casey's care and she filed elder abuse charges against Jean saying that the infected bed sore would likely be the cause of death for Casey.

Casey died early Sunday morning.

Casey Kasem started the American Top 40 franchise in 1970 and hosted the countdown from 1970 to 1988 and again from 1998 to 2004. He also was responsible for American Top 20 and American Top 10. He voiced countless cartoon characters over the years, most famously Shaggy from one of my favorites, Scooby Doo. (By they way, trivia nerds, Shaggy's real name is Norville Rogers.)

As an artist, you wanted to be on the American Top 40 countdown. As a music lover, you never missed the program. In fact, I have one friend who kept track of the weekly Top 40 countdown for ten years and still has the three ring binders.

I remember listening to Casey Kasem and the Top 40 countdown thinking, "I wanna do that!" and here I am. Casey taught me the art of the tease, which is to give away just enough information to keep the listener interested, but not so much information that you tell the listener who is next. You want to keep them hanging on. He also taught me how to count backward from 40 to 1, how to be calm reading an emotional story and to have a memorable sign off.

Casey's sign off was "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." Now he is one of them, forever.

Rest in peace Casey. In my book, you were always number one.