5 RADIO LESSONS I LEARNED FROM CASEY KASEM

There will be no shortage of well deserved tributes to Casey Kasem, from people who knew him far better than I. So let’s just “talk radio,” with the big 5 lessons I learned from him.

Stubbornly Champion Your Dream

At station after station, Casey tried to convince program director after program director to allow him to do a countdown show.

“Let’s see if I understand this: You want to count backward from 40 to 1. And you think somehow that will be fascinating to listeners? I don’t think so.”

If It’s Worth Listening To, People Will Listen.

Shortly after I arrived in L.A., I stumbled upon “American Top 40” via KEZY’s shaky radio signal from Anaheim. That was before the program became nationally, then internationally known.

I was attracted primarily by the drama (see below) of the countdown format. As a listener, I’d have had to be awfully dense not to grasp (and always remember) the power of the “tease.”

But the biggest lesson I learned was: People will listen to unique programming that they enjoy, even if the radio station is (as KEZY was in Los Angeles) at a competitive disadvantage.

Drama Is Where You Find or Make It.

Many years ago I happened upon a print interview with Art Garfunkel, who related how as a kid he’d avidly follow the Billboard charts…

…and how exciting it was on those rare occasions when a record that been climbing the charts and then began to drop…reversed directions and started climbing again.

I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had felt the same way.

Yes, the long distance dedications.

Yes, the artist bio blurbs.

Yes, the teases.

But most radio people never understood what Casey intuitively knew: There was drama in those numbers…

…if you knew where to look and if you knew how to present it.

How to Handle Embarrassment

Sure, I enjoyed it when a friend sent me one of the first bootlegs of Casey’s X-rated “dog dying” rant.

The contrast between his carefully protected, squeaky clean image and the anger-fueled coarse language made it irresistibly entertaining.

How did Casey publicly react?

Did he express outrage at the violation of his privacy?

Did he demand that whoever leaked the tape be fired?

Did he claim he’d somehow been “set up” by his enemies, who were out to embarrass him?

I wouldn’t be surprised if his private reactions included at least one of the above.

But when asked about it publicly, he said something like, “I haven’t heard it” (I find that hard to believe) “but apparently when I was recording a show I lost my temper and swore a lot.”

Oh. Umm….

Well, okay. I guess I don’t really have any follow-up questions, and the Big Story becomes what it deserves to be: a minor embarrassment with no lasting importance.

As Always, Successful Radio Is About Just One Thing.

People.

Up-and-comers, supergroups and one-hit wonders who are moving up or sliding down the charts.

Those sentimental long distance dedications. Corny? Perhaps. But they came from real people, and each represented a real person’s story.

And every disc jockey, radio host and presenter in the world who does some form of “countdown” or “chart” show carries Casey’s torch.

Thereby demonstrating that sometimes, when the dream is strong enough, the talent large enough, and the determination fiercer than the skepticism it faces…

A very lucky few of us stubbornly seize a surprising measure of immortality by reaching for the stars.