Charlie Tuna
Encyclopedia
Charlie Tuna is the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 of Art Ferguson (born April 18, 1944), a radio personality based in Los Angeles, California
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 currently working at KRTH-FM.

Born in Kearney
Kearney, Nebraska
Kearney is a city in and the county seat of Buffalo County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 30,787 at the 2010 census. It is home to the University of Nebraska-Kearney....

, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

, Ferguson was a high school athlete and sports editor of his school newspaper.

Radio

At age 16 Ferguson began working at his hometown's radio station, KGFW
KGFW
KGFW is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Kearney, Nebraska, USA, the station serves the Grand Island-Kearney area. The station is currently owned by NRG Media and features programing from Fox News Radio, Premiere Radio Networks and Westwood One. It is the...

. Then, he went to work at KLEO
KLEO
KLEO is a radio station broadcasting a Hot Adult Contemporary format simulcasting co-owned KKBG from Hilo .Licensed to Kahaluu, Hawaii, USA. The station is currently owned by Pacific Radio Group, Inc.....

 in Wichita
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 for a year with the air name Billy O'Day. He then worked for KOMA Radio
KOKC (AM)
KOKC is a talk radio station located in Oklahoma City among a cluster of stations in the market owned by Pennsylvania-based Renda Broadcasting. KOKC is an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network.-The early years:...

 in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...

 in 1966, where he was given his Charlie Tuna pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

, taking over the moniker from Chuck Riley who had used it for one show the week prior to Ferguson's arrival. Ferguson then moved on to WMEX
WWZN
WWZN is an AM radio station licensed to serve the Boston media market. Its programming is a time-brokered mix between progressive talk radio during the daytime , sports talk and religious programming in the overnight hours...

 in Boston for the first 9 months of 1967.

In late 1967, KHJ
KHJ (AM)
KHJ Radio in Los Angeles, California broadcasts Spanish-language entertainment programming as La Ranchera. It was also one of America's most formidable Top 40 radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s as 93 KHJ before changing its format in 1980....

 in Los Angeles offered Charlie the 9 to noon slot where he debuted on Thanksgiving Day 1967, and Charlie has worked in the LA area ever since. On February 9, 1971 at 6:00 a.m. he had just commenced his morning show on KHJ when the San Fernando Earthquake occurred. In 1972, he became one of the original DJs at KROQ-AM, a new Top 40 station (formerly Country KBBQ). Among the other stations he worked at were KKDJ, KIIS-AM&FM (where he was Program Director and Morning Personality), KTNQ, KHTZ (later KBZT), KRLA, KODJ (later KCBS-FM), KMPC, KIKF, and KLAC.

He most recently worked at KBIG
KBIG-FM
KBIG-FM is an FM radio station in Los Angeles, California, owned by Clear Channel. The station plays a Hot Adult Contemporary format heavy on music from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.-Early years:...

 104.3 where he hosted a show Charlie Tuna in the Morning which aired from 5 to 9 am. His last show aired on September 17, 2007, when the station flipped to a non-rhythmic-based adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music is a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1950s and 1960s vocal music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence, as well as a radio format that plays such music....

 format, as 104.3 My FM. He returned to radio February 9, 2008 when he became the weekend personality on Los Angeles oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....

 station K-Earth 101.

Tuna served as announcer for Casey Kasem
Casey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem is an American radio personality and voice actor who is best known for being the host of the nationally syndicated Top 40 countdown show American Top 40, and for voicing Shaggy in the popular Saturday morning cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.Kasem, along with Don Bustany and...

 on his 1980s television program America's Top 10. Two decades later, on the weekends of October 8/9, 2005 and August 12/13, 2006 Tuna stepped into Kasem's role for his radio programs American Top 20 and American Top 10 for the weekend. In addition to filling in for Kasem, he also co-hosted Your Good Time Oldies Magazine from 1992 to 1995, and he produced and hosted Back to the 70s. Only 52 episodes of Back to the 70s were produced, but re-runs continued to air on stations across the country until 2008, even though Tuna had long since left the program.

Tuna had a year long run in 2009, of a 5 hour classic hits daily and weekend show, syndicated through United Stations Radio Network in New York. Tuna joined Black Card Radio in Los Angeles March 1, 2010, as host of a new 5 hour weekend show Charlie Tuna - The 70's, which is distributed nationally and internationally, and added a 5 hour daily and weekend show for all radio formats on June 14, 2010. Tuna also moved his radio station voice imaging business to Black Card Radio on October 25, 2010, with clients nationwide. On January 3, 2011, Charlie introduced his newest syndicated feature available through Black Card Radio, "Charlie Tuna's Hollywood Minute", 4 to 5 top entertainment stories each day in a fast paced, fully produced headline stories, plus "audio" clips one minute radio feature!

