On July 4, 1970, America woke up to a new radio show called "American Top 40" hosted by disc jockey Casey Kasem. The show counted down the country's top 40 pop songs for the week as listed by "Billboard Magazine." The first No.1 on the list was Three Dog Night's hit "Mama Told Me Not To Come", Randy Newman's song about a party that left a bad taste in the writer's mouth (because of the drug scene in the country at the time.)

Kasem opened the first show with this, "Here we go with the top 40 hits of the nation this week on 'American Top 40,' the best-selling and most-played songs from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico."

The show was an instant success. It has played every weekend, in one form or another, on stations throughout the country, save a hiatus from January 28, 1995 to March 28, 1998. The current show is hosted by Ryan Secrest.

However, Kasem made the program with interesting song trivia, artist tidibits and the "Long Distance Dedication" where he read a letter from a listener dedicating a song to someone. The dedication usually had a tear-jerking angle to a soldier, an ill-relative or lost love.

Yet, as big as those morsels were, no show was complete with Kasem's signature sign-off, " "Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars."

Kasem, who was also the voice of Norville "Shaggy" Rogers in the "Scooby-Doo" franchise, died June 15, 2014 at the age of 82.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org