Casey Kasem

The Man Who Introduced the Songs

Casey Kasem didn't have a silky voice, but he knew how to hold an audience glued to the radio for hours. The son of Lebanese immigrants in Depression-era Detroit, he started in local radio before anyone imagined a hit list could become a national phenomenon.

In 1970, he launched American Top 40 with a simple premise. He just wanted to tell stories about the artists while the records spun on the turntable. The show started on just seven radio stations and ended up being heard on more than a thousand radio stations around the world.

And the formula worked.

Kasem avoided the shrill tone of the DJs of the era. He preferred a calm, educational style that connected with teenagers and their parents alike. But his greatest triumph was not just music radio, but his ability to make his way into living rooms through cartoons.

Since 1969, he has voiced Shaggy in the series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and stayed tied to the character for decades. His performance defined the jittery, good-natured personality of the owner of television's most famous Great Dane.

Shaggy was his most profitable alter ego.

Activism Behind the Microphone

It wasn't all laughs and pop music in the recording booth. Kasem was a staunch animal rights advocate and strictly practiced veganism. In 1995, he left his role in Scooby-Doo because producers asked him to have Shaggy promote hamburgers in a TV commercial.

He returned to the franchise only in 2002, when the studio agreed that the character would be vegetarian on screen. So the Shaggy kids saw on TV during those years only ate vegetables because of a contractual requirement from Kasem himself.

He also voiced Robin in Super Friends and took part in the original Transformers series, voicing Cliffjumper. His vocal range was limited, but his intonation was so familiar that American audiences felt him to be part of their family.

But massive success didn't spare him a bitter ending.

In 2009, he retired from the microphone for good after closing his final stint on American Top 20. From that moment on, his health began to decline due to a form of Lewy body dementia that took away his ability to speak.

His final months were marked by a fierce legal battle between his second wife and his adult children. The courts had to step in to decide who would have guardianship of the broadcaster as his physical condition rapidly worsened.

He died on June 15, 2014, at a hospital in Washington at the age of 82. His remains were moved to Norway and buried in a cemetery in Oslo six months after his death, at the decision of his widow.