Casey Kasem, US 'king of top 40', dies at 82
Casey Kasem, an internationally famous radio broadcaster with a cheerful manner and gentle voice who became the king of the top 40 countdown with a syndicated show that ran for decades in the US, died yesterday. He was 82.
Casey Kasem
1932-2014
Casey Kasem, an internationally famous radio broadcaster with a cheerful manner and gentle voice who became the king of the top 40 countdown with a syndicated show that ran for decades in the US, died yesterday. He was 82.
In recent years, Kasem was trapped in a feud between his three adult children and his second wife, former actress Jean Kasem. In 2013, his children filed a legal petition to gain control of his health care, alleging that he was suffering from advanced Parkinson's disease and that his wife was isolating him from friends and family members.
Kasem also suffered from Lewy body disease, a form of dementia.
A judge last month temporarily stripped his wife of her caretaker role after she moved him from a medical facility in Los Angeles to a friend's home in Washington state.
It was a sad, startling end for a man whose voice had entertained and informed music lovers worldwide.
Kasem's American Top 40 began on July 4, 1970, in Los Angeles, when the No1 song was Three Dog Night's cover of Randy Newman's Mama Told Me Not to Come.