Forgotten Hollywood

Manny P. here…

   Suffice to say, this is the most difficult blog story I’ve written…

   My dear, dear friend Gary Lycan has passed on. Part of the fabric of Southern California, he was the award-winning radio columnist of the Orange County Register since his initial assignment in 1968.  Gary was also my cherished co-host on Forgotten Hollywood, a weekly radio program that airs on the Financial News and Radio Network. And, he wrote the Foreword and Introduction, to my Forgotten Hollywood Book Series.            GARY LYCAN ——–>

   Though, we’ve been like brothers working on the Forgotten Hollywood franchise for these past 4 1/2 years, I’m smart enough to know that he had a really keen friendship with every Southern California broadcaster who has cracked a microphone during the Golden Age of Format-Radio. He was inspired by the disc jockeys, radio personalities, and news-related folks who worked at KFWB, KRLA, and KHJ back in the 1960s. He wanted desperately to join this fraternity. But, his unparalleled talent lay in the written, not spoken, word. Through his weekly radio column, he became an elder statesman of this so-called fraternity. Orange County folks  learned about the business of broadcasting in a digestible, easy-to-read, and friendly way, which made his readers feel that we were all part of the inner circle.

   Never to rest on his laurels, Gary Lycan also had longtime allies who fought for animal rights (a particular passion of his), and ultimately, the Golden Age of Hollywood community. During one of our programs, he secured an interview for us with the legendary Debbie Reynolds. This weekend, on 15-10 AM and 14-50 AM, we’ll re-broadcast a poignant early incarnation of our show. I had the foresight to interview my co-host early on, and the network of stations has been gracious enough to re-shuffle its programming this Saturday at 3p (pst) to air this fitting tribute. If you would like to honor Gary’s memory by taking a listen, but you live outside the broadcast area of Orange County and the Inland Empire… here’s a link:

http://radio.securenetsystems.net/v4/index.cfm?stationCallSign=KFSD

   On his birthday in 2012, the Los Angeles Press Club honored Gary Lycan with their National Entertainment Journalist Award in the Print Columnist of the Year category. He was really astounded at the fine outpouring of congratulations by radio broadcasters throughout Southern California on his Facebook page. Of course, I wasn’t surprised at all. I knew what he meant to our community. His words transcended Orange County with the advent of the website dot.com craze and social media.

   Knowing that his time on earth was short, Gary wrote me a wonderful email on October 30th. I’m not known for sharing my most personal correspondence. However, I’m compelled to share this with you:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 10th, 2013 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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