RIP "Truckin' Bozo" Dale Sommers

[gpsman]

During an argument at a Kansas City radio station in the late 1970s,
program director Randy Michaels called afternoon DJ Dale Sommers a
“bozo.” The name stuck.

So when Michaels needed a host for a new WLW-AM overnight show for
truckers in 1984, he hired his friend who became Dale “The Truckin’
Bozo” Sommers.

“But he was anything but a ‘bozo,’ said son Steve Sommers of Colerain
Township, about his father, who died Friday in Lecanto, Fla., of
Addison’s disease. He was 68.

“He was very smart, very well read. A lot of people didn’t know that,”
said his son Sean Compton of Chicago.

Mr. Sommers made national headlines several times from his show on
50,000-watt WLW-AM, and later on national syndication and XM
satellite.

In 1986, he helped catch a robbery suspect in Camilla, Ga. He was
chatting off air with a regular caller for a 24-hour store when he
heard the woman tell someone, “You can’t come back here” before
hanging up the phone. Mr. Sommers called Camilla police, and within
minutes officers apprehended the robber.

In 2002, trucker Ron Lantz of Ludlow helped police arrest two
Washington, D.C.-area sniper suspects in a Maryland highway rest stop
after hearing “Bozo” describe their car on radio. He was one of the
truckers who blocked the rest stop exit before police arrived to
arrest John Lee Malvo and John Allen Muhammad sleeping in the car.

Mr. Sommers was on Dan Rather’s CBS News in 1988 after the DJ
suggested that truckers boycott Indiana truck stops to protest the
state’s gas tax increase and a lowered speed limit (from 65 to 55 mph)
for large vehicles.

“He was one of the few blue-collar guys on radio, and had a loyal
following,” said Compton, Tribune Co. programming president. Compton
worked at WLW-AM 1992 from 1996 with his father, before becoming a
Jacor and Clear Channel executive who helped syndicate his dad’s show.

Darryl Parks, Clear Channel vice president for news talk radio
operations, said Mr. Sommers taught him “how one person can relate to
another with a few simple words” the morning after the 2001 terrorist
attacks.

“He simply said with his deep and calming voice, ‘You know me as The
Truckin’ Bozo. This morning, I’m Dale Sommers,’ ” Parks recalled. That
night changed his show forever, said son Steve, who started working
with his father in 1996 and replaced him in 2004.

“We stopped playing music, and went all talk,” Steve Sommers said.
“Nobody used their handles (nicknames). Everyone used their real
names.”

Mr. Sommers’ real name was Glenn Council. He was born in Humboldt,
Tenn., and moved to Cincinnati with his family in 1958.

A year later, at age 16, he made his radio debut, and eventually
changed his name to Bruce Dale Sommers for radio. He also worked for
WUBE-AM, and stations in Evansville, Indianapolis, Seattle, San Diego,
Kansas City and Miami, Fla., before returning in 1984.

After retiring in 2004 for health concerns, he resumed a weekday show
from home studios in Mason and Inverness, Fla., on XM radio. He did
his last satellite show last month.

Other survivors include his wife, Sharon; a son, David Sommers in
Dayton; and two adopted sons, Kevin Sommers in Northern Kentucky and
Jason Sommers in Houston, Texas.
http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20120824/NEWS/308240105/Dale-Sommers-68-radio-s-Truckin-Bozo-?odyssey=nav|head
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- gpsman

[gpsman]

On Aug 25, 10:13 am, gpsman <gps...@driversmail.com> wrote:<>

MASON — This time Bill Cunningham wasn’t joking: The “Truckin’ Bozo”
was dead.

Cunningham explained to hundreds at a memorial service Saturday that
his on-air feud with former WLW-AM overnight host Dale “Truckin’ Bozo”
Sommers was all radio theatrics, just one of many crazy stunts
recalled by Sommers’ co-workers and loyal listeners at Christ’s
Church.

