Silent Mic
by Rex SimmonsA small blurb in a recent issue of Time mentioned that Casey Kasem officially retired from his involvement in doing the Weekly Top 40 on July 4. In line with my recent theme of passing icons, this is another one to add to the list. In this case, Kasem is still with us and will no doubt pop up on the grid from time to time, but knowing that his years of entertaining us with what’s new and hot on the music scene are over leaves me nostalgic for my years on Kwaj when I was first introduced to him. While he was doing that long before the mid-70s, I didn’t spend much time listening to the radio before we moved to Kwaj. Once on Kwaj we tended to play the radio more than we had at home since we didn’t have TV, and it was during that time when I first began to listen to his Weekly Top 40 program that aired on AFRS every Sunday. Recently a local Huntsville radio station has been rerunning some of his shows from the 70s and 80s, and hearing some of those really takes me back to the Kwaj days. I don’t listen to current top 40 programs anymore so my daily routine won’t be affected by Kasem’s retirement, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling somewhat melancholy knowing that he’s no longer in the business. Enjoy retirement, Casey, and thanks.