Byron MacGregor

Infobox Person
name = Byron MacGregor
birth_name = Gary Lachlan Mack
birth_date = Birth date|1948|3|3|mf=yes
birth_place = flagicon|CAN Calgary, Alberta, Canada
death_date = Death date and age|1995|1|3|1948|3|3|mf=yes
death_place = (Possibly) flagicon|USA Detroit, Michigan, United States
body_discovered =
death_cause = Pneumonia
nationality = Canadian
ethnicity = White
known_for = His creation of a musical version of The Americans
years_active = 1968-1995
occupation = News director
News personality

Byron MacGregor was born Gary Lachlan Mack on March 3, 1948 and died on January 3, 1995. Born in Calgary, Alberta, he was a popular Canadian news personality and news director. At only 19 years old, he became the news director at AM radio station CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, which also served Detroit, Michigan as well as Toledo and Cleveland in Ohio -- this happening in 1968 when Dick Smyth left to work in Toronto. This was during its "Big 8/20·20 News" and also around the time RKO General was about to lose the station due to illegal practices. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDCdbmwy9l8 YouTube - CKLW's 20/20 News Team] ] In 1973, he listened to Gordon Sinclair of CFRB in Toronto when he wrote a speech about America and delivered it on air. MacGregor recorded his own version, with "America the Beautiful" as the background music, and his version of the record (released on Westbound Records) became a bigger hit than Sinclair's in America, reaching #4 on the Billboard singles chart. [Joel Whitburn, "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits". 7th Edition, 2000] In Canada, MacGregor's version hit #42, while Sinclair's hit #30. He died on January 3, 1995 as result of complications stemming from pneumonia. His funeral took place at McCabe Funeral Home in Farmington Hills, Michigan. He was 46 years old. [ [http://www.thebig8.net/byron.html The Classic CKLW Page - Memoirs of Byron's Funeral] ]

See also

* CKLW
* CFRB
* RKO General
* America the Beautiful
* Westbound Records

References