You can divide the world into two kinds of people: Those whose hearts cracked a little bit last weekend at the news that Casey Kasem was doing his final radio countdown of the hits, and those who said, ''Casey who?'' OK, there's probably a third group, maybe the largest of all -- the ones who said, ``What's radio?''
For those of us who grew up listening to Kasem play the top 40 records in America every weekend, the only thing sadder than his departure is that he outlived his own medium. When it comes to music, radio is a desiccated shell of its old self.
But back when radio mattered, nobody on it mattered more than Kasem, whose American Top 40 was ubiquitous -- and I'm not using the word lightly. In 1998, while live on the air in Los Angeles, Kasem called information for a telephone number. After he'd gotten it, his co-host asked the operator if she knew who she'd been talking to. ''Sure!'' she chirped. ``Casey Kasem!''
Kasem's supple, mellifluous voice was unmistakeable. But he was much more than just a talented set of vocal cords. The first rock 'n' roll jock to knit together a national radio audience, he was a major force in creating a national pop-music culture and documenting its history. Read my full column on Kasem, and then listen to him reveal American Top 40's very first No. 1 record on July 4, 1970.
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