Kasem was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Lebanese Druze parents who emigrated from the British Mandate of Palestine to Lebanon. After arriving in the United States, they settled in Michigan, where they worked as grocers.[4] Kasem is a graduate of Northwestern High School in Detroit and Wayne State University.[5]
Radio[edit]
1950s–1960s[edit]
Kasem, whose professional radio career started in the mid-1950s in Flint, Michigan, was drafted into the US Army in 1952 and sent to Korea, where he was a DJ/announcer on the Armed Forces Radio Korea Network. He developed his rock-trivia persona from his work as a disc jockey in the early 1960s at KYA in San Francisco, California, and KEWB in Oakland, California. He also worked for several other stations across the country, including WJW (now WKNR) in Cleveland, Ohio; WBNY (now WWWS) in Buffalo, New York; and KRLA 1110 in Los Angeles, California (1963–69), before launching the national show American Top 40 on July 4, 1970.
Source: Wikipedia
Note: Druze = Coptic Christian