“He called me a shyster lawyer. I called him a toothless, illiterate
hillbilly. The first time I saw him, I said, ‘You look like an armpit
with eyeballs,’ ” he said about the bearded Sommers, who died Aug. 24
at age 68.

Cunningham often told listeners Sommers had died when he went on
vacation from his show for truckers, which was heard in 38 states on
50,000-watt WLW and later nationally via syndication and satellite.

The running gag started when Sommers and his wife, Sharon, took a two-
week cruise in the 1980s, before cellular phones were common.
Cunningham had a friend pose as a hospital nurse reporting that Bozo
suffered a fatal heart attack.

“I was in the middle of getting a haircut, and (the stylist) was
crying because the Bozo was dead,” said radio executive Randy
Michaels, who hired Sommers in 1984 at WLW-AM to host the overnight
show for truckers. He did it for 20 years, then did a daytime
satellite show until July.

Truck drivers made up about half of the audience Saturday. They came
to celebrate the man who provided companionship and a voice for their
issues.

“He gave us someone to talk to at night, when we do 80 percent of our
work,” said Don “Jailbird” Schmidt, 46, from Perrysburg, Ohio, near
Toledo.

Kyle “Slim” Hart, 28, from Lawton, Okla., hauled a load to Troy, Ohio,
on Friday so he could attend the service. Many truckers parked at the
Beach and rode a shuttle bus to the church.

“They wanted me to go to Riverside, Calif., today, but I told them I
can’t,” Hart said.

In the vestibule, truckers shared their favorite memories of Bozo’s
crazy antics – a billy goat trapped in a well, the fictional Lake Bozo
and his supposed buried treasure.

Rick “Hollywood” Ward from California told of the traffic jam on
Interstate 71 north of Cincinnati from truckers looking for Bozo’s
“watermelon roast” picnic.

Cunningham recalled pouring free coffee one night at a Northern
Kentucky truck stop after losing an on-air bet to Bozo. Within an
hour, Kentucky State Police halted the promotion.

“They said they had 20 miles of trucks south on I-75, and 20 miles of
trucks north on 75,” he said.

The “Bozo” also used his clout to help truckers. He urged truckers to
boycott Indiana truck stops in 1988 to protest the state’s gas-tax

increase and a lowered speed limit (from 65 to 55 mph) for large

vehicles. Six to eight months later, Indiana Gov. Robert Orr came to
WLW-AM’s downtown studios and asked Sommers to call off the crippling
boycott, said sportscaster Bill “Seg” Dennison.

Sommers taught Dennison the importance of truckers to the American
economy and lifestyle. “He’d often say, ‘Seg, where would we be
without a truck? Hungry, naked and sleepy,’ ” Dennison said.

The sportscaster also said Sommers’ “taught me broadcasting basics
that I still use every day.”

Sommers was born Glen Council in 1943 in Tennessee. His family moved
to Cincinnati in 1958, and he made his radio debut a year later at age
16. He later changed his name to Bruce Dale Sommers for radio.

Former radio executive Randy Michaels, who first heard Sommers on
Fairfield’s WCNW-AM, hired him to do country music in Kansas City,
where he acquired the “Bozo” nickname.

Sommers had often said Michaels called him a “Bozo” after the DJ
knocked down a wall during station remodeling. Michaels said the name
stuck after Sommers went on the air and complained to listeners that
his boss called him a “bozo.”

“I didn’t name him that, he named himself,” Michaels said.

Standing next to an urn holding Sommers’ ashes, Michaels couldn’t help
wondering if the service was an elaborate joke. “All of us have heard
of him being killed off more than anybody else we know,” he said.

Then he turned serious.

“He’s not gone. He lives on in our hearts. He touched millions of
people on his overnight truck network. He was the best.”
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120908/NEWS/309080075/Bigwigs-big-rigs-bid-Bozo-farewell?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|FRONTPAGE
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- gpsman