--- description: The Morning Show host discusses the influence of Casey Kasem, who died June 15 at 82 title: Casey Kasem Obituary: Elvis Duran on the Radio Pioneer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt846b7a84b73b9dad/698698113bc99961541a421f/ck2.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [remembrance](/tag/remembrance/) ## remembrance Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Elvis Duran's Top Casey Kasem Memory by [Elvis Duran](/author/time-staff/) ## Elvis Duran Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 19, 2014 7:11 PM CUT  Casey Kasem on Nov. 10, 2003, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Casey Kasem on Nov. 10, 2003, in Beverly Hills, Calif.Chris Polk / FilmMagic / Getty Images by [Elvis Duran](/author/time-staff/) ## Elvis Duran Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 19, 2014 7:11 PM CUT I never met Casey Kasem, but my strongest memory of him is from when I started off in radio. I was 14 years old, growing up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and I was hired to “board-op” _American Top 40_ with Casey Kasem. Growing up listening to _AT40_ made me want to get into radio — but when I had to produce the sound of his show on the radio station, I got to know him even better. They would deliver the _American Top 40_ show to the station on vinyl albums. I would start at the beginning, he would count down and then he would take a commercial break, and I was the one who put the commercials on. When the commercials were over, I would push the button again and he would start back. One time — it would have been 1980 or 1979 — I went to a commercial break and I came back and put the wrong album on and went directly to the Number 1 song. That’s when I realized the power of Casey Kasem. I realized if I made a mistake how many people were affected by it and how many people hated me instantly, because they would all call and complain. He was so important for people coming up in the ranks of radio, to understand that connection between the person on the microphone at the station and the person listening. The way Casey told stories with his long-distance dedications and the way he described how these artists were doing everything they could to get their songs to go up the chart, it was listening to a friend tell a story every time he opened his microphone. That’s the connection we still try to maintain every day. That’s what keeps radio alive. — _as told to Lily Rothman_ _Elvis Duran is host of the nationally syndicated Elvis Duran and the Morning Show_ **_Read more about Casey Kasem in this week’s issue of TIME_** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2891361/elvis-duran-casey-kasem/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2891361/elvis-duran-casey-kasem/"},"headline":"Elvis Duran's Top Casey Kasem Memory","datePublished":"2014-06-19T19:11:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:28:12.266Z","description":"The Morning Show host discusses the influence of Casey Kasem, who died June 15 at 82","url":"https://time.com/2891361/elvis-duran-casey-kasem/","keywords":["remembrance","Music","obituary","radio"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt846b7a84b73b9dad/698698113bc99961541a421f/ck2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elvis Duran"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt846b7a84b73b9dad/698698113bc99961541a421f/ck2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Casey Kasem","caption":"Casey Kasem","creditText":"Chris Polk / FilmMagic / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2891361/elvis-duran-casey-kasem/","name":"Elvis Duran's Top Casey Kasem Memory"}}]}] ```