Jack Armstrong Dead

[MaxGM]

When Kris left WMQX I got to fill in as PD (my second tour there) for awile before Dave took over. This gave me an opportunity to meet and work briefly Jack. He was great. Full of passion for radio. A great talent and hard worker. I wish we could have known each other better. He did congratulate me a couple of years later when I got my pilot license. I'm happy I knew him, and sorry he is gone. A sad day indeed.

Mike "Moose" Smith

[RCB]

I became PD of WMQX/Oldies 93 on February 4th 2001 and met with Jack that morning. Here I was sitting down with a guy who I had listend to as a teenager, growing up in the Buffalo area. Jack acutally came to my high school for a fundraiser with the KB Yo Yo's basketball team when I was a sophmore.

I never met a more passionate individual. My best memories of Jack at MQX were the recreation of the Beatles invasion in 2004. Jack met a Beatles cover group at the airport and we recreated Beatlemania in downtown High Point with screaming girls chasing Jack and the group thru the streets on their way to the High Point theater for a show. Jack's live reports during that event sent chills down my spine as he painted a picture of the event with such vivid  clarity.

It was also a pleasure to be able to work with Jack in an effort to re-create the magic of KB during their brief stint with Oldies. We hooked up Jack in our VT room so he could do the night shift on KB. At the conclusion of his morning show each day on Oldies 93 he would retire to the VT room and I often stood outside listening to him record his breaks. He never lost a step and "Your Leeeeeeeeeeeaaaadddddeeeeerrrrr" could be heard around the complex.

Jack was an amazing talent and a great dad. I spoke with Maggie (his youngest) this morning and she was doing as well as can be expected and I could hear Jack's influence in her as I spoke to her about this terrible news.

I talked to Jack a month or so ago and he had just completed a manuscript for a book on his life and career which I'm sure will be an interesting read.

Rock n Roll heaven has a night jock now.


Later Jack,

Randall C. Bliss

[jeffryan]

Very sad news. I'm glad I was able to chat with Jack on the phone a few months ago. What an incredible person he was.

[VODood]

Alan Freed, Wolfman Jack and "Big Jack" Armstrong.

Jack is the ultimate Top 40 personality. Everyone wanted to be like Jack.

www.reelradio.com has a lot of great airchecks.

http://reelradio.com/findit/findit.cgi

I met "The Original Motormouth" at a 1997 WMJI/WIXY Reunion weekend in Cleveland. Got to run the board for a live on location show he did. I have some 'checks from the weekend. Incredible audio!


Video here...including the 1988 WMJI/WIXY Reunion weekend.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=esgxuzDw1cY


And Jack doing his famous sign off...KKHR/Boss Angeles.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-YNhOV0DLmo

How about that Neumann U87 mic! That's when mgmt invested in stations. Not the RE20 crap mics used today. Great behind-the-scenes-of-radio vid as well.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UyHgKZsg-kQ


XM 60s on the 6 is treating this as breaking news and playing a lot of Jack airchecks.

[VODood]

More Jack here

http://www.wixy1260.com/

[jmontione]

Jack was one of the greatest talents, and people I have known in this business.  I came to KB after he left, and it was a thrill for me to do that same evening show I used to listen to in Northeast PA as a teenager when Jack was there.  Years later he was across the street from me when I did afternoons at KHJ/Los Angeles, and Jack was at KFI/Los Angeles.  I finally got to meet him, and it was all good!

If there's a Rock & Roll Heaven, they got a hell of a man.....a new LEEEEEADER!

God Bless you, Jack, and my condolences to the family...

"Banana" Joe Montione
www.flashback40.com Hits Of The 70's, 80's & MORE!
www.bananajoeradio.com

[skysurf6]

Jack's death is the saddest news I have received in a long time. Jack was a great friend and one of the finest people I have ever known in this business. We had a conversation only a few weeks ago and he was in great spirit.

I had asked Jack to write me a recommendation for linkedin and, as always, he was gracious in accommodating and with the flattering words that he chose to use.

Jack had just finished in excess of 500 pages for a book about his adventures in radio and was hoping to have it published this year. He was very excited about that and so was I. I hope that we will all eventually be blessed by being able to read a living document about  the halcyon days of contemporary radio.

This passing hopefully reminds us all that we have much greater things to which we should  aspire. Jack was symbolic of the inventive, original dynamic and individuality that is missing in this business today.

He is one of the few who conveyed the magic through the speakers that inspired me to pursue radio.

Jack Armstrong was a big man with a big heart and he shared that heart with his audience, his family and the radio business. This truly marks the end of an era.

If there is a rock n' roll heaven, you got one hell of a jock.

My deepest sympathy to his daughters and Peace forever, Jack.

Cleveland Wheeler


my memoriam at www.voxjox.com

[robgrayson]

I never had the chance to meet Jack, but from those who did, I infer that he wasn't one to live in the past.  However, for those times when radio today seems to be a drag, and I'm looking for some reason to go on the air one more time, I keep handy a tape of Jack filling in for Gerry Peterson on KTLK in 1970.  There is no way to listen to that show and not come away thinking that being on the radio is the greatest thing in the world.

God bless you and your family, Jack Armstrong.  You were a blessing to us!

[RADIO TRUTH]

Jack Armstrong was, at the minimum, one of the top 5 best top forty, personality djs from the 60s.  When one thinks about djs of his ability level, one remembers the greatest era in the history of radio and music.  Unfortunately, it also points out the total lack of talent and personality that exists in radio today.  Jack Armstrong and djs like him were great in the 60s.  Today's djs have no concept of doing personality radio and stink.  Jack Armstrong was great on WAYS, WPOP, CHUM, WKBW, WMEX and many others.  Jack will be sorely missed.

[Tin Can]

Is this the same Jack Armstrong from KKHR with that alternate deep voice? Sounds familiar. Either way he will be missed.