From the E-Mailbag…

I've received a lot of mail about Gary Owens. Here's one from Pete McNall…

When I found out that Gary Owens was dead, it was another nail in the coffin of my youth. My Dad and I listened to him on KMPC as we drove home from work. As a 16 to 18 year old, I worked summers at Dad's workplace. This would be 1971 to 1973. On the drive home from South Gate to Walnut, California, on the AM dial, we would listen to Mr. Owens. Gary had a little audio clip clip called (I think) "The Nurney Song." He had some random audio clips, I don't know, silly tunes, but this is what I remember. There was a bunch, and lots of craziness!

And what about Laugh-In? It was a bonding experience, as I was really trying to relate to Dad, and have something to laugh about with him. I know he liked Gary Owens, too. I was learning to drive, and relations were a bit shaky. To say nothing of getting out of bed during the summer at 5:30 in the morning, and then getting my surly teenage ass to relate to real working people.

Mr. Owens helped a lot. Thanks, Gary. You are missed.

This reminds me of a story I can't believe I haven't told on this blog. It occurred about 10-15 years ago, during one of Gary's last gigs as a local radio personality. He had an afternoon show each day on KGIL where he played real oldies — a lot of Sinatra, Dino, Tony Bennett, etc. As with most music-type disc jockey gigs these days, Gary was not doing the program live as he did at KMPC and other stations for so many years. He'd go in, record all his spots for a three-hour show in about an hour and then the engineers would edit him, the songs and the commercials together. He probably worked one or two afternoons a week and was then broadcast Monday through Friday.

I was driving my mother home from a doctor's appointment one day and I put Gary's show on. My mother was about half-listening to it, enjoying the show but not paying serious attention. During it, I got a call from Gary and as in many cars, the audio from the call displaced the radio sound and came out of the same speakers. Gary on the phone sounded exactly like Gary on the radio.

My mother hadn't noticed that the call had come in and I'd switched over…so suddenly, her son was having a two-way conversation with the guy on the radio. Gary was talking directly to me. I was talking directly to him. She looked at me with amazement. Then Gary and I said our goodbyes, the call disconnected, the radio sound came back on and from the same speakers, she heard — seamlessly — the same voice saying, "And now, here's a great tune from Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme —!"

She looked at me and said, "Wow…the inventions they're installing in cars these days!"