This from All Access:

--------------------RKO Radio Reunion In The Works--------------------

If you ever worked for RKO RADIO back in the day, no matter what market or position, get ready to gather for a reunion in LOS ANGELES in 2009. The official announcement is coming, so stay tuned for details.

And, if you'd like to make sure you are included on the invite, please, email your name, address, phones and other contact info to: rkoradioreunion@gmail.com.

It's a shame that Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele can't be there.

and many others.

And don't forget the award-winning B.R. Bradbury. He was Morgan's newsman for many years with "KHJ 20/20 News". B.R. passed away about 5 years ago.

I don't mean to be inconsiderate or nosey, but did a lot of radio personalities of the 1960s and '70s tend to smoke heavily--more so than people in other professions? If so, what was it about radio work that drove people to smoke so much? The other day, I was reading about Robert W. Morgan and found out that he died of lung cancer, as did Don Steele. Morgan admitted that he smoked two packs of cigarettes per day for about 35 years.

Back in the 50s and 60s the percentage of smokers in the U.S. was huge...doctors were still doing commercials promoting smokes(Camels)...tv personalities has a cig going all the time (Johnny Carson/Dean Martin). When the Surgeon General's report came out in '64 saying that nicotine caused cancer many folks including the radio crowd were hooked after years of lighting up. When I started in radio in the early 60s I would go thru a pack in a four hour airshift...most of it burned up in the ashtray, but still that is a lot of poison in just four hours. I would smoke another pack the rest of the day...two packs a day for about 10 years until I quit in 1970. And smokes were cheap then...especially in Oregon. You could buy a carton of any major brand for $1.90. Today you will pay at least $40,probably much more. Back in those days I think it would be safe to say almost every person working in radio was a smoker...and usually a heavy drinker too. But boy did we have fun. I think the pressure in the radio industry to succeed probably had something to do with the heavysmoking. But smoking was just a normal part of life in those days..and when all the negative facts about smoking came to light many radio guys just couldn't or wouldn't give up their cigarettes. Many paid with their lives.

Cigarette smoking is not endemic to radio. People used to smoke everywhere. It was part of the culture.Cigarettes are more addictive than almost any other substance. It takes quite a bit of determination to quit. Most don't. The reduction of smoking today is the result of fewer teens starting the habit. I can recall smokes at $.25 a pack.