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Michigan
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SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2015 / KALAMAZOO GAZETTE
AL POINTSS POLITICAL Jonathan n Oosting
joosting@mlive.com live.com
Michigan contributors favor Bush, Clinton
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residential hopefuls Jeb Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton, potential frontrunners for their respective party nominations in 2016, are filling their campaign coffers with more Michigan money than their peers. Bush and Clinton are leading the Michigan fundraising battle in the early days of the cycle, according to campaign finance reports filed last week with the Federal Election Commission. Bush, who last visited Michigan in May, has received more than $330,000 in campaign contributions from individual donors in the state Bush since making his bid for the Republican nomination official in June. Clinton, who will host a fundraiser in Clinton Michigan this week, already has raised more than $225,000 from Michigan donors this year as she seeks the Democratic nomination.
NATIONAL CONTEXT
The Clinton campaign reported more than $47 million in total contributions for the reporting period, topping fellow Democrat Bernie Sanders, who raised $15.2 million. Ted Cruz led all Republicans with $14.3 million in campaign contributions, followed by Bush, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Other candidates such as Scott Walker and Chris Christie launched campaigns after the reporting period ended. The reports Cruz only detail contributions to candidate committees. Super PAC donations have not yet been announced, and outside groups are expected to play a major role in the 2016 election. A super PAC supporting Bush, for instance, has said it already raised $103 million, dwarfing donations to his actual campaign. MORE ON MICHIGAN
Carson, who announced his campaign for the Republican nomination in his hometown of Detroit, pulled in a solid $106,000 in individual contributions from Michigan residents, the third-highest total among all candidates. Carson Other fundraising efforts in the state included: Cruz reporting $65,000, Sanders with $64,000, Rubio with $46,000 and Paul with $41,000. While some of the state’s biggest donors remain on the sidelines at this point, Bush received some contributions from some well-known Republicans, including former state party chairman Bobby Schostak and Lansing businessman Ron Boji.
THE HISTORY FILES
Top 40 DJ was No. 1 fan favorite By Kim Silarski
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Michigan History
hen syndicated radio host Casey Kasem ended his broadcasts with “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars,” it wasn’t just a sentimental tagline. It was a philosophy for the Detroiter who dreamed big and made it big in radio and voice acting.
Kemal Amin Kasem was born April 27, 1932, the first child of Amin Kasem, a Detroit grocer from Lebanon’s Shouf region, and his American-born Lebanese wife, Helen. The family, which soon included a little brother, Mouner, lived at 646 W. Alexandrine; just two blocks from Amin’s grocery store on Cass Avenue. Now part of the trendy Midtown area, the neighborhood was then a modest Arab immigrant enclave. Many Arab immigrants to America launched food-based businesses to support their families and provide jobs for relatives coming to the U.S. Kemal’s parents wanted him to assimilate; he was purposefully kept from learning his parents’ native Arabic. However, the family’s Druze faith was firm (Shouf, Lebanon, is considered the Druze homeland), and Casey remained active in the American Druze community throughout his life. As an adult, Kasem recalled how his elders’ traditions of storytelling and oneupsmanship inspires his radio and acting style. A teenager of slight build with dark curly hair, a winning smile and an engaging tenor voice, Kasem longed for a career he wasn’t equipped for: shortstop for a Major League baseball team. At Detroit’s Northwestern High School, he found another way to get into sports. As part of the school’s radio club, he had his first experience behind a microphone as a sportscaster in 1948. Kasem also gained a nickname at school: “Case,” a contraction of his surname. “Case” turned into “Casey” early in his professional radio career. Being a Detroiter helped his budding career — decades later, researchers determined that a Midwestern inflection was the most effective delivery for broadcast announcers. After his 1950 graduation from Northwestern, 18-yearold Kasem briefly worked as a
Casey Kasem was named a Radio Icon at the 2003 Radio Music Awards (AP files)
Kasem also voiced the character of Shaggy Rogers in the “Scooby-Doo” cartoons. (Submitted by Hanna Barbera Productions Inc.)
