Saturday, January 24, 2009

CASEY CALLING COAST TO COAST- CASEY KASEM ON AMERICA'S TOP 10 - SYNDICATION - CIRCA 1980


"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!"


Every week , for almost 13 years, disc jockey and vocal artist, actor and activist, Casey Kasem offered that sage advice to viewers of America's Top 10, a syndicated, video countdown of the week's hottest records.The series,a spinoff of Kasem's incredibly successful, syndicated,radio show, American Top 40, debuted in 1980 and ran until 1993.


The 30 minute program was produced in Hollywood and aired in most markets on weekends, in early evening and late fringe dayparts.

Born in Detroit in 1932, Kamal Amin Kasem developed an early interest in radio and the emerging rock music it played.He changed his name and started his career as an itinerant disc jockey , working in markets across the country. His kaleidoscopic knowledge of ,and appreciation for, pop music, along with his formidable, radio accumen paid off in 1970, when he launched the American Top 40 Radio show in weekly,syndication.

The show was an instant success on stations across the nation and was subsequently distributed around the globe. The program featured franchise segments, like the long distance dedication, where callers would ask Kasem to play a tune of personal importance to themselves or a loved one, and then explain the moral of the story to the audience.

Kasem left the radio show in 2004, and American Idol's Ryan Seacrest is the current host. Re-edited versions of Kasem's episodes from the 1970's are now offered in syndication.

On a parallel career path, Kasem was also in demand as an actor, appearing in television shows ranging from The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Hour on ABC-TV (where he did a dead-on impersonation of Peter Falk's Lt. Columbo) to NBC-TV's Saved by The Bell.

While he was also the voice of NBC-TV promotional spots for much of the 1970's, the versatile Kasem may best remembered for a role where the audience never saw his face. He was the voice of Shaggy in the animated Scooby Doo series.

Kasem has been a proud supporter of Arab American causes, appears each year on the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1992.

Known as a complete professional and demanding perfectionist, Kasem still does voiceover work and appears in infomercials. Enjoy !!!!!!


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