Art Laboe, the DJ and music promoter who spent 79 continuous years on the radio, has died. He was 97.
Laboe breathed his last on October 7. Joanna Morones, a spokesperson for his production company, Dart Entertainment, informed that Laboe died at his home in Palm Springs after a brief battle with pneumonia, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Laboe, best known for coining and trademarking the term "Oldies but Goodies," was on the air as recently with his pre-recorded The Art Laboe Connection, the syndicated program that he launched in 1991.
"My favorite place to be is behind that microphone. I have one of the best jobs in the world, playing the music, interacting with our listeners, doing their dedications and connecting them with their loved ones," Laboe said.
He started working in the radio field at KSAN/San Francisco at age 18 in 1943, and he went on to work for several stations in Los Angeles. He also had stops in Palm Springs; Pomona, California; and Reno, Nevada.
He owned radio stations in Tucson, Arizona, and Fresno, California, and in connection with his radio shows presented, promoted and hosted concerts throughout the west, including one Saturday night at the Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino.
Laboe in the mid-1950s set up his radio show at an L.A. drive-in, where he took dedication requests from those on hand and came up with the idea of putting songs from different artists on the same album.
He started Original Sound Record Inc. in 1957 and a year later released the compilation LP Oldies but Goodies Vol. 1, which stayed on a Billboard chart for months.
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