Talent: RON LUNDY
Station: WIL St. Louis
Date: September 21, 1961
Time: 1:01:55 (unscoped)
35:14 (scoped)

"I never heard anyone as happy on the air." - Dennis Elsas

He was one of Top 40 radio's most joyful presences, and it wasn't an act. Ron Lundy loved being on the air and it showed. He began every show with a boisterous declaration of "Hello Luv!" and the good feelings just spread from there.

Like many a jock, Lundy got his start in his hometown. Born in Memphis on June 25, 1934, Fred Ronald Lundy did his first on-air shift at Memphis station WHHM when the regular deejay didn't show. Before long, Lundy had a full-time shift at WDDT in Greenville, Mississippi, and from there he went to WLCS in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In 1960, WIL program director and on-air personality Dan Ingram brought Lundy to the St. Louis station. The two would become life-long best friends. Ingram left WIL for WABC New York in 1961 but four years later - on Ingram's recommendation - Lundy was hired at WABC. Lundy debuted on the WABC all-night show on September 1, 1965 - where he called himself The Swingin' Nightwalker - but moved to middays in May, 1966.

Lundy was WABC's midday jock for the next 16 years, right up to the last Musicradio show which he co-hosted with Ingram on May 10, 1982. Lundy became so identified with WABC that a brief aircheck of him was used in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy (when character Joe Buck arrives in New York City.)

In February, 1984, Lundy returned to the airwaves in the 9 a.m.-noon shift at oldies-formatted WCBS-FM. Former WCBS-FM program director Joe McCoy says the shift was created especially for Lundy, who once again followed morning man Harry Harrison on the air as he had done for many years at WABC.

Lundy did his last WCBS-FM show on September 18, 1997, and then retired to the small town of Bruce, Mississippi. On March 10, 2010, Lundy suffered a heart attack and passed away. He was 75.

Enjoy Ron Lundy on WIL here. (UNSCOPED) 

 Enjoy Ron Lundy on WIL here. (SCOPED) 
 

(The Don Shuttleworth Collection)

More 1961 airchecks here!