Casey Kasem: Pop's 'gateway drug'

Casey Kasem, who entertained radio listeners for almost four decades as the host of countdown shows such as "American Top 40" and "Casey's Top 40," died early Sunday, June 15, according to a Facebook post from his daughter Kerri Kasem.

Kasem, the legendary DJ, host and voice-over talent, was born in Detroit and got his start at Michigan radio stations. Here he is in the DJ booth at Detroit's WJBK in 1957.

Kasem moved to the West Coast in the early '60s. He hosted the KTLA music show "Shebang!" in Los Angeles in 1965.

Kasem was also an actor, though his films weren't necessarily Oscar material. In 1971, he starred in "The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant" with Berry Kroeger, left, and Bruce Dern.

He made occasional TV guest appearances as well. "The Mystery of the Hollywood Phantom," an episode of "The Hardy Boys Mysteries" in which Kasem affected a Columbo-like persona, also starred Pamela Sue Martin (as Nancy Drew) and Parker Stevenson (as Frank Hardy).

Kasem married Jean Thompson in 1980.

Casey and Jean Kasem attend the 21st Annual International Broadcasting Awards in Century City, California, in 1981.

Casey and Jean Kasem are shown with children Kerri Kasem, Michael Kasem and Julie Kasem at the Lebanon-Syrian American Society of Greater Los Angeles Man of the Year Awards in Beverly Hills, California, in 1985. The children are all from Casey Kasem's first marriage, to Linda Myers.

Casey and Jean Kasem were frequent participants in the Hollywood social circuit. Here, they attend the Stars 'N Hearts Benefit Fund-raiser for Animals in 1982.

Kasem was an in-demand voice-over artist. He's probably best known for supplying the voice of Shaggy in the "Scooby-Doo" cartoon series.

Kasem hosted a number of countdown shows, including "American Top 40," "Casey's Top 40" and "America's Top 10." He handed off "AT40" to Ryan Seacrest in 2004.

Casey and Jean Kasem ride in the 2007 Hollywood's Santa Parade in Hollywood, California, on November 25, 2007.

Even after leaving his long-running radio shows, Kasem stayed active. He attended Fred Segal's birthday charity event and auction at a private residence in Malibu, California, on August 29, 2009.

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• Mark Coleman: Casey Kasem was "tastemaker" before era of streaming and downloading


• Kasem's "America's Top 40" wasn't gatekeeper but a conduit for popular songs, he says


• Coleman says Kasem's show was accessible; his voice upbeat, not smarmy


• Kasem an iconic voice of common-denominator music during divisive time, he says

Editor's note: Mark Coleman is the author of "Playback: From the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines and Money." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- The late Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem was much more than a relic of radio's Top 40 heyday. In this era of streaming and downloading, when everyone functions as his or her own DJ and program director, the "tastemaking" role of music radio in the late 20th century -- the role that Kasem pretty much owned -- is almost impossible to fathom.

Casey Kasem was neither a maverick like pioneer rock & roll disc jockey Alan Freed nor a budding multimedia entrepreneur like Dick Clark. He didn't strive to be hip or hustle after the cutting edge. He wasn't really a gatekeeper or curator. His on-air presence was neutral; he merely was a conduit for whatever records were most popular.

Each week he'd present the top singles as reported on the Billboard charts, framing the songs with homespun advice, listener dedications and decidedly noncontroversial anecdotes about the performers. From 1970 to 1988, his syndicated weekly program, "America's Top 40," documented the ever-shifting mainstream of musical tastes. By today's standards, it can sound overly cautious or conservative, but it also reflected a cultural consensus that barely exists anymore.

Kasem's long-distance dedications

Easily accessible and free of charge, "America's Top 40" was a gateway drug for a generation or two of budding music fanatics. Kasem was the patron saint of preteen pop devotees held captive to their parents' car radios. His data-dependent chart format made him an enabler for amateur statisticians and precocious list-compilers, kids who couldn't afford subscriptions to the trade magazines.

The sturdy scaffolding under Kasem's success was his voice: upbeat, naturally modulated, soothing without being smarmy. Hear him once and he became Casey: familiar, somehow. You could accuse him of being corny, a shameless Pez dispenser of sentimental patter and clichéd advice along with pablum pop. You'd be literally correct but also fundamentally clueless about his down-to-earth appeal.

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Kasem managed to be commercial without coming across like a hyped-up huckster. He made it seem easy, and also seamless, for instance segueing from a convoluted factoid about Top 10 hits with the word "Doctor" in the title to a Dr. Pepper spot.

His voice was the product of formative years spent jumping from radio station to station as well as some acting work. Voice-over gigs proved to be a consistent and profitable sidelight; Kasem's resonant tones appeared in commercials and cartoons. Somewhat improbably, he supplied the voice of Norville "Shaggy" Rogers on "Scooby-Doo." No doubt this further endears him to a generation weaned on musty anachronisms such as network television and Top 40 radio.

Tributes: 'Keep reaching for the stars'

Truthfully, even at his most popular, Kasem was a bit of an anachronism. When "America's Top 40" debuted in 1970, the rock revolution was in full swing, and free-form FM radio was on the rise. But he stuck to the middle of the road, and not only endured but thrived during the tumultuous expansion and dissolution of the musical counterculture in the ensuing decades.

The Top 40 renaissance of 1984, kick-started by MTV, and the late '90s teen pop explosion can both be seen as vindication of Kasem's rigidly democratic format. In fact, the millennial breakthrough of boy bands and Britney Spears may go down in history as the Top 40's last hurrah.

Born the son of Lebanese immigrants in Detroit, Kasem went on to become the iconic voice of common-denominator music during a divisive time in our culture. In the end, what could be more American?

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