Ron Lyons, 69, longtime traffic reporter at KCBS radio in San Francisco
Hoodude
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, August 5, 2007
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Ron Lyons started his radio career as a teenage '50s pop ... [truncated]
Ron Lyons, longtime traffic reporter at KCBS radio in San Francisco
and a veteran of a half century in broadcasting, died of cancer Friday
night in a hospital in Medford, Ore. He was 69.
Mr. Lyons started in radio in 1955 as the host of "Records with
Ronnie" as a high school senior in his native Asheville, N.C., at a
time when "the sweet pop of the early '50s was being swept away by
rock 'n' roll," as he recalled on his Web site. After retiring from
KCBS in 2004, he moved to Gold Beach, Ore., where he hosted an
afternoon music program on station KGRB until this spring, when his
health worsened.
He was best known as the morning traffic reporter on KCBS since the
early 1990s, giving traffic and weather reports every 10 minutes from
5 to 10 a.m. He ad-libbed each report with information he got from
four aircraft spotters, highway patrol and police scanner bulletins
and updates phoned in by a network of listeners.
"It's not an easy job, and he was a master at it," said the station's
news and programming director, Ed Cavagnaro. "You really felt he was
in the seat next to you when you were traveling in (to work), and I
don't think you could ask for a better traveling companion."
On heavy-traffic days, Mr. Lyons often advised listeners that "maybe
you should fax yourself in to work today," and told them he was
"knocking on Formica" at the studio for clearer conditions.
"Ron had some screws loose, and I mean that in the best possible way,"
said Stan Bunger, the KCBS morning news anchor who worked alongside
Mr. Lyons from 2000 to 2004. "He saw the oddness in life, the funny
side of everything. ... He loved the strange nature of (radio), where
you closet yourself in a little glass booth and try to communicate
with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands at once."
Born Ronald Tomberlin, Mr. Lyons came to California in 1960 with a
program director who got him a radio job. He worked in the Bay Area
and Sacramento, mostly on music shows, at KEWB, KFBK, KNBR and KNEW
before coming to KCBS around 1987, said his son, Tom Berlin, who
broadcast with his father in San Francisco and Oregon.
"My dad could do anything in radio and make it sound great," Berlin
said. He recalled one feature of a show Mr. Lyons co-hosted at KNBR in
the early 1980s in which he invited listeners to call in and have
their dogs woof along with "Barking Dogs Jingle Bells." Oddly enough,
it was hysterical, Berlin said.
Mr. Lyons was a pop music buff and produced an audio biography of the
late singer Mickey Newbury, one of his favorites, Berlin said.
He said his father also spoke candidly of his struggle with
alcoholism, for which he was treated in 1986. On his Web site, Mr.
Lyons mentioned that "Jack Daniels was also my co-producer for quite a
few years."
He is survived by Lana Lyons, his wife of 40 years; his son, and two
grandchildren. Services are pending. The family suggests contributions
in his name to the American Cancer Society or the Bay Area Radio Museum.
--
A recent study found the average American walks about 900 miles per year.
Another study found Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of beer a
year.
That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.
Kind Of Makes You Proud To Be American.