Notable Passages: 2022

[RenoZag]

Ralph Emery, the M.C. widely regarded as the most popular radio and television broadcast personality in the history of country music, died on Saturday at a hospital here. He was 88.

Heralded by turns as the dean of country music broadcasters and the Dick Clark of country music, Mr. Emery spent more than six decades on the air promoting country music and seeking to broaden its appeal among audiences with no natural affinity with rural Southern culture.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/17/a...mery-dead.html

[RenoZag]

Ron Franklin, who called college basketball and football for ESPN for over 20 years, died at the age of 79 this week. Tributes have been pouring in.

“Just heard the sad news that my ⁦former @espn⁩ colleague, Ron Franklin, has passed away,” tweeted ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla. “An amazing broadcasting talent & a good man. Was a part of so many great ⁦@Big12Conference⁩ broadcasts with him. RIP, partner.”

“So sad to learn that Ron Franklin who I worked with on a # of @espn games has passed. My prayers go out to his family,” wrote ESPN legend Dick Vitale. “May Ron RIP.”

https://nypost.com/2022/01/19/ron-fr...er-dead-at-79/

Franklin worked at ESPN from 1987 through 2011. He was fired after reportedly saying, off-air, to sideline reporter Jeanine Edwards, “Listen to me, sweet baby, let me tell you something …” When she told him not to talk to her like that, he responded, “Okay, then listen to me a$$hole.”

[RenoZag]

Bob Goalby, 1968 Masters Champion, Age 92.

https://www.pgatour.com/news/2022/01...way-at-92.html

[Martin Centre Mad Man]

Meat Loaf


https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/enter...bit/index.html

[caduceus]

Meat Loaf


https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/enter...bit/index.html

So now I'm prayin' for the end of time, so I can end my time with you!! Loved this song as a teenager, but it's so cringy nowadays. Surprised he was still ticking along until today. RIP.

[Jazzgirl_127]

So now I'm prayin' for the end of time, so I can end my time with you!! Loved this song as a teenager, but it's so cringy nowadays. Surprised he was still ticking along until today. RIP.

OMG. I loved the Bat out of Hell album. His songs weren't on the radio much and a few years ago I heard two in the course of a short drive and came home to do a Google search to make sure he was still alive.

[Club Prez]

Louie Anderson, Emmy-Winning Comedian, Dies at 68

https://deadline.com/2022/01/louie-a...er-1234917040/

[Rangerzag]

As posted on facebook by Gregg Hersholt:

RIP Don Wilson, founding member of The Ventures. Little known fact: they recorded Walk Don’t Run in the basement of a house at 3550 SW Admiral Way in West Seattle… within view of KJR, which introduced it to the world.

Also posted at News Tribune in Tacoma yesterday but I could not find a link that did not require a subscription to view.

[Rangerzag]

As posted on facebook by Gregg Hersholt:

RIP Don Wilson, founding member of The Ventures. Little known fact: they recorded Walk Don’t Run in the basement of a house at 3550 SW Admiral Way in West Seattle… within view of KJR, which introduced it to the world.

Also posted at News Tribune in Tacoma yesterday but I could not find a link that did not require a subscription to view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoWDj5e65Bc

[RenoZag]

Dennis Smith, a teenage hellion and high school dropout who transformed himself into a famed New York City firefighter, a gritty best-selling author and a leading guardian for the safety of his colleagues and the public, died on Friday in Venice, Fla. He was 81.

While earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at night, his literary career began when a magazine editor read an erudite letter by Mr. Smith published in The New York Times Book Review disputing the author Joyce Carol Oates’s characterization of William Butler Yeats as a universal — rather than primarily an Irish — poet. The editor was stunned to discover the letter was signed by a Dennis E. Smith, who identified himself not as a literary critic or public intellectual but as a Bronx fireman.

The editor’s intervention helped lead to a contract for the first of 16 books, “Report from Engine Co. 82” (1972), a chronicle of the city’s busiest firehouse. The book sold some three million copies, ennobled Mr. Smith as a champion of his profession and inspired countless men and women to become firefighters.


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/23/o...mith-dead.html

[Club Prez]

As posted on facebook by Gregg Hersholt:

RIP Don Wilson, founding member of The Ventures. Little known fact: they recorded Walk Don’t Run in the basement of a house at 3550 SW Admiral Way in West Seattle… within view of KJR, which introduced it to the world.

Also posted at News Tribune in Tacoma yesterday but I could not find a link that did not require a subscription to view.

Here's an article I found on Mr. Wilson.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...174502118.html

[RenoZag]

Howard Hesseman, who played disc jockey Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati, has died. He was 81.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...ti-1235084085/

He was born on Feb. 27, 1940, in Lebanon, Oregon. His father was an auto-parts salesman and a musician. His parents divorced when he was 5, and his mom married a cop.

After graduating from Silverton High School in 1958, Hesseman spent a couple of years at the University of Oregon, then was off to San Francisco, where he landed a gig as a disc jockey for the underground rock station KMPX. He then latched on with The Committee, where he took the Don Sturdy stage name.

He told the Times that he spent 90 days in the San Francisco County Jail in 1963 for selling an ounce of marijuana (a conviction that was thrown out for entrapment). And in a 1983 profile in People, he did admit to conducting “pharmaceutical experiments in recreational chemistry.”

[RenoZag]

Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub, who waged clandestine warfare for the U.S. Army and the C.I.A. from the World War II years to Vietnam, then retired from the military under pressure after repeatedly criticizing President Jimmy Carter’s national security policies, died on Saturday. He was 100.

[RenoZag]

Bill Fitch, who gained a reputation for reviving the fortunes of dismal N.B.A. teams and took the Boston Celtics to the 1981 league championship in a pro coaching career spanning 25 seasons, died on Wednesday in Lake Conroe, Texas, north of Houston. He was 89.

His death was announced by Rick Carlisle, the coach of the Indiana Pacers and president of the N.B.A. Coaches Association, who said he had been contacted by Fitch’s daughter Marcy Ann Coville. No other details were provided.

[RenoZag]

John C. Koss, a trumpet player and onetime teenage bandleader who with a friend invented stereo headphones and provided people with a new high-quality — and personal — way to listen to music, died on Dec. 21 in Milwaukee. He was 91.

His son Michael confirmed the death.

Koss headphones became standard equipment for music listeners, disc jockeys and recording artists in the studio — even for members of the House Judiciary Committee when they heard White House tapes in 1974 during President Richard M. Nixon’s impeachment inquiry. For many years they were virtually all Mr. Koss’s company made, until an unsuccessful expansion into other audio products in the 1980s nearly put it out of business.