Burbank circa 1973.He learned to play the guitar and sing. And while he was in high school, he started his own band, Billy Purser and the Red Hots.
After completing high school in 1959, he joined the Army. His unit went across to Europe on a troop carrier. He suffered from seasickness, and kept throwing up everywhere. Some time during the journey, somebody mentioned there was an opening on board, for a drummer in a band. He knew how to hold the sticks. He was coordinated enough to keep the beat a little bit. So he talked himself into the job to avoid doing undesirable duty, like swabbing the deck.
He was discharged in '62, but the only skill the Army had taught him was playing drums. He went back to school, to Memphis State. After two semesters he decided to dive in all the way at being a musician.
He did session work at Stax records and played with such Memphis music legends as Rufus Thomas, Ace Cannon and Gene Simmons. Then he became the drummer in the Mar-Keys shortly after they had a hit with "Last Night."
Music is a long road, and unless you have a big hit or a big bank account, a hard road. And Burbank now had a wife and a son. He decided to quit the band and go to radio school while working two jobs to support his family. After graduating, he took a job at KLPL-AM in tiny Lake Providence, Louisiana.
He headed west to Monroe, Louisiana, then back east to Jackson, Mississippi, before landing in Memphis and WDIA, the soul station. He was Johnny Apollo, your blue-eyed soul brother on the front row, putting slide in your glide, dip in your hip, bump in your rump, always playing scoot-your-bootie, roll-your-belly music.
He put some slide in his glide and slid on back to Jackson, then scooted his bootie back up to Memphis to WMPS. Then the offer came from WAKY in Louisville, and he leaped at the chance.
He arrived in the fall of 1968, a skinny Southern kid with a huge voice and not much else. But it was at WAKY that Billy Purser aka Johnny Apollo, officially became Gary Burbank, a name taken from radio and television legend Gary Owens, who as a regular on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In would announce that he was broadcasting from "beautiful downtown Burbank." (Burbank's natural voice is remarkably similar to Owens' on-air voice.)
He had always read widely, who had always joked about the foibles of local politicians, altered his humor. It was no longer the old deejay stuff, "Did you hear what the mayor said last night?" Now he began using voices and creating fictitious characters and entire scenes.
Gary Burbank had arrived. But his first marriage didn't survived the trip. He has since remarried. He met Carol Anderson, his current wife, during his WAKY years.
Before he became Gary Burbank at WAKY, he was "Johnny Apollo" at various other stations. At KUZN in West Monroe, Louisiana, he was "Johnny Apollo The Weird Beard." Hear his final few breaks at KUZN on July 14, 1967. KUZN Johnny Apollo Aircheck (5:48).
Gary in 1969 (3:53), GB in 1971 with commercials and news from Michael Summers intact. 1971 (19:02), 1972 #1 (16:20), 1972 #2 (13:44), 1973 #1 (This includes a Jason O'Brian remote break.) (4:24), 1973 #2 (5:11), 1973 #3 (4:49), 1973 #4 (12:43) 1973 #5 (8:08), 1973 #6 (13:28) Here's the first part of Gary's final WAKY show in 1973. Gary Burbank's Last WAKY Show (7:47).
Gary gets shot during his last hour on WAKY in 1973. Gary Burbank Gets Shot (6:33), and GB does mornings at WNOE in April 1974 with news from fellow WAKY alum Len King. Gary Burbank on WNOE (7:35).
Gary in 1969 (3:53), GB in 1971 with commercials and news from Michael Summers intact. 1971 (19:02), 1972 #1 (16:20), 1972 #2 (13:44), 1973 #1 (This includes a Jason O'Brian remote break.) (4:24), 1973 #2 (5:11), 1973 #3 (4:49), 1973 #4 (12:43) 1973 #5 (8:08), 1973 #6 (13:28) Here's the first part of Gary's final WAKY show in 1973. Gary Burbank's Last WAKY Show (7:47).
Gary gets shot during his last hour on WAKY in 1973. Gary Burbank Gets Shot (6:33), and GB does mornings at WNOE in April 1974 with news from fellow WAKY alum Len King. Gary Burbank on WNOE (7:35).
At that point, he moved to New Orleans for a brief stint as program director of WNOE. From New Orleans, Burbank went on to CKLW, and then back to Louisville for a long successful afternoon gig on WHAS-AM.
Burbank left Louisville again for a brief spell in Tampa, Florida at WDAE, but moved to the Ohio Valley in 1981 when he signed with WLW, originally doing morning drive time but later moving to afternoons. It is there that he has enjoyed his greatest success, developing his best-known characters:
Earl PittsGilbert Gnarley, senior citizen who made crank calls to various people and businesses.
Earl Pitts Uhmerikun, a full-blooded redneck who makes daily commentary on everything from politics to family to friends.
Eunice and Bernice, the "Siamese twins joined at the telephone" ("turr-a-bull, turr-a-bull, turr-a-bull")
The Right Rev. Deuteronomy Skaggs, radio preacher who encouraged listeners to "dig in them jeans and pull out them greens" (money). Skaggs and Eunice and Bernice carried over from Burbank's WHAS days.
