Another legend passes ...

From Tom Taylor:

“Magic Christian” Charles Christianson/Chris Charles dies of cancer at 66

Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown once told him he should write a book about his life, and he said “if I did, it would make Howard Stern’s book and movie look like a warm-up act.” Former colleague Bill Gardner tells TRI that Magic Christian “said even funnier things off the air” than on it, and says he once told a co-worker “I’ve been fired more times than a Civil War cannon.” He wasn’t always his own best friend in terms of work habits. But what incredible jobs he had.

LARadio.com fills in some details about his life, from his fascination with early controversial talker Bill Balance at KFWB. By 14, he was calling stations in the phone book looking for a break, and KDWC in West Covina hired him for part-time work. He landed his first full-time gig at 17, at KLAS, Las Vegas. Soon he was shuttling around major-market stations in Riverside/San Bernardino (at KMEN), Chicago (WCFL), Fresno (legendary top 40 KYNO), Boston (WVBF and WMEX, replacing Larry Lujack), Los Angeles (KBLA, KGBS), Philadelphia (WIBG), Phoenix (KTAR) and San Diego (KCBQ).

For a while in the early 1970s he worked in Toronto for George Johns at CFTR (where future acting star Rick Moranis ran his board). He also had U.S. gigs in San Diego (KLZZ), San Antonio (KLLS), Memphis (WHBQ, after Rick Dees left) and the Jones syndication operation in Colorado.

Eventually he was in Santa Rosa, Amarillo, Sioux Falls and Iowa City. “Magic Christian” is the name of an influential black-humor novel by Terry Southern published in 1959, and there were other DJs who adopted the name. Chris/Charles gets dibs on being the first, though. He died last Friday in Iowa.

He was living by himself in a boarding house dying alone.  In the end, life and resources both run way too short.

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