In March, Clarke Ingram wrote me (and then told Facebook friends) that he was officially “unretired” from radio. Ingram had been inspired by KOAI (Wow Factor) Phoenix, WAKY Louisville, Ky., and the other stations overperforming a fringe signal with the ‘60s/’70s songs that were gone from Classic Hits.
From the ‘70s to the early ‘00s, Ingram was a jock’s jock and a CHR programmer who had garnered a 23-share at KRQQ Tucson, Ariz., the highest number most of us will ever see for a top-100 market CHR. He was one of radio (and TV)’s great archivists. On Nov. 25, he died at age 66.
Clarke Ingram loved radio more than radio loved him back. There a lot of people fitting that description these days, but it was disproportionate. And with Ingram gone, radio is at least 5-7% less loved, and that’s counting how he felt about radio’s diminishment. The thing that could have most easily kept him busy, when he was sidelined by family and health issues, was voice-tracking, the thing he didn’t want to do.
Unlike many broadcasters though, Ingram re-engaged with radio. I could tell because around that time something in the newsletter occasioned an e-mail conversation almost every week. If he had found a home for his version of the format, he would have immediately joined KOAI’s John Sebastian or KDRI (The Drive) Tucson’s Bobby Rich in the “why did they ever leave?” category. It was a First Listen I would love to have written.
Instead, I’m sharing my First Listen to Ingram himself, as heard in nights on WXKX (96KX) Pittsburgh in late August 1981. I was taking a bus, rather than flying, back to school, so I could hear more radio. I was excited to hear rival WBZZ (B94), one of the first “all-the-hits” CHRs that helped lift the format out of its early-‘80s doldrums. But Ingram is the DJ who I remember hearing decades later.
96KX, like many stations of that era, was essentially Album Rock radio with jingles. Later, Ingram (also the Music Director) would share his frustration about playing “Pledge Pin” by Robert Plant when B94 was bringing R&B and pop back to Pittsburgh CHR. (The first song on this aircheck, relevant to the first break, is “Nothing Ever Goes as Planned” by Styx.) Eventually, Ingram would be on B94 and return later as PD.
On this aircheck, Ingram is just riffing on songs and station business. Like a lot of my airchecks from that time, nothing unusual happens except that a relative newcomer shows great facility with Top 40 radio at an early age. (You can also tell that I’m taping as the bus pulls away from the market; by the time late nighter Steve Garrett shows up, we were practically to the Ohio border.) But on a trip that took me from Washington to Detroit via Chicago, cities with great radio and great talent, hearing Ingram made the greatest impression.
My First Listen doesn’t have to be your Final Listen. Maverick, whose prolific aircheck offerings I’ve written about recently, posted this aircheck of Ingram at KZZP Phoenix, during his mid-‘80s ascendency to stardom. Discovered by Ingram on one of his airchecking trips, Maverick would work for him in Tucson and posted this from KRQ in 1987. Ellis B. Feaster has Ingram doing a flashback countdown on suburban Pittsburgh’s WKHB, also a great showcase and a hint as to what his WAKY or KDRI might have been. He’s also on this FMAirchecks.com mid-to-late-‘80s composite of KZZP.
NorthEast Radio Watch’s Scott Fybush has written a definitive appreciation of Ingram, available here.
When they first broke off from WTAE in 1977, 96KX was a pretty straight ahead CHR, disco included. By 1980, they had begun their AOR lean but, like in your aircheck, you could occasionally hear a Commodores or “Being with You.” About a year after B94 came in, they basically went full on AOR, not exactly the best idea when you have WDVE in the market plus a nascent CHR boom.
And in February 1983, they completely revamped it as Hitradio 96, WHTX. Clarke was collateral damage in a much-publicized jock swap later in that year involving WTAE and KDKA, and soon moved to B94.
I wonder if I may have been one of the last to visit him; in late June. He’d written on FB that he’d had spinal surgery and was in a nursing home but “in good spirits”. So at his urging I brought some foods from Moe’s and we had a couple hours visit. Being confined to bed, his big project was converting mono singles to stereo on his laptop; I listened to a few and they were nicely done. His voice was still being used on at least WKFB-770 top of hour IDs
So I’m very sad to hear he’s gone. We had some great tower visits in the 90s and at WHXT-99.9 and at Z100.
Thanks, Sean, for a great tribute to a great broadcaster. Like you, I’m sorry he didn;t get one last opportunity to demonstrate his formidable on-air or programming gifts.