Casey Kasem retires

You aren't the only one who thought he was dead. I had not heard his name since the 1960s.

Truth to tell, I thought he had died ages ago.

You hear this a lot when someone who was once better known resurfaces in the news (usually by dying, although thankfully not in this case). But it's kind of an odd remark to hear from someone critical of America's manic celebrity culture, since its premise is, roughly, "I assume that anyone we used to hear about but no longer do, because the great Publicity-Industrial Complex is no longer hyping him, must have died." Well, you know, people go on living their lives even when they're not big celebrities! Imagine that: Their presence on earth is not a function of their presence to our media-addled minds -- it only seems that way.

Didn't Kasey Casem do the voice for "The In Sound"? This was a daily radio spot in which some youngster who'd sent in his/her name would request some pop song over the phone; the song would be played along with an ad for "Today's Action Army," with Kasem making the pitch. The youngster would be sent copies of an LP with his moment plus those of other kids that week (as I recall). A friend of mine was on the show. His request was "We Had a Good Thing Going" by The Cyrkle -- so that should date this memory pretty well. Someone might be able to correct any errors I've made here. This would've been about 1967.

Found this, so maybe it wasn't Kasem whose voice and name I remembered. Or maybe he filled in for Harrison that week? Probably not.

"....Harry
Harrison, a New York DJ ....had a weekly radio spot called "The In Sound" sponsored by the U.S. Army
during the mid 60's. In these 5 minute spots, Harry would get a "fan" on the phone and ask them what
they thought was "in" at the time. Then Harry would do a plug for the Army, play the chosen song in
its entirety and perform a VERY brief interview with the band, usually by phone. These spots were
compiled onto vinyl promo discs (6 interviews per disc) and shipped to radio stations around the
country."

Why don't you care to acknowledge that Kasey Kasem is Druze?