Old AM jock passes away (2.7.10)

Local Baby Boomers remember vinyl records and they also remember the DJs who spun those hit records on AM radio.

One of those popular disc jockeys in Columbus was Chris Brannon.

Like so many in radio, he worked up and down the dial, but he made his mark in the 1970s on WCLS and WDAK playing Top 40 rock 'n' roll.

On the same week that Buddy Holly and the music died 51 years ago, so did Chris Brannon. That is the week Don MacLean laments so poetically in Bye-Bye Miss American Pie.

MacLean's record is one that old jocks like Brannon remember well. It was a marathon by radio standards, lasting 8 minutes and 40 seconds. If a DJ needed a bathroom break, he put American Pie on the turntable and let MacLean deliver lyrics that are still up for interpretation.

Brannon, whose second career was in media sales, effectively outlived a profession that was vitally important to young people of another generation — an importance lost in an era of automated radio where many of the jocks come to us via satellite.

Tommy Harris — that was his given name — was found dead in his bed last week in Columbus. He gave his listeners years of memories, but he died alone with no apparent survivors.