Report: Dr. Don Rose Has Died
Mike Ward
Rose passed away in his sleep last night.
travis...@gmail.com
> LARadio.com reports that veteran Bay Area radio personality Dr. Don
> Rose passed away in his sleep last night.
I had never heard of him, but it sounds like he's a Bay Area icon. Tom
Berlin reported this on KNEW and played a few snips from radio shows.
Tiernan
KFRC's heyday. Understand KFRC is playing a memorial of some sort. This
information is from 3-30
*From 1973 to late 1986, DR. DON ruled mornings at KFRC-A, later leaving
to go into station ownership, and then working at KIOI. His early stops
in radio also included mornings at WQXI-A/ATLANTA, and later he rose to
national prominence as morning man at WFIL-A/PHILADELPHIA. No word on
funeral plans, but we'll pass them along as soon as we know.
*
*Currently, KFRC is running an hourly memorial tribute celebrating DR.
DON's life with some classic airchecks of his morning show.
*
*Ironically, DR. DON was on the air just last week with DEAN GOSS &
CAMMY BLACKSTONE, and by chance he said, "May the LORD bless you on your
way in and on the way out" -- DR. DON's words are being used at the end
of each memorial tribute.
*
David Kaye
David Kaye
> *Ironically, DR. DON was on the air just last week with DEAN GOSS &
> CAMMY BLACKSTONE, and by chance he said, "May the LORD bless you on
your
> way in and on the way out" -- DR. DON's words are being used at the
end
> of each memorial tribute.
I met him once, a few years ago during a panel on Top 40 radio at the
SF library when Ben Fong-Torres was promoting his Top 40 book. He was
a most gracious person to me, and people who worked with him over the
years repeatedly said what a fine person he was.
Over his life he had one physical setback after another, starting with
a broken leg he got skiing that just wouldn't heal properly. But not
to get him down, he once recorded cartoon intros for channel 44 while
lying in a cast on his stomach. He had heart problems and then lately
diabetes, and yet he still summoned up the energy to keep his spirits
up and try to make others happy. I didn't know him, but I felt I did
because so many people had so many touching things to say about him
over the years. One amazing guy.
croakin...@yahoo.com
David Kaye wrote:
> Tiernan wrote:
I didn't know him, but I felt I did
> because so many people had so many touching things to say about him
> over the years. One amazing guy.
I'll say, and an inspiration to many of us Bay Area kids who grew up to
work in the biz.
Back in '79, when I was just starting out at KFJC (this was before my
alleged nefarious descent into the realm of Lucifer), I had a job as an
auditor for the Southland Corp. This consisted of waking up WAAAAAY
early and piloting my '67 Olds all over San Mateo & Santa Clara
counties to a different 7-11 each day. As I was raised on local top 40
(Sherwood, KYA, KLIV, etc.), I remained loyal to "The Big 610".
Dr. Don's show kept me awake, sometimes to the point of irritation. I
didn't always appreciate the manic mix of carted soundbites, the corny
jokes about his dog, The Boss, etc., his little chuckle & the way he
would say "San Rah-fay-el", "Sac-cra-MENT-toe" when givng the local
temperatures. I REALLY got sick of the Stan Freberg stingers ("That's
right!", "No, no!!"). Eventually, I drifted over to KDIA in the ams.
A few years later, I realized what a wonderful formula his show
contained, and even "borrowed" those Freberg bits for my own morning
show on college radio. ;)
What a DJ he was! ALWAYS upbeat, even if he was struggling with his
health. The only exception to this was right after the Moscone/Milk &
Jonestown murders, when he dropped all the goofy gags & sfx, and spoke
in a rather subdued voice, as opposed to his normal delivery (which I
thought sounded like he'd had a nip or three of some strong spirits).
Of course, after a few weeks of this, it was back to the same old
stuff.
I remember sending him a get well card in the 80s, and making all my
(alleged) satanic dope-fiend hipster pals to sign it. They all did,too,
because even those who were too cool for anything else all loved the
Dr.
He will be missed, and the current breed of AM shockers owe a lot to
him, & the DJs of that type & era.
I wish I could make a typical bad joke about his passing, but I'm just
a little too sad right now. "That's Ri-i-i-i-ght!" ;)
RIP, sir.
croakin...@yahoo.com
David Kaye wrote:
> Tiernan wrote:
> because so many people had so many touching things to say about him
> over the years. One amazing guy.
I'll say, and an inspiration to many of us Bay Area kids who grew up to
David Kaye
> would say "San Rah-fay-el", "Sac-cra-MENT-toe" when givng the local
> temperatures.
Uh, I think you're mispronouncing Sacratomato.
> What a DJ he was! ALWAYS upbeat, even if he was struggling with his
> health. The only exception to this was right after the Moscone/Milk &
> Jonestown murders, when he dropped all the goofy gags & sfx, and
spoke
> in a rather subdued voice, as opposed to his normal delivery
For those who weren't here in November 1978, it was probably the most
horrible time in the city's history. A minister who had been seen as a
unifying force among black and white and had the support of the
political progressives instead turned out to be a cult leader who
convinced over 900 people to kill themselves and others on November 18.
Nearly everyone it seemed knew someone who had died at the Jonestown
compound in Guyana, where Reverend Jim Jones had brought his
congregation after the heat became too great here. I knew a couple
people who had died there.
Just 9 days later, a member of the SF Board of Supervisors (SF's
combined county board and city council) killed the mayor George Moscone
and supervisor Harvey Milk. Moscone was an extremely popular mayor and
man. Milk had become a gay politcal icon and was beloved in parts of
SF.
I remember Don Rose ditching the wildtracks and the humor to give those
people and the city's shattered residents the respect they deserved.
It seemed that with everyone else the next day it was business as
usuaul. But it was clear that Don Rose had come to thoroughly love San
Francisco, and realized that just one day wasn't enough. The city had
to mourn and be quiet for some more time before we could move on.
On his first aircheck at reelradio.com, it's clear that Don fell in
love with this community and its people immediately. And we loved him,
too.
marsha...@yahoo.com
Audio page: http://www.geocities.com/kfrcrc/index.html
The tribute vignettes that KFRC has been running are there as well.
David Kaye
> There are several Dr. Don clips available on the KFRC Morning
ShowNotes
> Audio page: http://www.geocities.com/kfrcrc/index.html
And there's a wealth of material at the official Don Rose website:
http://www.doctordonrose.com/realmedia.html
What's neat about these clips is that there's an entire history here
from his earliest days in the 1950s when he's just a kid and the
jingles are longer than the songs. With each passing year the jingles
get shorter the station less cornball, and Dr Don is honing his morning
man skills.
In the early days he starts off just as most of us did: making sure we
got the time and temperature right and sticking in anything we could
think of that related to the local scene, the highways, the burger
joint, etc. He must have been about 20 years old on some of these
clips.
One of the best and most poignant given the upcoming change for KFRC is
the clips from the last day before the format change from rock to big
bands format in 1986. Great stuff here, with Robert McCormick at his
best (maybe some day I'll learn to spell his name right), with jokes
about sedatives (the calmer MOR KFRC about to debut).
I haven't heard all the clips yet (I have things to do today), but man,
there's some great stuff there.
BossRadioDJ
http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/kfrc/kfrc_dr-don_aug-9-1974.shtml.
DJ