Tuna has a significant distinction for his 25-year run (1971–1996) of approximately 6,000 radio shows on the American Forces Network
American Forces Network
The American Forces Network is the brand name used by the United States Armed Forces American Forces Radio and Television Service for its entertainment and command internal information networks worldwide...

.

Television

In addition to his radio work, Charlie has hosted Cinema, Cinema, Cinema for 30 years, an internationally syndicated TV show, featuring the top movies
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 in the US each week with clips from the films, and another international TV show Inside Hollywood the past two years. He has been the announcer on a number of television game shows, including Time Machine
Time Machine (game show)
Time Machine is an American game show where contestants competed to answer trivia questions about popular culture and recent history to win prizes. The show aired on NBC from January 7 through April 26, 1985 and was hosted by John Davidson. Charlie Tuna was the announcer, with Rich Jeffries as his...

, Scrabble
Scrabble (game show)
Scrabble is an American television game show that was based on the Scrabble board game. The show was co-produced by Exposure Unlimited and Reg Grundy Productions. It ran from July 2, 1984 to March 23, 1990, and again from January 18 to June 11, 1993, both runs on NBC. A total of 1,335 episodes were...

, Scattergories
Scattergories (game show)
Scattergories is an American game show on NBC daytime hosted by Dick Clark, with Charlie Tuna as announcer, that aired from January 18 to June 11, 1993...

, The $25,000 Pyramid
Pyramid (game show)
Pyramid is an American television game show which has aired several versions. The original series, The $10,000 Pyramid, debuted March 26, 1973 and spawned seven subsequent Pyramid series...

, The Quiz Kids Challenge
Quiz Kids Challenge
The Quiz Kids Challenge is an American game show series that aired in syndication from September 10 to December 28, 1990. It was a slightly different version of the Quiz Kids, and was hosted by Jonathan Prince and announced by Johnny Gilbert and Charlie Tuna.-Gameplay:A team of three Quiz Kids...

, and The New Battlestars
Battlestars (game show)
Battlestars is an American game show that aired for two separate runs on NBC during the early 1980s. The show's first run aired from October 26, 1981 to April 23, 1982...

.

Tuna was also the announcer for the last two years of television's syndicated Mike Douglas Show and Alan Thicke
Alan Thicke
Alan Thicke is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains.- Early life :...

's late night TV show Thicke of the Night
Thicke of the Night
Thicke of the Night is an American late night talk show produced by MGM Television, distributed in syndication by Metromedia and broadcast in first-run syndication during the 1983-1984 TV season....

. He was also featured in the 1970s in the Universal
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

 film Rollercoaster and an independent film Racquet.

Event host

Charlie raised nearly US$2.5 million for Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles, formerly Childrens Hospital Society, is a private, non-profit teaching hospital in Los Angeles. The hospital provides multidisciplinary care to over 93,000 children each year, with physician expertise in over 100 pediatric specialties and subspecialties.The hospital...

 with his annual Tunathon (2004–2007), hosted the red carpet and emceed the Revlon Run/Walk for five years (2003–2007), and emcees the annual 4th of July
Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...

 Warner Park in Woodland Hills celebration which attracts annual crowds of over 50,000 spectators.

Recognition and awards

Tuna received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...

 January 10, 1990, was inducted into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame, August 19, 1999. On July 18, 2008, he was voted into the National Radio Hall of Fame (NRHOF). He was inducted in Chicago by his longtime friend Larry Lujack
Larry Lujack
Larry Lujack , a Top 40 Music radio disc jockey, was known for his world-weary sarcastic style, "Klunk Letter of the Day" and darkly humorous "Animal Stories" along with "sidekick Little Tommy", and "Cheap Trashy Show Biz Report." He was also referred to as Superjock, Lawrence of Chicago, Uncle...

 on November 8, 2008. On September 18, 2010, Tuna was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted into the Route 66 Cruisin' Hall of Fame in San Bernardino, California. In 1997, Los Angeles Radio People readers voted Charlie one of the Top 10 L.A. Radio Personalities of All Time, and in 2007, Charlie was once again elected by his LARadio.com broadcast peers as one of the 2007 Top 10 Los Angeles Radio Personalities.

Personal life

Charlie Tuna resides in Tarzana, California
Tarzana, Los Angeles, California
Tarzana is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. The neighborhood is located on the site of a former ranch owned by author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who named it Tarzana after his jungle hero character Tarzan.-Geography:Tarzana, a district...

 and has served as its honorary mayor since 1977.

External links

  • Official website
  • Tuna at KEarth101.com
    KRTH-FM
    KRTH is a U.S. oldies radio station located in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles Area. Its signal covers an extremely large area, due in part to height upon Mt...

  • Black Card Radio
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