Gary Burbank

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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.

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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 time slot of 3p-6p with then hosts Eddie Fingers and Tracy Jones promoting his new book "Voices In My Head."

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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. 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.
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