This is terrible news and the timing, at least for me, is bizarre. For some reason, he popped into my head (there's not much else in there, as many here know!) last week and I was wondering how he was doing. I knew he was old and I knew he wasn't well, and I wondered just how much time he had left.

Turns out, not much. 

Ingram was known as "the disc jockey's disc jockey," the on air guy everyone aspired to be. The fact that he worked afternoons/nights on the legendary WABC meant we got to hear him a lot in Toronto for many years.   

His show during the infamous 1965 eastern North America blackout is legendary, as he tried to figure out why the turntables were slowing down. (You can hear it here.)  If memory serves, it was Ingram who grabbed a selection of records and went out to the WABC transmitter (I think it's in Lodi, N.J.) where there was still power to keep the Mighty 77 on the air. He stayed there for days. 

He was still bringing it when he worked weekends for WCBS and it wasn't until age caught up to him that his exceptional talent dimmed. The last time I heard him on air was during an interview on the old Mark Simone Saturday night show on ABC, where they recreated the glory Top 40 days of the station. He didn't sound very good and it was clear that time was taking its toll.

There was one story I remember that was told by "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, who followed Dan on WABC and it's apparently the only time anyone every broke Ingram up on the air. It started when Bruce just happened to go shopping for underwear, which he confided in his book, he needed badly. He walked into the control room with a bag filled with them just as Ingram told his audience during a weather forecast that, "There will be brief showers tonight." 

And that's when Brucie threw the bag at the glass, letting a dozen pair of underwear fly all over the room, thus proving Ingram's prediction true. The entire thing, coupled with the odd spontaneity of it, struck Ingram as hilarious and he started to laugh so hard, he couldn't continue, and they went to a jingle into a record.

​There's a ton of Ingram airchecks on Dale's Rockradioscrapbook.ca and all of them are well worth a listen for how it should be done.  

A lot of greats from those classic days of radio have signed off for good. There are few that will be mourned by fans more than Ingram. I'm very sad to hear he's gone. 

Bye Kemosabe!

I believe it's tonight.  I believe Cousin Brucie will do a tribute to Ingram on Sirius/XM.