American radio legend Casey Kasem officially signed off for the last time on July 4, 2009, exactly 39 years after the first broadcast of his wildly successful and ubiquitous “American Top 40” radio show.

Casey Kasem

The 77-year-old Lebanese/Palestinian star, whose real name was Kemal Amin Kasem, had hosted the spin-off shows “American Top 20” and “American Top 10” recently until his retirement. Kasem was inducted into the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio. In 1997, he was presented with Billboard Magazine’s first-ever “Radio Icon” award.
Kasem, who was born in Detroit and graduated from Northwestern High School and Wayne State University in Speech Education, showed the range of his voice talents by shifting his trademark booming voice to a higher-pitched style in his role as Shaggy in various Scooby-Doo cartoon shows. He also voiced various characters in the popular Transformers cartoon show and its accompanying animated movie among several other TV roles. He left the show during the third season due to what he perceived to be offensive portrayals of Arabs and Arab countries on the episode “Thief in the Night.”

Kasem plans to work on other projects now, one of which might be a memoir. He also has been active in political and other causes over the years, supporting Arab American politicians including Ralph Nader. He was vocal in his support for fellow third-party candidate Dennis Kucinich, a friend of the Arab American community, in his runs for president in 2004 and 2008.

His daughter, Kerri Kasem, is a 30-year-old TV hostess who has worked for shows on the E! Network and on highlight shows for The Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Kasem also is a vegan who supports causes relating to his eating style and has also helped with anti-discrimination and anti-smoking causes. He has written a brochure published by the Arab-American Institute entitled “Arab-Americans: Making a Difference,” and also narrated the documentary movie “Stolen Freedom: Occupied Palestine.”

Kasem passed on his “American Top 40” show to American Idol star Ryan Seacrest in 2004. His signature sign-off quote was “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”