Veteran air-talent, programmer and broadcast historian Clarke Ingram died on Saturday, November 25 after a series of illnesses at the age of 66.
A Pittsburgh native, Ingram spent the majority of his career in his hometown starting on-air at “96KX” WXKX and successor “HitRadio 96” WHTX before jumping to “B94” WBZZ, while helping launch “Q94” WBXQ Altoona PA as a consultant. He would then head to Arizona and programming with stints at 104.7 KZZP Phoenix and then as Program Director of “93.7 KRQ” KRQQ Tucson at the peak of the 80s CHR boom. Ingram would then move back home to program WBZZ and “Hot 99.9” WHXT Allentown PA, while working on-air at “Eagle 106” WEGX Philadelphia and “Z100” WHTZ New York. In 1994, Ingram would begin a five year stint as Program Director of CHR 97.9 WPXY Rochester and later adding those duties at then sister AC 100.5 WVOR.
Pittsburgh would call home again in 1999 as Ingram joined Jammin Oldies “104.7 The Beat” WJJJ as Program Director. After stepping away from radio to care for his ailing mother and stepfather, outside of a weekend stint at Oldies “94.5 3WS” WWSW, Ingram would spend the remainder of his life in Pittsburgh with stints as OM/PD of Broadcast Communications’ 620 WKHB/770 WKFB from 2006-11. and R&B Oldies 1550 WZUM from 2013-15. He spent his last years in and out of nursing homes, but attempted to launch a new radio consultancy earlier this year.
Ingram was also a noted broadcast historian archiving the history of early UHF television and the DuMont Network.
Brandon Charles 
Sean D, Ross 
Tom Stevens (Dr Tom) 
I decided recently it was time to get rid of Facebook, but I’ve been so fortunate to have been following his journey, and even having conversations up till recently with Clarke. A fellow alumni and employee of Broadcast Communications, Ben Lawrence told me that he worked with him and put us in touch with each other. The first thing he had me do was watch the movie Network, what an amazing movie that is! We talked on the phone a lot during one of my Christmas breaks from 91.9 WCAL California, Pa. I think one of the most haunting and perplexing thing about reading this news is thinking about a conversation we had regarding 104.7 the beat, and a promising talent, named, BJ Forsyth! We lost BJ a year ago, due to a car accident, right around this time, now they are both with our Lord, Jesus Christ.
I was the first person in Pittsburgh radio to break the news about Whitney Houston’s death, because Clarke happened to be listening that evening, and he supported me throughout my years in radio. Lance, thank you for including the Facebook tributes I would have otherwise not seen, Kobe is my favorite, since he was that next generation, and he gave me a platform every other day to be on B94 for the 5 o’clock most wanted, and I will forever owe him gratitude for that.
I’ll keep this shorter by saying, my thoughts on radio these days, pretty much mirror that of Clarke’s anymore, but I thank Clarke for seeing value in people, not for their market size, but for their passion. They don’t make them like that anymore. It is touching to see how many people have the exact same experience that I did, no matter where they were. And in closing, I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!!
I was an aircheck piker compared to Clarke, who probably had tape of everybody reading this obit, but I did happen to be taping when I heard him for the first time on 96KX Pittsburgh. I was inspired this morning to post that aircheck for the first time.
I am sadden to hear the passing of Clarke.
We first met in person when I was programming Q94 Cresson/Altoona in the early 90s
Clarke was instrumental in the early days of Q94.
Today, radio (a career We love) is ONE less…
Clarke is above kicking the TOH and hitting posts on a 100MW Fm…RIP MY FRIEND….
Clarke and I became acquainted in 2011 when I offered to update part of his website on the history of the DuMont network. That led to the creation of the UHF History site, which was essentially an expansion of my original research and which grew to include dozens of articles on defunct analog UHF stations. Clarke dubbed me the “content coordinator” and in the aftermath of the sites going dark because he was unable to renew the domains (his health was in serious decline at that point) David Gleason and I recreated the site using my own archives of the content. Sadly, he was never able to send me the images he had on his own laptop so those are missing now, but at least the site was not permanently lost to history.
On a personal level, I liked him immensely and we had a lot of discussions over the years about the business. A programming genius and great on=air talent … I hope that radio station in Rock & Roll Heaven is ready for him to take the PD chair.