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Tony Pigg, a silky-voiced disc jockey who rode excessive throughout FM radio’s golden period — first supplying prolonged jams to the psychedelic underground on the seminal San Francisco radio station KSAN within the Sixties and later on the powerhouse rock station WPLJ in New York — died on April 26 at his dwelling in Manhattan. He was 85.
His loss of life was introduced by his spouse, Lucinda Scala Quinn.
Howard Stern lately mentioned on his SiriusXM satellite tv for pc radio present that he was enamored with Mr. Pigg’s work when he was rising up on Lengthy Island.
“He was a type of guys I used to be actually jealous of,” Mr. Stern mentioned. “After I was rising up I used to be like, ‘I need to be on the radio, however I don’t have a voice like Tony Pigg.’”
Jim Kerr, one other mainstay of the once-dominant WPLJ, mentioned in an announcement: “The heat and wit of Tony Pigg entertained a complete technology of New York radio listeners. His expertise was a significant cause why within the Seventies, WPLJ turned the most-listened-to FM station in America and is so fondly remembered at present.”
Mr. Pigg’s deep, sonorous voice was additionally a staple of tv. For 3 many years he was the announcer for the long-running New York-based reside morning present initially co-hosted by Regis Philbin, which has advanced into “Reside With Kelly and Mark,” now starring Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.
Tony Pigg was born Richard Joseph Quinn on April 11, 1939, in Sacramento to Philomena (Cantisano) Quinn, a courtroom stenographer, and Joseph Quinn, a corrections officer and milkman. He studied artwork underneath the painter Wayne Thiebaud at California State College, Sacramento, and served a stint within the Military earlier than deciding to pursue a profession in radio.
He dropped out of faculty to get his radio license and, after honing his craft at stations in Winslow, Ariz., and his hometown, landed at KSAN, a soundtrack of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury scene. It was there that his authentic “nom de disc,” as he known as it — Tony (after a favourite uncle) Bigg (as a result of he was 6-foot-4) — morphed into “Tony Pigg” after a colleague garbled “Bigg” throughout a gathering.
“It was humorous, so I saved it,” he mentioned in a 1983 interview with The Each day Merchandise of Port Chester N.Y. “Despite the fact that it was humorous for a couple of week.”
The station was not a spot the place folks obtained hung up on particulars. “We have been a bunch of hippies — longhaired freaks,” he informed The Each day Information of New York in 1989.
Eschewing Prime 40 playlists and breathless D.J. banter for deep album cuts and anti-establishment satire, KSAN served as a cradle for native bands like Jefferson Airplane, Santana and the Grateful Lifeless.
Mr. Pigg was significantly near the Lifeless, whom he knew by way of his buddy Owsley Stanley, who helped finance the band in addition to warp their perceptions, because of the fabled LSD he produced.
In 1970, Mr. Pigg moved to New York to hitch WABC-FM, which quickly turned WPLJ. A staple of the metropolitan airwaves, it helped pioneer the album-oriented rock format, which centered on fashionable tracks from heavyweights just like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie — mainly traditional rock earlier than it was “traditional.”
He spent greater than a decade on the station, which now has a Christian modern format. He later manned the microphones on the New York stations WXRK (often called Ok-Rock) and WNEW-FM.
Along with his spouse, he’s survived by two kids from a earlier marriage, Mark and Lisa Quinn; three different sons, Calder, Miles and Luca Quinn; and a granddaughter.
Listeners through the years hailed Mr. Pigg for his unflappable on-air persona, a way each heat and funky. Within the phrases of The Each day Information, he might “convincingly juggle ‘Mr. Wild, Loopy and Irreverent’ with ‘Mr. Dedicated Citizen.’”
He had lots to say, however he measured out his on-air commentary in rigorously calibrated doses.
“My very own private principle is simply shut up and play the music,” he informed The Each day Merchandise. “If I can improve the music by succinct phrases or inflections, that’s actually the final word craft in jockdom.”
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