Daniel Trombley Ingram (September 7, 1934 – June 24, 2018) was an American

Top 40 radio Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobil ...

with a 50-year career on radio stations such as WABC and

WCBS-FM WCBS-FM (101.1 FM) is a radio station offering a classic hits format licensed to New York City and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood in lower Man ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Career

"Big Dan" started broadcasting at WHCH

Hofstra College Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of ...

, Hempstead; WNRC,

New Rochelle New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state o ...

; and WALK-FM,

Patchogue Patchogue (, ) is a village in Suffolk County, New York. The population was 11,798 at the time of the 2010 census. Patchogue is part of the town of Brookhaven, on the south shore of Long Island, adjoining Great South Bay. It is officially kno ...

, all in New York State. Ingram was one of the most highly regarded DJs from his era. He was noted for his quick wit and ability to convey a humorous or satiric idea with fast pacing and an economy of words, a skill that rendered him uniquely suited to, and successful within, modern personality-driven music radio. He was among the most frequently emulated radio personalities, cited as an influence or inspiration by numerous current broadcasters. One of Ingram's unique skills was his ability to "talk up" to the lyrics of a record, meaning speaking over the musical introduction and finishing exactly at the point when the lyrics started. Ingram was well known for playing doctored versions of popular songs. The

Paul McCartney and Wings Wings were a British-American rock band formed in 1971 by former Beatle bassist Paul McCartney, his wife Linda McCartney on keyboards, session drummer Denny Seiwell, and former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine. Wings were noted for their com ...

lyrics "My Love Does it Good" from " My Love" became "My Glove Does it Good". The stuttering title refrain of

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

's "

Bennie and the Jets "Bennie and the Jets" (also titled "Benny & the Jets") is a song written by English musician Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin, and performed by John. The song first appeared on the ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' album in 1973. "Bennie and ...

" went from three or four repetitions to countless. In the same vein, the distinctive refrain added to "

Hooked on a Feeling "Hooked on a Feeling" is a 1968 pop song, written by Mark James and originally performed by B. J. Thomas. Thomas's version featured the sound of the electric sitar (played by Reggie Young) and reached No. 5 in 1969 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 1 ...

" by

Blue Swede Blue Swede were a Swedish rock band fronted by Björn Skifs which was active between the years 1973–1979. Blue Swede released two albums of cover versions, including a rendition of " Hooked on a Feeling", which brought them international char ...

, "Ooga-chucka-ooga-ooga" would start repeating and listeners would never know when it would end.

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

's "

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the second single from his fourth studio album, '' Still Crazy After All These Years'' (1975), released on Columbia Records. Backing vocals on the singl ...

" became "50 Ways to Love Your Leaver" and "49 Ways to Relieve Your Liver", and Ingram "rearranged" the spelling of "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y" on the

Bay City Rollers The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity in the 1970s. They have been called the " tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh" and one of many acts heralded as the "biggest group since the B ...

' " Saturday Night". He had a daily "Honor Group of the Day" (for example, cops on the beat), and a "Word of the Day" (such as humdinger). His longtime closing theme song was "Tri-Fi Drums" by

Billy May Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet'' (1966), ''The Mod Squad'' (1968), ''Batman'' (with ''Batgirl'' theme ...

. An edited version of the song was used for broadcast.

TV commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

Ingram narrated include a 1970 promo for free cut-out records of Archies songs on the backs of Post

Honeycomb A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. Beekeepers may remove the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about of honey ...

and

Alpha-Bits Alpha-Bits, also known as Frosted Alpha-Bits, was a brand of breakfast cereal made by Post Consumer Brands, which contained frosted alphabet-shaped multi-grain (whole-grain oat and corn flour) cereal bits. Post Cereals also started producing "Mar ...

cereals. Ingram also worked for cable channel HBO in the mid-1980s, mostly as the off-camera host of ''HBO Coming Attractions'' (a monthly show featuring previews of HBO's upcoming programming; occasionally he would co-host with another HBO voice, Joyce Gordon) and various voiceover roles, though he did occasionally appear on camera in early 1986 as part of the ''HBO Weekend'' interstitials of the time. Ingram was also featured prominently in his son Chris's book, ''Hey Kemosabe! The Days (and Nights) of a Radio Idyll'', a fictionalized account of the Musicradio WABC era.

On air history

* 1958: WICC,

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequo ...

(under the name Rae Tayler) * 1958: WNHC,

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

* 1959: KBOX,

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, Texas * 1959-1960: WIL, St. Louis, Missouri * July 3, 1961-May 10, 1982: WABC,

. He and Ron Lundy were on-air as the station switched to TalkRadio. * April 1984-December 1986: Hosted CBS Radio's ''Top 40 Satellite Survey'' (aired on 118 stations across the United States as of March 1985). * 1984-June 1985:

WKTU WKTU (103.5 FM) is a rhythmic adult contemporary formatted radio station city of license, licensed to Lake Success, New York, a suburb of New York City. WKTU is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former 32 Avenue of the Ame ...

(92.3 FM), New York City * 1986-1987: announcer for ''

Nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...

'', a late-night TV talk show hosted by

David Brenner David Norris Brenner (February 4, 1936 – March 15, 2014) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author. The most frequent guest on '' The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' in the 1970s and 1980s, Brenner "was a pioneer of obser ...

* 1987-1988: ''The Weekend Music Review'', a weekly Adult Contemporary radio program that counted down the top 20 AC records today, and highlighted what was going on 20, 15, 10, and 1 yr ago that weekend.

JAM Creative Productions JAM Creative Productions, Inc., is an American company that produces radio jingles, promo music for television, and commercial jingles for advertisers. It has made more radio jingles than any other jingle company and has become part of America ...

, Dallas produced and syndicated from 1987 to 1988. Julie Sizemore handled affiliate relations. Dan Ingram was host of "The Weekend Music Review" 3 hour AC show. * October 1991-June 2003, September 16, 2007: New York Radio Greats on

, New York City * June 1998: KRTH,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. One week as "guest DJ," ostensibly a tryout for the morning drive spot previously held by

Robert W. Morgan Robert Wilbur Morgan (July 23, 1937 – May 22, 1998) was an American radio personality best known for his work at several stations in Los Angeles, California, in particular KHJ-AM. Morgan also did morning drive at KMPC-AM, KIQQ-FM and KMG ...

, who had died a month earlier. The job went to

Charlie Van Dyke Charlie Van Dyke (born Charles Leo Steinle; July 26, 1947) is a former radio disc jockey who is best known for his voice work on radio and television stations. He is recognized by his deep, booming voice. Originally from Dallas, Van Dyke was wor ...

. * February 8, 2004: Fab-40th Weekend on WAXQ, New York

Personal life

Ingram had been diagnosed with

Parkinsonian syndrome Parkinsonism is a clinical syndrome characterized by tremor, bradykinesia (slowed movements), rigidity, and postural instability. These are the four motor symptoms found in Parkinson's disease (PD), after which it is named, dementia with Lewy bo ...

in 2014, and died after choking while eating. Upon his death, Ingram was survived by his wife, Maureen Donnelly. He also had five sons (Christopher, Daniel, David, Robert, and Phillip), four daughters (Patricia, Michelle, Christina, and Jacqueline), two stepdaughters (Laura and Linda), 26 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. His brother was John W. Ingram, who was the final president of the

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At the end ...

when the company went bankrupt on March 31, 1980.

References

External links

Musicradio77.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ingram, Dan 1934 births 2018 deaths American radio DJs Radio personalities from New York City Hofstra University alumni People from Oceanside, New York Deaths from dementia in Florida