Longtime WBZ radio personality Gary LaPierre has died. One of the best stories about Gary was towards the end of his career, when it came to light that he was reporting on snow cancellations from his home in Florida. This video was prepared for his retirement.
I remember when compared to the relatively young Gary, it was Dave Maynard who was the “senior statesman” of WBZ. Now they’re both gone!
This Sunday’s Boston Symphony Orchestra concert in the Music Shed at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA is one that I sorely wish I could attend, for both of the musical selections. But being here in Sun City West, AZ, I will have to settle for listening to the live stream from WCRB, with my little Oontz Angle speaker. Given the time difference, that means tuning it at 11:30 AM MST.
Dan Ingram, the greatest radio disc jockey of all time, has died. For anyone who loved Top 40 radio the way I did, the word “legendary” is inadequate to describe Big Dan’s career in the business. Getting home from school in Connecticut in the Sixties, I always looked forward to turning on the radio and hearing Ingram on Musicradio 77WABC in New York.
Los Angeles had its big name jocks, but all of them aspired to working in television. Many succeeded, mostly hosting game shows, but in New York Ingram was all about radio. With his pitch-perfect voice and snappy patter, Dan was the master of medium.
This video has a classic Dan Ingram aircheck from 52 years ago today, in the summer of ’66, a time that was one of the happiest of my life.
https://youtu.be/j4bZnbfj5OY
Top 40 radio was over and done as the dominant format by the time I was working on-air at an AM station. Sometimes I can’t believe I actually did it, but I did, and it came easily to me, thanks to the inspiration of Dan Ingram and Bruce Morrow on WABC. Thankfully, Ingram’s old buddy and colleague Cousin Brucie is still here to entertain us on Sirius/XM radio.
P.S. This is a message I sent to my sisters:
Today’s extremely sad news is the passing of legendary DJ Dan Ingram, one of the big inspirations for me getting into the business. I still have dreams about sitting behind the mic and “working the board,” which was something Big Dan and Cousin Brucie didn’t have to do, because WABC had engineers taking care of that for them.
All of the songs played on WABC were on tape cartridges, by the way. They were transferred from 45’s immediately upon receipt, so the records wouldn’t develop “cue burn,” a phenomenon that I knew well myself from “slip cueing” records on the turntables at the station.
Here is an air check with Dan that, towards the end, features Ian Whitcomb’s big hit. Which reminds me, I need to do some audio editing of Ian wishing Liz well between songs a few months ago. I’m a sponsor of his online radio show.
P.P.S. Mark Evanier’s friend Ken Levine has an interesting Southern Californian take on Ingram at this link.
The question I wish Terry Gross had asked of John Oliver was, “when will you admit to being Eric Idle’s bastard son?”
I’d like to get a pair of AR-15’s for my collection before they’re no longer available.
Herb Oscar Anderson passed away this morning. In the 1960’s HOA was the Morning Mayor of New York on 77 WABC, the legendary radio station that inspired me to get into the business.
Herb didn’t share an appreciation of Sixties youth culture and music with his fellow WABC jocks, in particular Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram. His taste ran more to Lawrence Welk, but being a fan of the Lennon Sisters myself that’s fine with me, and I enjoyed hearing HOA every morning while getting ready for school.
Herb was the #1 morning DJ in New York when he decided to leave WABC in September, 1968. Harry Harrison was hired away from WMCA to take over the highly-coveted shift, and a month later my family moved from Connecticut to Massachusetts.
