Fred Ronald Lundy (June 25, 1934 – March 15, 2010) was a popular

radio announcer An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience on a broadcast media programme or live event either on radio or television. Television and other media Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, heard on WABC

770 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 770 kHz: 770 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency. WABC New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, loca ...

from 1965 to 1982 and on

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

101.1 from 1984 until his retirement in 1997.

Career

Lundy was born June 25, 1934, in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, the only child of Fred Sr., a railroad engineer, and Mary Lundy. He served in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

after graduating from

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

. Following the completion of his military stint, he returned to his hometown and attended a local

radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...

school on the

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

.Hevesi, Dennis. "Ron Lundy, a Rock D.J. in New York, Is Dead at 75", ''The New York Times'', Wednesday, March 17, 2010.
/ref> At the same time, he worked across the street at WHHM-AM, where he got his first on-air experience one night when he substituted for the regular disc jockey who failed to report for his shift. This resulted in Lundy being hired as a full-time radio announcer by

Hodding Carter William Hodding Carter II (February 3, 1907 – April 4, 1972) was an American progressive journalist and author. Among other distinctions in his career, Carter was a Nieman Fellow and Pulitzer Prize winner. He died in Greenville, Mississippi, ...

for WDDT 1330 AM, the latter's new station in

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, ninth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, and the largest city by population in the Mississippi Delta region. It is the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, Was ...

.Hathorne, Kathryn. "'Hello Love, This Is Ron Lundy,'" ''The Calhoun County'' (MS) ''Journal''.
After a stop in

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, at WLCS-AM, Lundy was brought to WIL-AM in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, in 1960 by

Dan Ingram Daniel Trombley Ingram (September 7, 1934 – June 24, 2018) was an American Top 40 radio "disc jockey", in a 50-year career on radio stations, which included WABC and WCBS-FM, both ln New York City. Career "Big Dan" started broadcasting at ...

, who was the station's

program director In service industries, such as education, a program manager or program director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services. For example, in education, a program director is responsible for developing ...

until the middle of the next year.Ron Lundy, WIL St. Louis, February 28, 1962 – The Larry Ware Collection.
/ref>

Nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

d the "Wil' Child", Lundy had a style which was described as a combination of "country and

crawfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some spe ...

pie" by broadcaster Bob Whitney, who also played a major role in the appointment. Lundy was reunited with Ingram at WABC

in 1965. He made his New York radio debut on September 1, working the overnight shift as "The Swingin' Nightwalker." Beginning in May 1966, he became the midday fixture at the station for the next sixteen years. With his

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

"Hello, Love—this is Ron Lundy from the Greatest City in the World," he usually preceded Ingram's afternoon

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

program, and sometimes when Ingram was running late to the studio, Lundy would keep going until Dan arrived, doing impressions of ''

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by American magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by Gibs ...

'', where he would play

Margo Lane Margo Lane is a fictional character in ''The Shadow'' stories. Margo is a friend and companion to Lamont Cranston, and an agent for his alter ego, The Shadow, in the wealthy set. Her first appearance was in 1937 in ''The Shadow'' radio drama. ...

and Lamont Cranston. The two best friends hosted ''The Last Show'' before WABC's format conversion from music to

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

at noon on May 10, 1982. In February 1984, Lundy resurfaced at New York's oldies station

in the mid-morning slot, following former WABC colleague Harry Harrison. According to program director Joe McCoy, the station created the slot especially for Lundy, reducing other shifts from four hours to three. In June, 1997, Lundy's WCBS-FM show was awarded the 1997 "BronzeWorld Medal" at the New York Festivals Radio Programming Awards for the "best local personality". Lundy retired from WCBS-FM on September 18, 1997. Ron and his wife Shirley moved to the small town of Bruce, Mississippi. However, during this time, Lundy did occasional interviews with Mark Simone on ''The Saturday Night Oldies Show'' for his former station, WABC. Lundy's

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...

made two

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

s during his career. The first one was in an early scene in ''

Midnight Cowboy ''Midnight Cowboy'' is a 1969 American drama film directed by John Schlesinger, adapted by Waldo Salt from the 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy. The film stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with supporting roles played by Sylvia Miles, J ...

'', when Joe Buck, hearing a Lundy WABC broadcast while listening to his

portable radio The most familiar form of radio receiver is a broadcast radio receiver, often just called a broadcast receiver or simply a radio, as used for radio broadcasting. It receives audio programs intended for public reception transmitted by local radio ...

, realized that the

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he was riding soon approached New York City. The other was in WCBS-FM's customized version of

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 1 ...

's 1985 hit "

We Built This City "We Built This City" is the debut single by American rock band Starship, from their 1985 debut album '' Knee Deep in the Hoopla''. It was written by English musicians Martin Page and Bernie Taupin, who were both living in Los Angeles at the time ...

"Ron Lundy Retires From Radio – Musicradio77.com.
/ref> (heard only on their station, not to be confused with the original commercial studio version which featured former disc jockey Les Garland). Lundy was inducted into the St. Louis Hall Radio Hall of Fame on January 1, 2006, with a banquet held June 10, 2006.

Death

Lundy died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

at age 75 on March 15, 2010, at a hospital in

Oxford, Mississippi Oxford is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, 14th most populous city in Mississippi, United States, and the county seat of Lafayette County, Mississippi, Lafayette County, southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis. A college town, Oxford ...

. He had recently been recovering from a previous heart attack after being dehydrated.

Family

Ron's widow, Shirley Ann Barnes Lundy, died on Feb. 2, 2013 at age 76 in Bruce, Mississippi.

Characters

Lundy's show included banter with his created characters. Among them: *"Willard" (himself, imitating a duck that sounded a great deal like

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

) *"Mama" (voice of engineer Al Vertucci) *"Bubba" (voice of production director Bob Sagendorf)

References

External links

WABC DJ

STL Radio
*
"We Built This City"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lundy, Ron 1934 births 2010 deaths Radio personalities from New York City People from Bruce, Mississippi