Byron MacGregor
Byron MacGregor (March 3, 1948 – January 3, 1995) was a Canadian news anchor and news director.
Career
Born Gary Lachlan Mack in Calgary, Alberta, by the age of nineteen he became the youngest news director at the AM radio station, CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, which also served Detroit, Michigan as well as Toledo and Cleveland in Ohio and covered twenty eight states and six provinces. This was during its "Big 8/20·20 News" period, and also around the time RKO General was forced to sell the station, due to a change in Canadian ownership rules that prohibited foreign firms from controlling Canadian licensed stations.
In 1973, he read a Toronto newspaper editorial written by Gordon Sinclair of CFRB in Toronto, a commentary about America. MacGregor then read the patriotic commentary on CKLW Radio as part of a public affairs program; and, due to the huge response he was asked to record "The Americans" with "America the Beautiful" performed by The Detroit Symphony Orchestra as the background music. Both MacGregor and Sinclair released recorded versions of the commentary. MacGregor's version of the record (released on Westbound Records) became a bigger hit than Sinclair's in the United States, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of February 9, 1974. It became a gold record. In Canada, MacGregor's version hit #1, while Sinclair's hit #24. His recording has sold over three and a half million copies, and all of his proceeds have been donated to the American Red Cross. MacGregor was honored with the "National Americanism Award".
Podcasts:
Byron MacGregor
ALBUMS
- WFMU Presents: The Happy Listener's Guide to Mind Control released: 1992
WFMU Presents: The Happy Listener's Guide to Mind Control
Released 1992- Flight Final (excerpt 1)
- At the Grassroots
- An Open Letter to My Teenage Son
- America's Way
- The Coming War With Russia
- March of the Psychlo
- Soviet Putsch Radio Moscow
- It's Got to Be Done
- History Repeats Itself
- Americans
- Thank You Canada
- I'm From New Jersey
- The Game of Life (excerpt)
- I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams
- Radio Spot
- Flight Final (excerpt 2)
- We're Gonna Slap the Dirty Little Jap
- Our Job in Japan (excerpts)
- Flight F-I-N-A-L (excerpt 3)
- The Monkey Song
- Duck and Cover
- Radio Spot 2
- How to Pick Up Girls: The Museum
- We Got Em
- The Trumpet
- Where Have All the Heroes Gone
- Excerpt From the 'Punk Rock Episode' of Quincy
- You've Started Something
- Efficiency
- The More You Sell
- Epilogue to Flight F-I-N-A-L
- Apology
