Memories from fellow Jim Healy Fans


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From: Geoff W.
Date: 8/27/04

Hello, and bless you for caring enough to compile this tribute to Jim Healy.  I was one of those commuters dreading the 48 mile trip from LA/Hollywood eastward to beautiful downtown Rancho Cucamonga.

5:30pm on KLAC, then KMPC was an essential to prevent road rage... not against people, but my radio.

I haven't fully gone through your site, but I'm wondering if some of the sources that are regarded as anonymous voices within your lists are in the process of investigation.  I thought I might offer a couple of things that I heard while a listener back in the 80's (although I'm not professing 100% accuracy... just recollection):
My favorites: Thanks again for the memories.

Geoff W.

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From: Chris R.
Date: 8/25/04

Walter is actually Walter Pacheco, a longtime radio announcer in Hilo, Hawaii. I know because I went to college in Hilo and worked in Hilo radio for a competing station in the mid-1980s. He was still on the air the last time I was on in Hilo. His island pidgin is so thick he can barely be understood by ears not reared on the islands.

Thanks for your great Healy site. I love it so.

Chris R.

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From: Mark
Date: 7/26/04

I use to work at Dodger Stadium and loved it when Tommy would go berserk behind the scenes; he sure could cuss. I miss the tirade when some reporter asked him why he had Mike Soscia tag up in a ballgame.

Also the "This job is not that %$@ easy!"

Mark

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From: Waldo S.
Date: 7/26/04

I heard Jim's show on KLAC a couple of times, and I found it annoying.  Like Walter Winchell on drugs or something.  But years later, a daily commute during "drive time" led me to catch the show on KMPC, and my attitude was much different the second time around.  Soon I was frowning whenever I got in the car and found the Angels on instead.  I found myself following sports just enough so that I would get the jokes.

Eventually I became "listener Waldo S." and I had about a .500 average getting items on the air.  (I'm not saying that in any way of being braggiocious.) I have a card someplace with my hits and misses written down... one that comes to mind was my discovery of a beauty salon in La Habra called "The Lovely Lady."

I used to hate it when I'd come up with what I thought was a good one, and then a big story would break to eclipse my topic, or Jim would go on vacation the day my postcard would have arrived at KMPC.  Remember snail mail? Of course the ultimate example of a big story eclipsing a topic was when Jim got his star on the Walk of Fame (the only ceremony I've ever attended) and before the evening sports guys could go on the air with the story, Magic Johnson had announced he had HIV.

Thanks for the tribute site,

"Healy Fan Waldo S."

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From: Andy J.
Date: 7/13/04

Thanks for the page. I miss this stuff a lot. I remember I hated Healy as a kid when my grandfather would listen to him. Then I started listening on my way home from work when I was about 20 in 88' and I kept up with it until Jim was off the air.



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From: Marty K.
Date: 6/11/04

Thanks so much for resurrecting Matt White's archive(!) - I love all the sound clips and they bring back so many memories. 

With the recent passing of Ronald Reagan, and all the guys in the media praising him as the man who "ended the cold war without firing a shot" (I love those guys), I've been thinking how unfair it is that no one has been recalling the Gipper's other great contribution - his immortal question: "Where's Ricky Sanders?"  Ok, it doesn't quite compare to the real immortal question (Paul Olden asking Lasorda's opinion of Kingman) but it was still a great tape.  I always loved when Healy played it because he'd always use the following sequence...

Where's Ricky Sanders?
Say What?
Where's Ricky Sanders?
Say What?
Where's Ricky Sanders?
Say What?
Ah, blow it out!  

Unless I've gone the Leonard Tose route, this tape isn't in the archive(!).  (I can't believe it!) I'm wondering, is it there and I'm just not seeing it?

In the mean time, I've got to be going.  I've got a train to catch!


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From: Lonn Friend
Date: 4/22/04

I grew up in Los Angeles and listened to Jim Healy every day at 5 30 pm. My brother and I would sit in our room after school, be it Milliken Junior High or Grant High, and listen to the most original, twisted, brilliant, fearless voice in the history of sports broadcasting. When I got to UCLA in 1976, I spent three nights a week driving a lab car for Kaiser Permanente, toting blood and stool samples around the city.  Those nights were highlighted by thirty minutes of Healy.  I never missed him. Never.  On two occasions, I wrote to him, Healy inspired one comments. I recall one specifically.  The aircheck tape is somewhere in my vast and chaotic archives.  It went something like this, "Listener Lonn Friend writes, 'With all the stories about Steve Howe's cocaine problems, perhaps the LA Times should rename their section, the SNORTS section.'"  He sent me the attached autograph photo.  I've spent the last 18 years of my career traveling the world and writing about rock n' roll, an Almost Famous adventure if you will.  But the biggest rock star I never met was Jim Healy.  An absolute original that carved out a niche on the LA airwaves that has never been touched.  Not even close.  Healy unmasked the devils, unpantsed the posers, exalted the truly great and deflated the ego with the grace and wit of a stand up comic.  He was a true virtuoso of the sound bite. But above all, he knew sports like a surgeon knows the human anatomy.  I haven't heard his named mentioned or thought of his show in eons but every precious drop on your site came back like yesterday.  Bravo.  Now I'll shut the [fu**] up!

Lonn Friend

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From: Dan O.
Date: 4/9/04

Amazing, what a site.  You know, I was probably 8 years old, riding around with my dad after school on the drive home...and I know all those clips!!  Just wanted to pass along my thanks; this is bringing back a lot of fond memories of Jim Healy, and of course the good times with Dad.  I'll have to see what he thinks of the site. Outstanding! -Dan O.

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From: Rob E.
Date: 3/2/04

Thought I'd drop a line and thank you for compiling some of the sound bites from Jims shows.

I used to carpool with a couple guys years ago, and we used to race to the car and tune in so we wouldn't miss Jims opening monologue. Within a few months, 10 or 12 other guys started listening on their way home. Most mornings, our talk around the coffee room consisted of cutting up about some of Jims great lines, and a few sound effects thrown in for good measure. Hope more fans find this site, and that you can find some of his old shows. I'd love to hear his last show too, as I was working the wrong shift at the time and missed the last 6 months of his broadcasts. Keep up the good work, and thanks again for your effort to keep jims memory alive!

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Don't forget to check out Edi's memories on the .swf page! (Which can be found through the "A Few Memories" button next to Jim Healy's picture in the 'Submitted Clips/Stories' section.)

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