Casey Kasem played many significant roles in his 82-year-old life: disc jockey, countdown host, actor, cartoon voice, role model for the Arab-American community. However, I will remember Casey Kasem as the first person who tried to get me and others to give up meat.
I was working in radio in 1991 (almost certain this was 1991, maybe 1992) and filling in on the midday show of a full-service AM radio station in Battle Creek, Michigan. They had scheduled a phone interview with Casey Kasem, who would talk about the Great American Meatout. This was a similar concept to the Great American Smokeout where people would give up smoking for a day. So the idea was to give up meat for a day.
A whole day. In 1991.
I had time to prepare for the radio interview with information about the Great American Meatout. My humor of the day compelled me to read the material while eating Burger King hamburgers. The literature went into a lot of reasons why giving up meat was a good idea. Animal welfare, health, the planet. I remember being curious about how vegetarians got protein if they weren't getting it from meat. Milk, butter, eggs were obvious thoughts, but I hadn't given the topic much thought. Still, I wanted to do a good interview so I read up on what was in front of me.
The interview was scheduled for after lunch: my brain says 1:45 pm, but just after lunch time. I was given the super secret phone number of the Kasem residence, since Casey would do the interview from his house. A gentleman in a low tone answered "Kasem residence." I knew this wasn't Casey Kasem. About 1-2 minutes later, Casey Kasem was on the phone with me … off the air. I introduced myself and explained how this was going to work.
I was about to go on the radio with Casey Kasem, a man who knew his way around radio, and I was telling him what was going on.
I remember writing out the intro, mentioning not just the countdowns but his cartoon voice work. After all, Kasem was the voice of Shaggy on "Scooby-Doo" — one of the hungriest characters in cartoons (and the list included Jughead from The Archies and Wimpy from Popeye).
Kasem was pleased with my intro. Good. The ice was broken. I led Kasem with relatively softball questions about what was the Great American Meatout. I figured if I didn't know, then most listeners wouldn't know.
There are a lot of reasons why people give up meat. The conversation hadn't gone on for long before I figured out why Kasem was so passionate about the cause: Animal welfare.
Kasem spent a lot of time talking about the cruel ways animals were treated. I tried steering the conversation away from that, not because it wasn't important, but figured my listeners had just finished lunch and the talk was turning my stomach.
I tried to bring the conversation back to alternate sources of protein. Kasem addressed that point, but quickly the conversation went back to animal welfare.
Soon enough, the conversation was over and that was my moment in the sun with Casey Kasem. He was by far the most famous person I interviewed during my brief stay in radio.
I look back at that conversation, when food and how it was brought to the table wasn't an issue. Back then, cheap was the ruling point of order. I feel like that conversation summed up my approach to the topic years later. I still have a hard time with hearing stories of animal welfare, even if we should know what is happening. My concerns over making things practical, such as finding alternate sources of protein, is how I run this blog.
I try and remember that interview and preparation when dealing with people who don't know much but really want to learn. As much as we know about alternate ways of eating, there was a time where we didn't know much. Though Casey Kasem took a direction where I wasn't comfortable, the fact that Kasem approached food in this different way long before it was cool to do so inspired me to ask questions along the way.
I doubt he was aware, but I'm sure he would have been horrified at the story of his wife, Jean, throwing raw meat at his daughter.
I respected the fact that he could go without eating meat. I respected Casey Kasem for who he was and what he had accomplished. But I started to think from that day forward that protein wasn't just meat-based. There were options and alternatives to meat for protein.
I still haven't become a vegetarian, and I doubt I ever will be. But I'm a lot more cognizant about vegetarians, vegans, and protein. The person that started me down that road was Casey Kasem. RIP.
Comments