In the last years of radio’s role as the nation’s dominant musical tastemaker, Ryan Seacrest, America’s vanilla uber-host, took over Casey Kasem’s role as DJ on “American Top 40.” When Dick Clark was fading away as the nation’s faithful New Year’s Eve companion, Seacrest succeeded him, too. Seacrest has followed LA’s legendary radio morning DJ, Rick Dees, and TV’s legendary morning chat show host, Regis Philbin. And now, in the dying days of broadcast TV’s role as the bonding agent in America’s living rooms, Seacrest has been tapped to replace Pat Sajak, who hosted “Wheel of Fortune” for a mind-numbing 41 years.
