I never heard his show, but I heard about him. Al Rosen is a Chicago radio engineer who worked with John Landecker at WLS, and he and I have become friends over the years. Al worked with Dan in New York before coming to Chicago, and he told me some great stories about him.
Ken Levine writes one of my favorite blogs. Ken was a writer for Cheers, Frasier, and just about every funny sitcom from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. He's also a radio fanatic, and this is part of the tribue he wrote about Dan on his blog this morning...
I first heard Dan in the mid ‘60s. Growing up in Los Angeles I knew of WABC but had never heard them. So I wrote a letter to the station asking for a sample of their programming. They sent a one-hour tape of a recent Dan Ingram show. Within ten minutes my head almost exploded. This guy was so funny, so quick, so fearless (he often goofed on commercials and the music), had such a great voice, precision timing weaving his content into the intro of records, and somehow managed to communicate as if he were talking only to me. I had heard some great disc jockeys. The Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Larry Lujack, Gary Owens, Don McKinnon, but I’m sorry, Dan Ingram was the best. He said more funny things in one hour (and all off the cuff) than anyone else did in a week. And he continued doing that for almost fifty years. It’s utterly mind-boggling. And if you thought he was funny on the air -- when he turned that mic off that's when the real hilarity took place.
Art Vuolo, radio's best friend, has posted this tribute video of Dan in action from 1992...
RIP, Mr. Ingram. He passed away over the weekend.