Ranger Bob, children's show host.
Riley Gert, of the U.S. Senseless Survey, who prank calls people asking obscure and sometimes awkward questions for the Survey. Riley was not actually a characterization of Gary Burbank, but of his sidekick Doc Wolfe.
The Synonymous Bengal, a mole in the Cincinnati Bengals organization who calls in to provide anonymous rumors about the team using frequent malapropisms.
Dan Buckles, newscaster (takeoff on Dan Rather and David Brinkley); his on-air partners, Kevin "Doc" Wolfe and Leah Burns, portrayed vocal spoofs of Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer in the news segment. Buckles didn't hide the fact that he loved to dress in women's clothing and often made comments about his high heels or how tight his dress happened to be as he transitioned from one news item to the next.
Bass Ackwards, news commentator
Howlin' Blind Muddy Slim, Your 60-Minute Jelly-Belly Toejam Man (a/k/a Blues Break 201), a Friday afternoon music show which featured blues artists as guest stars.
Lars Peavey, talk show host (tribute to the comedy team of Bob and Ray)
Ludlow Bromley, the "richest dude in the world" (named after Northern Kentucky cities)
Thelma Hooch, helpful hints, Maw Hirishi, advice columnist, and Bruiser LaRue, football player.
Big Fat, AKA, The Big Fat Balding Guy With a Stubby Cigar in His Mouth and His Pants Half-Zipped, pushy con man seller of worthless junk. Often joined by his mascot, Timmy the Termite who would endorse the product or pretend to be a famous celebrity endorsing the junk. Sign off line was always "And dis time I'm being honest wit' youse."
Earl Pitts Uhmerikun, a full-blooded redneck who makes daily commentary on everything from politics to family to friends.
Eunice and Bernice, the "Siamese twins joined at the telephone" ("turr-a-bull, turr-a-bull, turr-a-bull")
The Right Rev. Deuteronomy Skaggs, radio preacher who encouraged listeners to "dig in them jeans and pull out them greens" (money). Skaggs and Eunice and Bernice carried over from Burbank's WHAS days.
Ranger Bob, children's show host.
Riley Gert, of the U.S. Senseless Survey, who prank calls people asking obscure and sometimes awkward questions for the Survey. Riley was not actually a characterization of Gary Burbank, but of his sidekick Doc Wolfe.
The Synonymous Bengal, a mole in the Cincinnati Bengals organization who calls in to provide anonymous rumors about the team using frequent malapropisms.
Dan Buckles, newscaster (takeoff on Dan Rather and David Brinkley); his on-air partners, Kevin "Doc" Wolfe and Leah Burns, portrayed vocal spoofs of Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer in the news segment. Buckles didn't hide the fact that he loved to dress in women's clothing and often made comments about his high heels or how tight his dress happened to be as he transitioned from one news item to the next.
Bass Ackwards, news commentator
Howlin' Blind Muddy Slim, Your 60-Minute Jelly-Belly Toejam Man (a/k/a Blues Break 201), a Friday afternoon music show which featured blues artists as guest stars.
Howlin' Blind Muddy SlimLars Peavey, talk show host (tribute to the comedy team of Bob and Ray)
Ludlow Bromley, the "richest dude in the world" (named after Northern Kentucky cities)
Thelma Hooch, helpful hints, Maw Hirishi, advice columnist, and Bruiser LaRue, football player.
Big Fat, AKA, The Big Fat Balding Guy With a Stubby Cigar in His Mouth and His Pants Half-Zipped, pushy con man seller of worthless junk. Often joined by his mascot, Timmy the Termite who would endorse the product or pretend to be a famous celebrity endorsing the junk. Sign off line was always "And dis time I'm being honest wit' youse."
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Another feature of his show was the sports trivia quiz show Sports or Consequences which ran during the 4:00 hour during his afternoon show on 700 WLW. The show was unusual in that the callers asked the hosts (Burbank and his supporting cast, plus a number of other WLW on air personalities) sports trivia questions, instead of the hosts asking the callers questions.
Burbank often did his show from a home in north central Florida, while the rest of his show's cast and crew was in the WLW studios in Cincinnati.
Burbank's show in the late 1990s was syndicated out of WLW to other regional stations (including WTVN in Columbus, WAKR in Akron and WERE in Cleveland). By 1999, the show would revert to being only on WLW, although a weekly "best-of" show dubbed the Weekly Rear-View – which featured mostly character bits and little-to-no Cincinnati-centric material – would run until his retirement. The network (and eventually, the program itself) was called "The BBC: The Broad-bank Burb-casting Corporation," a send-up of Gary Owens' classic line.
Gary guests with Johnny Randolph on WAKY-FM to talk about Burbank's biography and his time at WAKY. (October 14, 2009) Gary Burbank on WAKY-FM (57:59)
Burbank has won several major awards, including back-to-back Marconi Awards as Large Market Personality of the Year in 1990 and 1991.In November 2012, Burbank was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.
