"SUNDAY MARCH 23, 2008 7:00 PM (PT) Very sorry to have to tell you that Big Jack Armstrong has passed away. His youngest daughter Maggie called me this afternoon with the news and I'm heartsick. He died at home in Greensboro on Saturday. At this point I have no other details as to what precipitated a fall down the stairs in his townhome. 

Jack had the kind of energy that if harnessed could easily have kept a power grid online. When he was entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the "worlds fastest talking human" while he was on WKBW, nobody challenged the notion. Jack's ability to work the mic and use his voice as a tool was second to none. After working for Jack Gale at WAYS in Charlotte, he developed his now infamous "Gorilla" and his ability to slip in and out of character while prattling on at a motormouth pace was stunning. 

His signature 'Jack Armstrong, Your LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE - DER' was the subject of legends. Could he really hold the word "Leader" through the entire record? (No but it sounded like it sometimes.) His career was made of alternately being in the right place at the best time, and the wrong place at he worst time. 

Like most jocks, he started as a kid-- at 14 was hired to be on the air at WCHL in his hometown of Chapel Hill . Before graduating high school he'd work at Durham's top 40 outlet, WSSB where "Charlie Brown (Eddie Weiss, well known Beach Music personality, program director (WKIX) and morning man) befriended him. His summers at the family cottage in Edenton included being hired at WCDJ there. 

After high school graduation, he picked up his first class FCC license (at the Elkins radio quickie course in Atlanta, where he worked for a month or so at WSMA/WDJK in nearby Smyrna) knowing that the FCC regulations back then would give him a leg up on the competition as directional AM stations required operators be so licensed. Sure enough that opened the door for him at Greensboro's WCOG, much to the dismay of his parents who had sent him off to college at Guilford. (He enrolled in pre-med as expected, considering his father was a world famous parasitologist then in residence at UNC.) 

As radio quickly and forever won his heart, he had to break it to his folks that he was dropping out before even getting started. His dad admonished him 'There are only 2 ways to succeed son-- education or talent. You better hope to hell you've got talent.' How much of it he had at that point was questionable but wouldn't be for long. He quickly moved to WAYS in Charlotte toward the end of 1964, soaking in Jack Gale's secrets and all the while scanning the night time dial for distant stations for which he dreamed of one day working. WKYC, WLS, WKBW, WBZ, WABC all helped mold the jock he'd soon become. 

In '66, he went from WAYS to WIXY in Cleveland which led to WKYC a year later where he really made his mark. Between jocking on the AM station and hosting WKYC-TV's "Big Jack Show", anywhere something was happening in Cleveland, Jack was there-- including introducing the Beatles and learning a lesson in crowd control in the process, as well as picking up several life lessons from roommate Chuck Riley (at the time WKYC's Chuck Dann). 

From there it was off to WMEX in Boston,and CHUM in Toronto in 1968, WPOP in Hartford in '69, KTLK in Denver a year later and finally WKBW where his career took on legendary proportions from 1970 to '73. To this day, numerous would be radio folks up and down the eastern seaboard back then cite Jack's work on 'KB as exemplary of the pinnacle they hoped to achieve. Moving on to Pittsburgh's 13Q in '73 and then Don Burden's WIFE in Indianapolis in 1975, Jack made it to LA on 10Q in 1978. 

When Storer sold the station in 1980, Jack segued to KFI before leaving the Southland in 1982 to return to North Carolina for a few months to help his folks remodel their home. That also gave him time to help his wife through a pregnancy with their third daughter, Maggie. (Maggie was born in her mother's home town, Buffalo. Jack is also father to Vanessa, born in Pittsburgh and Devon born in Indianapolis.) Jack returned to California by 1983, first to San Francisco's KFRC before returning to Los Angeles in '84 at CBS' KKHR. 

From there it was Fresno (KBOS) in '87 and a final move home to North Carolina in '91 where he cared for his dad until his passing in '96. In '97, he took a job at Oldies 93, WMQX marking a full circle return to Greensboro and his longest tenure on any station-- 6 years doing morning drive. In 2003, he left the station but continued another encore replay-- tracking the night show on WKBW, maintaining the same level of energy he exhibited there over three decades earlier. A format change to progressive talk forever stilled his voice in 2006. 

Like many radio greats, Jack was dismayed with the current state of radio, yet fully believing a place for him in it still existed. Sadly, time ran out before that was able to happen. Radio is frenetic for anyone, and Jack lived at a frenzied pace. My prayer is he's now enjoying the peace that so eluded him here. What a good guy. And what a great loss to those of us lucky enough to be his friend."