Gary Burbank

Last updated

Gary Burbank (born Billy Purser, July 1941 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American radio personality. He was heard daily on WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio, from June 15, 1981, until December 21, 2007, and nationally as the voice of his fictional character, Earl Pitts, in nationally syndicated commentaries until 2021.

Contents

Radio career

Burbank began his radio career as "Bill Williams" at KLPL in Lake Providence, Louisiana, then adopted the name "Johnny Apollo" when he worked at KUZN in West Monroe, Louisiana. [1] That was followed by stints in his hometown at WMPS in the mid-1960s and then in 1967 and early 1968 at WWUN in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1968 he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he became an instant hit on WAKY. It was at WAKY that Billy Purser officially became Gary Burbank, a name taken from radio and television legend Gary Owens, who as a regular on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In would announce that he was broadcasting from "beautiful downtown Burbank." (Burbank's natural voice is remarkably similar to Owens' on-air voice, and Owens contributed announcements to Burbank's programs in later years.)

Burbank left WAKY in 1973; during his final program, there was an elaborate prank in which he pretended to be fatally shot by a disgruntled listener. [2] At that point, he moved to New Orleans for a brief stint as program director of WNOE. From New Orleans, Burbank went on to CKLW in Detroit/Windsor in the mid 70's, and then back to Louisville for a successful, lengthy afternoon gig on WHAS-AM. Burbank left Louisville again for a brief spell in Tampa, Florida at WDAE, but moved to the Ohio Valley in 1981 when he signed with WLW, originally doing morning drive time but later moving to afternoons. It is there that he has enjoyed his greatest success, developing his best-known characters:

Burbank regularly satirized former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer, along with other local politicians, newscasters, and celebrities, such as former Cincinnati Reds owner "Saint CEO" Marge Schott. Satirical radio serials were also used to lampoon the (often struggling) Reds baseball team ("The Reds and the Restless","The Hunt for Reds October") and the Cincinnati Bengals ("All My Bengals"). Burbank also hit the Top 100 in 1980 with the song "Who Shot J. R.?", a novelty record about the cliffhanger on that year's season finale of Dallas .

Another feature of his show was the sports trivia quiz show Sports or Consequences which ran during the 4:00 hour during his afternoon show on 700 WLW. The show was unusual in that the callers asked the hosts (Burbank and his supporting cast, plus a number of other WLW on air personalities) sports trivia questions, instead of the hosts asking the callers questions. If questions were not asked in proper form, the caller could expect the call to end with a loud boom (and a sound clip: "sounded like a big supplosion"). Proper form included not asking if the panel would, or could, answer with the correct name or fact..."Can we? YES!" Upon expressing satisfaction that they had answered correctly, the panel broke out in chant; "Heyyy! We don't...we don't...we don't mess around...HEY!"

Burbank often did his show from a home in north central Florida, while the rest of his show's cast and crew was in the WLW studios in Cincinnati.

Burbank's show in the late 1990s was syndicated out of WLW to other regional stations (including WTVN in Columbus, WAKR in Akron and WERE in Cleveland). By 1999, the show would revert to being only on WLW, although a weekly "best-of" show dubbed the Weekly Rear-View– which featured mostly character bits and little-to-no Cincinnati-centric material – would run until his retirement. The network (and eventually, the program itself) was called "The BBC: The Broad-bank Burb-casting Corporation," a send-up of Gary Owens' classic line.

Today, Earl Pitts' daily "commentaries" are still syndicated throughout the country on about 200 stations. Burbank's show was also eventually heard, along with the rest of WLW's programming, on XM Satellite Radio Channel 173.

Burbank has won several major awards, including back-to-back Marconi Awards as Large Market Personality of the Year in 1990 and 1991.

In November 2012, Burbank was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. [4]

Restaurant ownership

Burbank founded and co-owned Burbank's Real Bar-B-Q and Ribs restaurant in Sharonville, Ohio. In December 2009, the restaurant closed.

The Sharonville restaurant was the first to open and last to close. There were others, including one at I-75 and US 42 in Florence, Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky and one on Colonel Glenn Highway in Fairborn, Ohio near Wright State University and Wright Patterson Air Force Base, and for a brief period, one in Columbus, Ohio at the corner of Bethel and Sawmill Roads. There were also locations at 3300 Parkcrest Lane in Western Hills and another one in the Eastgate area of Cincinnati.

Retirement

On March 7, 2007, Burbank announced that he would retire on December 31, at the expiration of his contract. [5] The last show was broadcast on Friday, December 21, 2007. Despite Burbank's retirement, Earl Pitts' commentaries continued to broadcast on its network of affiliates including WLW. Burbank finally ended the Pitts commentaries on January 1, 2021, citing age and health problems. [6]

On September 23, 2009, Burbank returned to the airwaves at his old timeslot with then-hosts Eddie Fingers and Tracy Jones promoting his new book "Voices In My Head."

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Owens</span> American DJ and radio personality (1934–2015)

Gary Owens was an American disc jockey, voice actor, announcer and radio personality. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offered deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated as the announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Owens was equally proficient in straight or silly assignments and was frequently heard on television and radio as well as in commercials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WLW</span> Clear-channel news/talk radio station in Cincinnati

WLW is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as “The Big One”. Its studios are located in Sycamore Township.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WLWT</span> NBC affiliate in Cincinnati

WLWT is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on Young Street, and its transmitter is located on Chickasaw Street, both in the Mount Auburn neighborhood of Cincinnati.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WCKY (AM)</span> Radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio

WCKY – branded "Cincinnati's ESPN 1530" – is a commercial sports AM radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio, serving the Cincinnati metropolitan area. Owned by iHeartMedia, its studios are located in the Kenwood section of Sycamore Township, while its transmitter site is a four-tower facility in suburban Villa Hills, Kentucky. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WCKY is available online via iHeartRadio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WHAS (AM)</span> Radio station in Louisville, Kentucky