disc jockey at WDTR, the radio station of the Detroit Public Schools. He simultaneously launched an acting career, voicing youthful roles for “The Lone Ranger” and “Challenge of the Yukon” radio series. The shows originated in the WXYZ radio studios in Detroit. Kasem enrolled at Wayne (not yet State) University, majoring in speech education. It was at the campus radio station that Kasem earned the title role in “Scoop Ryan, Cub Reporter,” a gig that led to a 15-minute weekly program on Detroit’s WJR. He also was an announcer for WJLB. A draft notice in 1952 interrupted Casey’s studies. The U.S. Army deployed him to Taegu, Korea, where he worked on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network. When he returned to Detroit, he became
a substitute news reader at radio station WJBK, using the moniker “Casey at the Mike.” He quickly assumed the announcer’s role. It also was the early days of television, and Kasem’s bosses at WJBK found in him a perfect sponsor tie-in. Casey at the Mike morphed into Krogo the Clown, host of a children’s cartoon show sponsored by Kroger supermarkets. In 1954, Kasem completed his university degree and left home for radio stations in Cleveland and Buffalo. His father’s death brought him back to Detroit for a time. Then, in 1963, Casey moved to California, where he experimented with movie acting, recorded a minor hit single, and took on voice-acting assignments to pay the bills. In 1969, he originated the character of Norville “Shaggy” Rogers on the animated television program “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” He also voiced Batman’s sidekick, Robin, in the “Super Friends” cartoons and hundreds of other characters. The following year, Casey would embark on his most memorable accomplishment: cocreating and hosting “American Top 40,” a pop-music radio show based on weekly sales charts from Billboard magazine. Casey added trivia-filled introductions and heartfelt song dedications to
CASEY KASEM’S POST-DETROIT LIFE 1963: The 31-year-old relocates to California and lands gigs at radio stations in San Francisco and Oakland before settling in at Los Angeles’ KRLA. 1964: While working as a disc jockey, Kasem records a minor hit single, “Letter from Elaina.” This spokenword piece, about a girl meeting Beatle George Harrison, reaches #103 on the charts. 1965-68: During this period, he hosts a pop-music TV program called “Shebang!” for producer Dick Clark. 1969: Kasem originates the voice of Norville “Shaggy” Rogers on “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” — his most widely known role. 1970: Kasem, his close friend Don Bustany, and others launch the weekly pop-music countdown program “American Top 40”; it quickly goes national and, later, international. 1970s: The DJ takes time out to guest-star on episodes of “Hawaii Five-0,” “Ironside,” “Police Story,” “Quincy, M.E.,” “Switch,” and “Charlie’s Angels.” 1972-1979: Kasem is married to Linda Myers. They have three children: Mike, Julie and Kerri. 1980: Kasem marries Jean Thompson. Their daughter, Liberty, is born in 1990. 1981: Kasem gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1984: Kasem adds his voice to the “Transformers” TV cartoon, but quits in 1987 after its writers name a fictional Arab city “Carbombya.” 1991: A contract dispute leads him to leave AT40 and start another show, “Casey’s Top 40.” In 1998, he returns to host the original show. 1992: Kasem becomes the youngest inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame. 1993: Kasem testifies before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights about the impact of racial and ethnic stereotyping in the entertainment industry. 1997: Billboard magazine honors Kasem with its first Lifetime Achievement Award. 2004: Kasem hands the AT40 microphone to Ryan Seacrest (who continues to host the program today). 2009: Kasem records his final lines as Shaggy in the “Scooby-Doo!” cartoons and his final original broadcasts of AT20 and AT10, “American Top 40” spin-offs. 2013: Kerri Kasem reveals that her father has Lewy body dementia. 2014: Kasem dies June 15 in a Gig Harbor, Washington, hospital, and is buried in December in Oslo, Norway. He was 82.
his then-fresh countdown format, carving out a permanent place in American music and pop culture history. Kasem became successful beyond his dreams. During his 64-year career, he amassed an estate estimated at $80 million. He embraced his celebrity, using it and his wealth to advance such causes as animal rights and the environment. He was pivotal in the establishment of the American Druze Cultural Center in Eagle Rock, California, the first organization of its kind in the U.S. He contributed $2 million to Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies to establish a post-doctoral fellowship in Druze and Arab studies. Kasem valued his privacy, yet his personal life, especially family disputes over his end-oflife medical care, were widely chronicled in the media. When he died in 2014 at the age of 82, fans around the globe took to social media to mourn — one particularly touching image that circulated showed a saddened Scooby-Doo sitting at Kasem’s grave. Kim Silarski started her major-market radio career atop the Maccabees Building and is now communications manager at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.
The Historical Society of Michigan, nonprofit publisher of Michigan History magazine, is partnering with MLive Media Group to share excerpts of the magazine’s content six times a year, coinciding with when the bimonthly magazine is on sale at newsstands. Details: hsmichigan.org.