Received this message from Johnny Helm, so I'm passing it on to my readers.
In Memoriam
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Our belated condolences go out to the family and friends of veteran
broadcaster Tom Becker, who died on Tuesday, April 24 in
Ramona, CA at the age of 68. Becker, also known by his air name of Bo
Donovan, began his radio career in 1964 at KXO in his
hometown of El Centro, CA. Two years later, Becker was named PD/morning
personality at KDES-AM & FM/Palm Springs, CA. Subsequent
stops included KROY/Sacramento and
KMEN/Riverside, and, from 1971-1973, Becker held programming
and on-air positions in Los Angeles with KDAY,
KLAC and KBQ. Becker was later named Director
of Programming for SRO Broadcasting in Seattle and supervised all nine SRO
stations, including the mighty KZOK, which rocketed from zero
to No. 1 in 63 days.
In October 1976, Becker joined Tuesday Productions in San Diego as VP of
its Broadcast Division. In 1984, Becker formed the creative services firm
Silvertree Inc. and served as the company's President and Creative Director. An
avid pilot, Becker devoted himself full-time to airport management for the
County of San Diego after retiring from the creative services industry. Becker
is survived by his wife of 44 years, Cova; two children; two
grandsons; and his mother, Grace. "Bo was a great broadcaster
and one of the nicest, funniest guys I have ever known," said Greenhouse
Marketing Group's Jim Hampton, who used to work with Becker
back in the day at Ken Draper and Chuck
Blore's syndication company, programming db. More details on Becker's
life and accomplishments can be found in his obituary,
where people can also leave messages for his family.
3 comments:
THANKS, JOHNNY. Tom was a helluva great sounding Morning Drive man during his heyday on the K/MEN,
recalling his smooth delivery and cheerful dictum during his broadcasts.
how sad he passed away while still so productively young in his Golden years! my sincere condolences to his survivors and friends.
Tom was truly a nice guy, and oh, how funny! A solid jock with perfect timing.
I followed him after his shift on K/Men, and I'll never forget the day he told me about his near-ticket, from the CHP! He had a muscle car, I believe it was a Dodge Challenger....One more citation and he was going to loose his license. When he got pulled over, he pretended that he was deaf and mute!! LOL... The rest of the story is priceless!
RIP Tom, we're gonna miss you.
YEAH-YEAH, those on-air-anecdotes of Tom's made for attentive listening during his sets. wish i could recall if he talked about his deaf 'n' dumb bit with CHIP on his show, but he definitely was on par with Dr. Don Rose i would say. mostly what i remember feeling is is the exuberant cheeriness of his vocal delivery, SMOOTH patter rhythm and his one-to-one focus with the radio audience -- the essence of what "REAL RADIO" used to be.
BTW, JOHNNY, i sure hope you are faring well and fine in all respects!
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