WHAS is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Louisville, Kentucky and owned by iHeartMedia, Inc.. Its studios are at Fourth Street Live! in downtown Louisville. First licensed in July 1922, it is the oldest radio station in Kentucky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WCVX</span> Radio station in Florence, Kentucky

WCVX is a radio station licensed to Florence, Kentucky in the Cincinnati metropolitan area. WCVX is owned by the Christian Broadcasting System and it carries a Christian radio format. Its studios and offices are on West Seventh Street in Cincinnati and its transmitter is off Fowler Creek Road in Florence. WCVX broadcasts with a directional antenna with 5,000 watts in the daytime but at night it reduces power to 990 watts to protect KSL in Salt Lake City, the Class A Clear-channel station on 1160 kHz. WYLL in Chicago, Illinois is the only other full-time 50,000-watt station on 1160 AM, although it is a Class B station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milton Metz</span>

Milton Metz was an American radio and television personality in Louisville, Kentucky. He occasionally did commercial work for local radio and television stations until he was unable to due to his health in the last year of his life.

William Daniel Cunningham is an American radio and television talk show host, conservative commentator, attorney, and entrepreneur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WKRC (AM)</span> Talk radio station in Cincinnati

WKRC is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. The station airs a talk radio format, under the branding "55KRC". The station's offices and studios are on Montgomery Road off Interstate 71 in Cincinnati.

Mike McConnell is an American talk radio host most recently on WLW in Cincinnati from 2014 through present, on WGN in Chicago from 2010 to 2013 and for the prior 25 years on WLW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WSAI</span> Radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio

WSAI is a Cincinnati, Ohio commercial radio station. Owned and operated by iHeartMedia, its studios, as well as those of iHeartMedia's other Cincinnati stations, are in the Towers of Kenwood building next to I-71 in the Kenwood section of Sycamore Township, and its transmitter site is in Mount Healthy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montgomery Inn</span> Restaurant

Montgomery Inn is a barbecue restaurant chain based in the Cincinnati suburb of Montgomery, Ohio, United States. It is best known for its specialty, loin back ribs, and the barbecue sauce used in preparation and serving.

WKRD is a sports formatted AM radio station in the Louisville, Kentucky, metropolitan area. It is owned by iHeartMedia, and is known as Sports Talk 790AM. The station is best known for being a Top 40 powerhouse in the 1960s and 1970s as WAKY. The station's studios are located in the Louisville enclave of Watterson Park and the transmitter site is in east Louisville southwest of the I-64/I-265 interchange.

Earl Pitts is a fictional character performed by Gary Burbank, a radio personality from Cincinnati, Ohio beginning in 1968.

Bruce Dale Sommers, known by his nickname "The Truckin' Bozo", was an American radio personality, best known for his long-running country music show geared toward truck drivers. Sommers hosted the overnight show from Cincinnati, Ohio-based clear-channel station WLW from 1984 to 2004, and it was carried by a small network of similarly high-powered stations across the United States. Sommers discontinued playing music on his nightly show, focusing on general and truck news, and talk from his listeners. Sommers announced his retirement from radio in 2004, but XM Satellite Radio was successful in getting him to do an afternoon truck show, which aired on Sirius Satellite Radio and XM from 4 PM to 7 PM Eastern time. Sommers retired from XM/Sirius on June 21, 2012, only to return for the last time on July 16, 2012.

Paul Keels is the current play-by-play announcer for Ohio State University's football and men's basketball teams for WBNS Radio and the Ohio State Sports Network.

Midwestern Hayride, sometimes known as Midwest Hayride and later Hayride, was an American country music show originating in the 1930s from radio station WLW and later from television station WLW-T in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the 1950s it was carried nationally by NBC and then ABC television.

Renfro Valley Barn Dance was an American country music stage and radio show originally carried by WLW-AM in Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday nights. It debuted on October 9, 1937, from the Cincinnati Music Hall and moved to the Memorial Auditorium in Dayton, Ohio. It was hosted by John Lair, Red Foley, Cotton Foley, and Whitey Ford.

Byron Garrison Crawford is a former television journalist and newspaper columnist from Louisville, Kentucky.

The Cincinnati Bengals Radio Network is an American radio network consisting of 37 radio stations which carry coverage of the Cincinnati Bengals, a professional football team in the NFL. Three Cincinnati radio stations—WCKY (1530 AM), WEBN (102.7 FM), and WLW (700 AM)—serve as the network's flagship stations; WLW also simulcasts over a low-power FM translator. The network also includes 39 affiliates in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and West Virginia: 27 AM stations, 18 of which extend their signals with one or more low-power FM translators; and 12 full-power FM stations. Dan Hoard is the current play-by-play announcer, while Dave Lapham serves as color commentator. In addition to traditional over-the-air AM and FM broadcasts, the Bengals are available on SiriusXM satellite radio, and online with NFL Audio Pass.

References

  1. ↑ O'Day, Dan (July 22, 1988). "WLW's Master Of Characters" (PDF). Radio & Records. p. 39. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Welcome to 79WAKY.com - WAKY Gary Burbank Airchecks".
  3. ↑ "Riley Girt - The First Best of The US Senseless Surveys - CD Baby". Archived from the original on 15 November 2009.
  4. ↑ "Gary Burbank". National Radio Hall Of Fame. 2017. Archived from the original on January 10, 2017. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
  5. ↑ Kiesewetter, John (2007-03-07). "WLW's Burbank will retire" . The Cincinnati Enquirer . Retrieved 2007-03-07.
  6. ↑ "After 35 Years, It's 'Pitts Off' for Gary Burbank's Earl Pitts". 15 December 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.