The Oregonian prints a "Life Story" on Sunday's Obits page. For some reason, this one caught my eye.
Those who listened to KKEY talk way back then will remember that there were a few callers you recognized all the time because they called everyday, every host.... the blind barbeque guy to tell us what was on the grill that day, for one.

Another one was Roger, the animal rights guy, who would talk about cruelty to animals every day.
Sunday's feature was on Roger Troen. Although it doesn't mention KKEY in the article, one sentence in the fourth paragraph gave it away, I believe. It said, "Talk shows stopped accepting his calls". That plus where he lived and other facts is what makes me believe it was him.

http://www.oregonlive.com/obituaries/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/121038090317 9330.xml&coll=7

I would presume that Crystal and Natale have crossed to the other side by now, too.

That is so funny -- Don_from_salem's comment about Natale. When I started listening to talk radio years ago, he was always calling various local talk radio programs. Not sure what programs I was listening to back then, maybe Jerry Dimmit (something like that), but I’m sure it was Natale. Wouldn’t forget a name like Natale. And then there was another gal from Ridgefield, Elizabeth maybe. She would ramble on and on... Pseudo-intellectual type. Anyway, good post Don_from_salem. Brings back many memories.

Although I can't say that I fully support this guy's pseudo-militant tactic of "liberating" laboratory animals, at least he invested his own time, energy, and money into DOING something. I respect that. I will go on to say that it is a good thing that this guy never discovered the Internet because if he had, he might have gotten sucked into repeating himself over and over and over and over and over and over again on message boards.

Natale was a great guy. What a character.

Herb

The Dahlia Man was just about exactly 6 months older than Natale and I last saw him about 9 years ago when he was 92. That should put things into perspective. Natale's wife, on the other hand, still has some time to go before she can collect social security. I met Roger at a New Years Eve party at Jim MkKey's house and the last name seems about right. The rest of the story sure sounds like him and as Rick Miller would say, it has the "ring of truth". I'm thinking in the back of my mind that he even hosted a show or two on the station. When I think of a long time caller though, it's usually someone who spent a decade or so calling talk shows, someone like Barbara. I once asked her how far back she went in talk radio and she told me the name of the show on(I think)KGON and that it was 1955! She was still going strong 10 years ago. Barbara was probably the last of the "characters" that defined the station before talk radio became primarily political: These were perfectly normal people who would invent a personna, just to call the station. One of Barbara's better routines was Mary Pierce's infamous "woman from the frozen north", where Mary would ask her how she'd been doing and what followed would be roughly the equivalent of George Burns asking Gracie Allen, "How's your brother?". In later life, Burns often joked that he'd made an entire career from doing just that!

Whatever happened to the Portland Laugher? Now there was an interesting caller...

Suddenly I'm hungry for a B-52 burrito.

Bob--
I don't know if Crystal dealt with your show on KPAM all that much, but Bill Gallagher would shoo her away ASAP--whereas Dream Weaver would only egg her on, until she told the world that she was almost out of wine.

PS, In the process of digitizing my vinyl records, I came across "I Like Livin' Here" from 1985. Are you thinking about doing a 21st Century update for charity soon?

I remember Roger, he called more stations than KKEY, I heard his calls on the 620 The Talk Station many times.

There was also this woman, Elizabeth, who was from somewhere in SW Washington who regularly called talk stations back then.

No, Don. Never dealt with Crystal though several at KEX did from time to time.

My nemesis was "Janet the Prize Queen". Maybe some of you remember when Channel 8 actually did a story on how hard this woman worked at winning radio contests.

Glad you still have the record. We recorded that in Wille Nelson's old studio in Vancouver.

Oh..and you never can tell.

I find it interesting(You would probably say "appalling")that KEX and KKEY shared listeners! In its "heyday", KKEY had what arguably must have been the longest TSL in the industry! Care to hazard a guess as to why?

A guy named Jack Hammer on KKEY remains my fave host. I never laughed so hard.

Herb

I was just thinking back on the talk show hosts to whom I listened back in the day (starting in the mid 1980’s). I remember listening to Jim Bickel on KXL with my dad. Then it was Jerry Dimmitt. He was always talking about the “Price is Right” store – I assume the one on SE Division. Then it was 62 KGW. My favorite was Rick Miller. But my all time favorite is Bill Gallagher on KXL, now of KPAM. I think Bill was a great host and his mastery of the issues was top notch. Loved terribly terrific trivia on Friday’s. Too bad he is no longer working as a host.

In terms of syndicated talk, I started listening to Art Bell on 1190 KEX before the fascination with UFO’s and such. I would e-mail him on my AOL account and to my surprise, he’d read my e-mails. My brush with greatness.

Jerry Dimmitt was a guest instructor once or twice when I was at Ron Bailie S.O.B. in '78-'79. He wasn't all there. Plus, I went to the same church as another KKEY talker, the one and only Ruth Olin.

Lands O' Goshen, those were the days!

I sat in on Ruth Olin's show and took calls. It happened twice, a few days apart. I have a tape somewhere. Come to think of it, I was a guest on Dimmitt's show when he was on The Voice and sat in with him on KYXI. I told the story of how Jack Hammer once destroyed JD's show. Check the archives.

When I first started listening to (1969) and hosting (1971) talk radio in Portland (I think I was the youngest talk show host in the country at the time) we had several regular (pretty much daily) callers...some that pop to mind are:"Art The Color Man" (always talking about the healing power of color,)"Mrs. Vague" (always talking about some sort of conspiracy,) and, of course, Roger. Although the topics could be very political and controversial then, there as more of a "chatting over the back fence" quality to talk radio then. Although it could become way too predictable, I'm not sure that it was more predictable than the heavily researched, stylized talk shows of our time.