Gender: Male Religion:Muslim[1] Race or Ethnicity: Middle Eastern Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation:Radio Personality, TV Personality
Nationality: United States Executive summary:American Top 40
Military service: US Army (Korea, 1952)
Lebanese long-time voice of American Top 40, where he played what passed for music to the "flyover state" audience, and ended each broadcast reminding listeners to "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." Also a frequent voice actor, including Shaggy on Scooby Doo. If you asked him nicely, he would play Leader of the Pack on your birthday.
Kasem invented American Top 40 in 1970 and hosted it until 1988, then returned from 1998-2003, when he passed the baton to everpresent Ryan Seacrest. Kasem continued hosting the abbreviated spin-off shows American Top 20 and American Top 10 until 4 July 2009, 39 years to the day after the debut of American Top 40. Quitting his radio shows at the age of 77, Kasem explained that "this decision will free up time I need to focus on myriad other projects". He died in 2014.
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