For close to four decades a certain radio host was known to generations as the voice of pop music countdowns. As well as being a staple voice actor in some of Hanna-Barbera’s most beloved cartoons. You may not know his name, but you certainly know his voice.
Casey Kasem was born in 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. He got his first taste of radio life at Northwestern High School covering sports, before attending Wayne State University where he voiced children on such radio programs as The Lone Ranger and Challenge of the Yukon. After being drafted into the US Army, Kasem was sent to Korea and worked as an announcer on the Armed Forces Radio Korea Network. Back in the states, Kasem spent time as a disc jockey for WJBK-AM in Detroit, WBNY in New York and a station in Cleveland. By the 1960s, Kasem relocated to Los Angeles where he championed R&B music for KRLA.
Throughout this time, Kasem also earned roles in a number of low-budget movies and acted in radio dramas. Recognizing that his voice was the key to his career, Kasem focused on earning work as a voice actor. Among his earliest and most popular roles was his turn as Dick Grayson/Robin in Filmation’s 1968 animated series The Batman/Superman Hour, opposite Olan Soule’s Batman. Both would reprise their roles in future Batman animated projects, continuing to voice the characters for The New Adventures of Batman, The All-New Super Friends Hour and Challenge of the Super Friends.
Kasem continued to gain prominence for voicing Shaggy Rogers on Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo, Where are You!, a role he would reprise for the subsequent Scooby-Doo series launched between 1969 and 2006. Outside of the many, many animated series, Kasem also voiced the lovable Mystery Inc. member for numerous TV movies. This included Scooby Goes Hollywood, Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers, Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Scooby-Doo in Arabian Knights, Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire and so much more.
Additional voice acting roles for Kasem included roles on Hot Wheels, Cattanooga Cats, Josie and the Pussycats, Sesame Street, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Transformers, Johnny Bravo, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and more. Around the time that Kasem debuted as Robin, he also launched the nationally syndicated American Top 40 countdown show. His slick voice and passionate style made his an instantly recognizable feature of the radio, a position he would keep for nearly 40 years. Although Kasem officially retired in 2009, he returned to Hanna-Barbera to voice Shaggy’s father for several episodes of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
Across his career, Kasem earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the National Radio Hall of Fame and received the Radio Hall of Fame's first Lifetime Achievement Award. While he passed away in 2014, Kasem’s animation work continues, and no doubt will continue, to inspire and delight future generations.
