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He was the best radio guy ever
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Date Posted: Monday, April 26, 08:59:35pm
https://news.yahoo.com/radio-hall-famer-legendary-dallas-184815218.html
Ron Chapman, a Radio Hall of Famer and a Dallas disc jockey legend who one time broadcast live while skydiving from a plane, died early Monday. He was 85.
Mr. Chapman’s cause of death was not revealed by his family, who asked for time to process the loss and thanked the community for their “kindness, understanding and prayers.”
There will be no service for Mr. Chapman, however a “public gathering for friends and colleagues” is being planned.
Mr. Chapman began his radio career in 1953 when he became a disc jockey at station WHAV/Haverhill, Massachusetts, according to the Radio Hall of Fame. He worked two years with the Voice of the United Nations Command in Korea and then he moved to Connecticut and station WHNC/New Haven.
In 1959, Mr. Chapman came to Texas as “Irving Harrigan” and joined the staff at KLIF/Dallas, where he teamed up with Jack Woods (a.k.a. Charlie Brown), playing records and providing character voices as stars of the popular Charlie and Harrigan Show.
Mr. Chapman joined the staff of KVIL-FM/Dallas-Fort Worth in 1969 as morning disc jockey, music director and program director, bringing the “adult contemporary” format to FM radio, and stayed there for 31 years.
He was known for his upbeat humor and his participation in outrageous stunts and giveaways. One time, Mr. Chapman told his listeners to each send $20 to the station; within three days, the station received more than $200,000 which was donated to charity.
Suzie Humphreys, Mr. Chapman’s on-air sidekick on KVIL from 1975 to 1995, said the two were a perfect match in a 2005 DMagazine interview.
“From the first moment we ever opened our mouths, we clicked,“ Humphreys said. “We just knew where the other one was headed. We were in the groove together. We just hit. One of his greatest talents is picking people, knowing where they fit, where they go. They gave me a little yellow van, and I drove it myself. And I did everything. I would carpool my son to school, pick up kids. I was off the wall, and he loved it. We used a two-way radio. We never worked in the studio together, for 20 years.”
In 2000, Mr. Chapman moved to KLUV/Dallas, an “oldies” station where he stayed until announcing his retirement from radio in 2005.
The last song was “Turn, Turn, Turn” by the Byrds in June 2005.
His parting shot? There wasn’t one. After 45 years as a radio institution, you don’t go out with a bang.
You just go.
So it was with Mr. Chapman, the then white-bearded radio prophet who signed off KLUV-FM after a five-year “part-time job” that was preceded by 31 years as the morning consciousness at KVIL-FM and nine years at KLIF.
With wife Nance wiping her eyes behind him, the then-69-year-old Mr. Chapman, in a white KLUV sweatshirt, black slacks and sneakers, did what he’s done so many mornings for decades: play the affable, entertaining host to listeners stuck in traffic, toiling away at work or pushing the kids out the door.
In 2007, he returned to broadcasting part-time as a “permanent substitute” for legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey.
He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2012.
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