Here's some of Magics resume

This is from the website LA Radio.   He also worked at WHBQ, the place where Jed Duvall from WIBC was PD for about a year.  HBQ is one of the stations that sort of is in the broadway musical Memphis, though the story is more about the other AM in town. 

Magic more memories

 

Again from Bob Christy.

 

George and I were talking several weeks ago about how stupid it was that we didn't try harder to partner Magic and Shotgun as a team. The shows were so damn good, the two summers we had them together on WVBF may be some of the best radio ever done. None of us thought "team" in those days...too bad!  (if anyone has tape on this I can make it digital.- I do have the technology)

 

Black shirt, black pants and too much aftershave

More of Magic

 This from Bob Christy


When Jay Williams) and I were trying to get him straightened out financially by hiring an accountant to help him, then listening to Magic attempt to explain why $300 a month for pot was a budgetary essential. It worked though and it may have been one of the best things we have ever done, right Jay? Of course then Gwen left him and it was chaos again.

 

Magic was great with kids and they all loved him.

 

Magic would have a meeting with Jay, I'd ask him how it went and he would tell me everything Jay said using Ed Sullivan's voice.

 

Magic filling the pregnant pause in Lee Micheal's "Do You Know What I Mean" with a perfectly timed mouth fart.

More memories of magic

 

From Bob Christy;

When I was the PD at WHDH, Magic, recently divorced from the lovely Gwen, was working at WHBQ and had no where to go for the Holidays. I had him come to Boston to do Holiday fill-in and spend Christmas with us. He did 5 spectacular shows, so good in fact, Dave Croninger wanted me to fire Sean Casey and put Magic in PM drive. I talked Dave out of it  by telling him what he had heard the past week was everything Magic had and all we would get from then on would be variations on those themes. The Christmas morning "A little doe in your pocket" was amazing!  

(you should have shown Sean the door, as it might have mellowed him by the time he got to WROR where I had to deal with him stealing all the carts for his drop ins)

 

The dinner with Magic, Shotgun Tom and Wolfman Jack at Anthony's Pier 4, Magic and Shotgun, imitating the Wolfman perfectly all through dinner, the entire waitstaff and the other diners laughing their asses off and me driving home with aching ribs from laughing so hard.

 

Discovering the why I had a body print every morning on the shag carpet in my office (closet?) at WVBF, Magic was "shagging" Alida Roger's assistant on the floor virtually every night after his shift. He had discovered his house key worked in my lock!  Alida was the traffic director of both WVBF and sister AM WKOX..

 

Figures he lived in Natick

Also home to Doug Flutie, I lived in Natick as did several people from WRKO.  And our most famous resident was the late Bud Ballou.

From Bob Christy,  magics longest PD.

Magic worked in radio for over 35 years, he worked for me for almost 5, the longest time he ever worked at one station and for one PD.

 

His wife (stolen from Al Casey) Gwen looked like Morticia and she was a strange case. I went to a barbecue she threw for her redneck Mom and Dad when she and "Mag" lived in Natick. Her Dad, who could have been in the cast of Deliverance, had one of the strongest Southern accents you could imagine. Magic, stoned and drunk at the same time, sat across from Gwen's Dad and mimicked his accent perfectly, he did for the entire week they were there.

 

The times I would drive to Magic's house and rouse his lazy ass out of a "sick" bed and drag him to work or grab him by the shirt collar and march his ass to the studio to get on the air. He played sick so many times that none of us believed him anymore. I don't think he believed it either because he almost died of a burst appendix when he worked at WVBF

More wisdom from the Magic Christian

How he thought the ideal vacation would be "two weeks in an iron lung, so I wouldn't even have to breathe."  Or the time his mailbox fell off the house, and he didn't bother to put it back up.  After a week or so, the mailman told him that he couldn't, wouldn't deliver mail to Magic's house until he got a proper container.  After a few days without mail, Magic put a nail in the top of a broom handle, hung a bucket from the nail, and leaned the broom against the front door frame.  Never heard any more about that problem.   He may not have really listened to anyone, but in those early days, he was almost always fun to listen to.

(that from Jay Williams at DMR...Jay was Magic's GM at WVBF)

Magic on the Q

This aircheck is very rare, you will here KCBQ...Shotgun Tom and Magic..

Now the magic stories

Chuck Knapp said ... "Finally Magic will have nothing to complain about".

Jay Williams claimed that Magic told him once that the reason he wore such cheap after shave was so his scent remained at the station long after he went home.

Bob Christy said he fondly remembers hearing a girls voice on Magic's show saying, "This is Patty Hearst, and when ever I am hiding out in Boston I always listen to The Magic Christian on WVBF. The FBI called in shortly thereafter.

 

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All New WIBG

The full version features Chuck Riley in morning drive, Bill Gardner miday, Larry Dixon afternoons, Magic early evening and Chuck Knapp late night.

Magic memories

Everyone has a magic Christian story.   There was a time in Philadelphia when he was partnered with big John Gillis and John was working solo as I got into the building one morning.  Where's Magic...In the hospital with heart palpation John said.  He got out a week later.   In his later years, he had that fixed with open heart surgery.
And then there are the girls...boy could he spin tales on the women he knew.  Girls from boston, Philly, San Diego, Albuquerque where he worked from a bad classic rocker for half a heartbeat.
And the one liners, this guy could think on his feet.  One of his all time bests from WVBF over the top of Janis Ian's at 17, one out of four people are ugly, if they are ok you must be the one.  (and he hit the post for you non radio types its when the singer starts to sing).

George Johns writes

I have known and worked on and off with the Magic Christian for most of my broadcast career. During that whole time Magic always claimed he was dying thus needing a lot of time off and a lot of drugs to ease the pain. Last night his early prediction sadly came true but needless to say he has left most of us with a ton of stories that we will never tire of telling.

 

(from LJ in Philly he always used to say better living thru chemistry...all the chemists in the world could not stop COPD)

Magic on my space

Magic had become computer literate, but the aircheck on this page is the only known audio of him on the internet.  He did have a myspace page which you can view here.

Out with a blast

The Magic Christian died in a VA hospital in Iowa on the 4th of July.  He suffered from a terminal illness which got him in the end.

Crank up your speakers you are about to hear something very special.  When Fairbanks broadcasting launched a new station, the best talent from all the radio stations in the group were brought to the city. In this case it was Philadelphia, and the occasion in 1976 the launching of all new WIBG.  The promos were voiced by the late Chuck Riley.  The guy who follows Dallas legend Larry Dixon is none other than the Magic one.  The final voice on the tape is the guy who was PD at the launch Chuck Knapp.  The full tape is available at Philly Radio, a tribute site to WFIL and WIBG.   This is an MP 3 file so whatever program that you use as a default for playing mp3s will open when the file downloads.


If you worked with Magic, please leave a comment.