{"id":1120,"date":"2011-03-29T10:45:55","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T16:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:10","slug":"rock-on-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/rock-on-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock On Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I had a rather surreal experience the other morning. One of the biggest names in Hollywood gave me a call on my cell. Nah, it wasn\u2019t an offer to be in a movie or TV show..but to respectfully decline an invitation to come home and be present in person for his induction into the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame April 16th<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"gary\u00a0The Hollywood big shot is GARY OWENS! \u00a0Okay, I\u2019ll bet I\u2019ve lost some of you 40 and under types; \u201cGary who?\u201d you say, \u201cNever heard of him.” Oh, yes you HAVE!\u00a0 Even if the name doesn\u2019t automatically ring a bell you\u2019ve certainly \u201cheard\u201d him.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a little background: Gary Altman was born and raised in Plankinton west of Mitchell. His mom was a teacher and county auditor; his dad was the sheriff. \u00a0As a kid, he loved the idea of being on the radio and was determined to make that happen. He was just a teenager when KORN Radio in Mitchell gave him a chance. \u00a0From that humble beginning, he went on to become one of the best known radio voices in the country. At a time when AM radio deejays were superstars who could influence the careers of rock and roll singers just by playing their songs, Gary Owens (he dropped the Altman) was one of the biggest.<\/p>\n

\"garyWith his delicious baritone pipes, clever off- the- wall commentary and crazy comedy characters, he conquered stations thoughout the Midwest and Southeast taking every one of them to number ONE in the ratings. During the fifties and sixties, he not only played the records of Elvis, Buddy Holly and all the other big names in rock and roll but he knew them personally. \u201cI always worked off a playlist, though. I never took a penny in payola,\u201d Owens told me. By 1961, he’d had made it to the top station in Los Angeles. From there he began breaking into television with guest appearances on the Jack Benny Program, McHale\u2019s Navy, \u00a0and The Munsters just to name a few. \u00a0He also began doing voices for cartoon characters like Roger Ramjet, Space Ghost and hundreds more.\u00a0 In 1968, because of his quirky sense of humor, \u00a0he was picked to be the straight laced, gibberish-speaking announcer on the wildly popular Rowan and Martin\u2019s Laugh-In which ran for six seasons on NBC. He was known for coining the phrase, \u201cBeautiful Downtown Burbank.\u201d Owens has done over 30 thousand commercials, is a member of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame right between Walt Disney and Betty White.<\/p>\n

\"garyEven at 75 and partially retired, Gary Owens is still busy. In fact, as I was writing this, I heard him on network TV voicing a movie trailer for an upcoming film.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Owens was calling me back to express his genuine gratitude for being inducted into the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and disappointment at not being able to be in Sioux Falls on the 16th<\/sup> because of a prior commitment in San Francisco. We did interview him live for about an hour last week on Grant Peterson\u2019s radio program over KBRK \u00a0in Brookings. He is an absolute delight to visit with; humble, hilarious and the pride of Plankinton. Okay, that\u2019s who WON\u2019T be here. Let me tell you who WILL!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

2011 Inductees include, The Torres, Don Robar and the Monarchs , The Shattoes, The X-Men, DD and the Fayrohs, Steve Ellis And The Starfires and The Pilgrims. As incredible as it may seem, every one <\/span>of the groups being inducted will actually take to the huge stage at the Ramkota Exhibt Hall and perform those same rock and roll songs they were known for back in the day. Some members have flown across the country several times to a place where they could gather together and rehearse!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"theSpeaking of reunions, this year\u2019s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert will be highlighted by the return of THE MOB.<\/p>\n

\"mobThis amazing horn and show band out of Chicago packed the popular Mocamba Club in Sioux Falls where they played on a regular basis during the late sixties and early seventies. Audiences just loved their big sound and high energy. Members of The Mob loved South Dakota too which is why they\u2019ve decided to accept their induction into the Hall of Fame IN PERSON and have gotten together from all over the country for the first time in nearly 30 years to make the magic happen again with an hour long performance to close out the evening at the Ramkota. \u201cWho knows?\u201d says Mob lead singer, Big Al, \u201cThis just might motivate us to taking our show back on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only general admission tickets remain for this special induction ceremony and\u00a0 concert Saturday April 16th. \u00a0<\/sup>They\u2019re available at Lewis Southgate. For more information on the show and the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, CLICK HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I had a rather surreal experience the other morning. One of the biggest names in Hollywood gave me a call on my cell. Nah, it wasn\u2019t an offer to be in a movie or TV show..but to respectfully decline an invitation to come home and be present in person for his induction into the South…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lund-at-large","category-60","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11805,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1120\/revisions\/11805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}