When I was growing up in Oakville, I used to frequent Lofquist's record store where one could collect the weekly CHUM/CKOC/CKFH/CJJD or was it CHAM charts. It was run by two little old ladies [old to a teenager. They had white hair] The store was located in the basement of a building where they had this old record player with a great set of speakers. They would gladly play the latest debuts to the CHUM Chart. I was amazed at their incredible knowledge of all the current recording artists. I later learned their secret. The store had a subscription to Billboard and these ladies would read the weekly reviews of all the single and album releases. This is where I discovered the Hot 100. I always remember seeing a full page ad in the magazine promoting AT40 shortly after its debut. Sadly, I was disappointed to learn that no Canadian or Western New York radio stations carried the show. Eventually 98.5, or 102.5 ran AT40 at 6AM Sunday mornings and CKOC did so Sunday evenings at 6PM. I was not happy when AT40 abandoned the Hot 100 for their countdown, presumably because there was too many rap records entering the top 40.

RadioActive wrote:

This infamous outtake from AT40 has Casey swearing and getting very frustrated over a "death dedication." Not the guy we all remember! Did they ever get Don on the phone?

This compilation seems to reveal that behind the scenes he had a rather vile temper. 
 

I was almost hired by Casey himself as a writer for American Top 40. Back in 1983, I wrote the 25 hour ABC Radio summer series, "Ringo's Yellow Submarine" hosted by Ringo Starr. We recorded Ringo at his home in Tittenhurst Park in January and February, then March, April and May, I was in LA for assembly, while still writing and producing for Telemedia Network Radio in Toronto. Tom Rounds was President of ABC Watermark, which also created and syndicated "American Top 40". I'd see Casey in the studio every week recording the latest show. In May, Tom told me that Casey was looking for a new writer for AT40. Would I be interested? I said 'sure', so he gave me Casey's home number and said, "call Casey". I called and spoke to his wife Jean Kasem, who told me Casey was out, but wanted to talk to me. He called the next day and arranged for an in person interview at Watermark when he came in to record that week. We met, he was very nice, told me Tom Rounds recommended me highly and would I write a sample bunch of his 'teasers' that he used for commercial breaks to see if I was a fit for AT40. I wrote a bunch, he liked them and we met the following week and Casey offered me the job. I had to turn it down as the money they were offering was only slightly more than half of what I was making at Telemedia. So I came back to Canada and Telemedia, although Tom Rounds continued to hire me at ABC/Watermark to write specials over the years. 

Last edited by Doug Thompson (July 12, 2025 11:47 pm)