Gary Owens

Gary Owens was a journeyman DJ/announcer throughout the midwest and southern U.S. in the late 1950s, finally ending up at radio station KEWB, Oakland, California in 1959. He moved to its sister station KFWB in Los Angeles in 1961. From there, he joined the staff of KMPC in 1962, where he remained for the next two decades working the 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. shift, Monday through Friday. In the early 1960s, Owens created a few comic characters, such as the gruff old man Earl C. Festoon and his wife Phoebe Festoon, the stuffy old businessman Endocrine J. Sternwallow, and the goofy good ol’ boy, Merle Clyde Gumpf. Another character was crotchety old cantankerous Mergenthaler Waisleywillow. Owens also did very funny radio promotions like sending in for “Yours”, which turned out to be a postcard from him from the radio station which simply said “Yours” on it; and autographed pictures of the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles; and his famous “Moo Cow Report” in which Gary and his character Earl C. Festoon would describe where moo cows were moving inbound on the crowded freeways of L.A. Often during these comedy skits on the air he would have the assistance of other radio comics, most notably Bob Arbogast (known as “Arbo” to his adoring fans), Stan Ross (of “Drowning in the Surf” fame in 1963), and Jim “Weather Eyes” Hawthorne. In 1966, Owens collaborated with Bob Arbogast, June Foray, Daws Butler, Paul Frees and others on a hilarious comedy spoof record album titled “Sunday Morning With the Funnies” with the Jimmy Haskell Orchestra on Reprise Records. During this period, Owens became more widely known as the voice of the eponymous TV cartoon characters in Roger Ramjet and Space Ghost, the excitable narrator/announcer from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, and perhaps most well-known, as the announcer on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, all the while continuing his show on KMPC. He also hosted its daily game show spin-off, Letters to Laugh-In, during its brief run in 1969. He also appeared in the Sesame Street Pilot in a skit called The Man from Alphabet. Owens was also a scriptwriter for Jay Ward Productions, has appeared in many series for Walt Disney, and has done over 30,000 commercials. He was also a guest star on The Munsters and McHale’s Navy. In 1973, Owens wrote The (What to Do While You’re Holding the) Phone Book, a comedic look at the history of the telephone. He was the voice of Disney’s Epcot Center ride, World of Motion, which operated between 1982 and 1996.