… Casey at the mike …
[Description by Uncle Ricky]
This short, ‘scoped composite is introduced by contributor Ben Fong-Torres and includes Casey Kasem “before the countdowns”.
Casey Kasem at WJBK in Detroit
It begins with a very rare 35 seconds of WBNY in Buffalo, New York, from 1960. The remainder of the exhibit features Casey on KEWB (Channel 91) in Oakland, California, circa 1962.
In The Hits Just Keep On Coming, contributor Ben Fong Torres wrote that when he first heard Casey, he wasn’t doing any countdowns and he wasn’t telling any little stories about the musicians he was playing. He was talking fast, spinning the hits, reading dedications and playing around with wild tracks. The GM at KEWB didn’t like wild tracks, and told Casey he wanted him to change. Casey thought his nights at KEWB were numbered, but as he walked into the studio that evening, he saw a magazine, Who’s Who In Pop Music 1962, on the top of the trash barrel. The magazine had a lot of rudimentary facts about various artists and it was enough to get him through his show that night. His idea caught on, and he took it to KRLA in Los Angeles.
Casey Kasem died Jun 15, 2014 from Lewy body dementia. He was 82.