{"id":3827,"date":"2015-02-20T10:53:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T16:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=3827"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:03","slug":"remembering-gary-owens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/remembering-gary-owens\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Gary Owens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Owens died the other day. \u00a0He was 80. I don’t know the exact cause of death but he’d suffered from diabetes for years. \u00a0In 2011, \u00a0as a member of the board of directors for the South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association, I recommended we induct Owens into the Hall of Fame in the disc jockey category which we did. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It was then up to me to let him know and extend an invitation to come back home to South Dakota so we could honor him in person. \u00a0I managed to do that with the help of my pal, J.P. Skelly of Mitchell’s KORN Radio and long time friend of Owens. \u00a0Below is the blog I wrote at the time about my encounter with this true broadcast legend and South Dakota gentleman.<\/em><\/p>\n

I 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.<\/p>\n

\"gary<\/p>\n

The 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.\u201d 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

\"gary<\/p>\n

With 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\u2019d 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

\"gary<\/p>\n

Even though 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\u00a0because of a prior commitment in San Francisco. We did interview him live for about an hour 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.<\/p>\n

During the induction ceremony, family members from Plankinton were on hand to accept Gary’s plaque and to read a wonderful letter from their famous relative expressing his appreciation. \u00a0Gary Owens is\u00a0survived by his wife of 57 years, Arleta, and sons Scott Owens, a producer\u00a0and Chris Dane Owens, a musician and producer.<\/i><\/p>\n

I can hear him now with a classic line from “Laugh-in”. ”\u00a0“This is Borgal the friendly drelb signing off from beautiful downtown Burbank.”<\/em><\/p>\n

R.I.P. good sir.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Owens died the other day. \u00a0He was 80. I don’t know the exact cause of death but he’d suffered from diabetes for years. \u00a0In 2011, \u00a0as a member of the board of directors for the South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association, I recommended we induct Owens into the Hall of Fame in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3827"}],"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=3827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11578,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3827\/revisions\/11578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}