In this audio clip recorded at one of our International Radio Creative & Production Summits, the incomparable Gary Owens explains how his radio show led to his fame-making addition to the cast of a new television program called Laugh-In.
And he reveals where the phrase “beautiful downtown Burbank” originated.
In this audio clip recorded at one of our International Radio Creative & Production Summits, the incomparable Gary Owens explains how his radio show led to his fame-making addition to the cast of a new television program called Laugh-In.
And he reveals where the phrase “beautiful downtown Burbank” originated.
I don’t like this at all.
I don’t like friends and/or people I admire dying.
I would much rather be a 21-year old radio disc jockey again, when all of my friends were immortal and the only looming question was, “Which of us will make it to the big time?”
Fast forward a decade or so.
Every now and then, the phone would ring.
“Hello, Dan. This is Gary Owens.”
“Y’know, Gary,” I’d think, “you really don’t need to identify yourself. No one else in the world has that voice.”
Before I first came to Los Angeles, I hadn’t even known Gary Owens was a radio personality. I knew him only as the announcer on the TV show, Laugh-In.
Then I heard his daily radio show on KMPC.
Whoa! You can have a voice like that and possess a lightning fast wit?
He was great.
Gary never used his wit as a weapon. The “funny” parts of our conversations usually came in 3 acts.
Act One: Gary would say something funny.
Act Two: Immediately I would respond with something at least as funny.
Act Three: Without missing a beat, Gary would matter-of-factly add a third comment that was funnier than mine.
But it never was competitive. It was like a tennis match… between two people who were playing on the same side. Which was fortunate for the player who wasn’t Gary Owens.
My first personal contact with Gary occurred when I was a (very) small market DJ who asked him for feedback on his aircheck. I wrote about that in some detail here.
Before the end of that decade, I was publishing two radio comedy services. Gary was one of my first subscribers. Not that he needed my stuff. Probably he was just being supportive.
I was living in Fresno. During one of my mini-trips to L.A., Gary invited me to drop by KMPC.
It was while we were in his office, talking about comedy and writing and the pressures of continually producing new material on a daily basis, that I saw first-hand how brilliantly funny Gary Owens really was.
This won’t make you laugh. It’s one of those “you had to be there” things.
At one point, Gary said, “You know, I find a lot of good ideas for funny bits just by reading the ‘Letters to the Editor’ page of the Los Angeles Times.”
I replied, deadpan, “I used to read the Letters to the Editor page, but then I realized I just don’t have the time to go out and kill all those people.”
To which Gary leaned forward and in a fatherly fashion advised me, “Well, Dan, you just have to make the time.”
If you ask The Internet, you’ll learn that Radio & Records “deemed Gary Owens ‘The Babe Ruth of Radio.’ ”
The Internet is, for understandable reasons, mistaken.
Shortly after I began writing a column about radio personalities for R&R, I did a lengthy interview piece about Gary Owens.
I titled it “The Babe Ruth of Radio.”
If The Internet is going to immortalize that accolade, I proudly lay claim to it.
I’ve never met anyone who experienced Gary Owens as anything other than generous, gracious and kind.
I’ve never heard of anyone who ever heard of Gary complaining about anything or anyone.
So I was shocked to discover that he always felt lousy, physically:
“My childhood was not a happy one. I was never well. Being a diabetic, I always said, ‘Why do I have to not ever feel well?’ Juvenile diabetes…takes its toll in many ways. And perhaps that’s why many great comedy minds react in that situation by coming up with a fantasy world. There is a fantasy that we need to create, little islands in our minds. Diabetes is one of those illnesses where you can look at a person and say, ‘Hey, they look okay to me.’ But it leaves so many psychological scars….”
According to press reports, it was “complications related to diabetes” that took Gary from us. Gary fought that enemy all his life, kept it at bay (if not defeating it) for so long.
I guess friends, role models and living inspirations come with a price: Eventually you’re forced to go on without them.
Maybe it’s worth it. But when the time comes, that doesn’t make paying the price any less painful.
On the other hand, as I reread that last paragraph I found myself smiling, knowing that I’d continue to tell “Gary Owens stories” for the rest of my life.
If there is something new you want to do but are intimidated by the prospect of having to “learn new stuff…”
Say hello to Joseph Narducci, a graduate of the 2014 ACX Master Class for audiobook narrators
(We’re halfway through the 2015 class and Registration is 100% closed, so this isn’t a disguised sales pitch.)
As Joseph says here (scroll down to his name), “I started this class not knowing, and now I know how to record and produce audiobooks. It’s that simple.”
Earlier this week I began the day feeling as crummy as I usually feel when beginning a day.
Then I learned that for his first full-length audiobook, Joseph has been named a finalist in the 2015 Audie Awards.
Suddenly that became a wonderful day for me.
If you want to tackle something new….
If you have a dream you’ve been afraid to pursue….
This video is for you.
Last year when we launched the ACX Master Class for audiobook narrators, I made the “bold” (i.e., obvious) claim that once you get the hang of it, doing basic, linear audio editing of one person’s voice is “easier than learning to use a universal TV remote.”
My reference to universal remote controls was tongue-in-cheek. It also was, I believed, accurate.
Recording and editing your voice for audiobooks doesn’t require processing or sound layering or mixing.
If you know how to do that basic level of audio editing, you know that it really isn’t difficult.
But some people were outraged at my blasphemous comparison of the use of a TV remote and their audio editing artistry.
So….
Recently I conducted a poll on Facebook:
This is a real survey. Seriously.
If you know how to edit audio digitally and you have in your possession a Universal Remote Control for your TV/DVD/Cable/Satellite, etc….
Please tell me which one of these statements is accurate for you:
A) I still haven’t figured out how to use all the buttons on the universal remote control and wish they wouldn’t make it so confusing.
B) I know how to use all the buttons on the universal remote control, but at first it was confusing and frustrating.
C) I know how to use all the buttons on the universal remote control, and I never found it confusing.
The results?
Remember, all of the respondents already are experienced at audio editing. They’re not newbies.
37% responded A: “I still haven’t figured out how to use all the buttons on the universal remote control and wish they wouldn’t make it so confusing.”
34% responded B: “I know how to use all the buttons on the universal remote control, but at first it was confusing and frustrating.”
That’s 71% who agreed with me, which leaves only 29% who answered C: “I know how to use all the buttons on the universal remote control, and I never found it confusing.”
Does that mean that producing audiobooks is easier than watching television? Uh, no.
But like many of the respondents, I can digitally edit a linear voice recording easily and quickly…
While I still can’t figure out my remote control’s “Return” button is supposed to do.
