Put on your Cote de Neige, and cut off your PieIX -Ralph Lockwood dies @ 80

Montreal Gazette article from today's Gazette

Ralph 'Birdman' Lockwood, zany Montreal radio morning man, dies at 80

A fast-talking, cigar-smoking wisecracker, his taglines caught on with Montrealers. How's your bird? How's your old oiseau?

Andy Riga

Updated: January 13, 2020

Ralph Lockwood in the CKGM studio in July 1975.

Ralph “Birdman” Lockwood, the legendary zany morning man of 1970s Montreal radio, died Sunday. He was 80 years old.
His death, in York, Pa., was confirmed by CJAD host Andrew Carter on Facebook.
“Lockwood’s constituency never included listeners who liked to be eased out of bed by a radio morning show,” Montreal Gazette columnist Mike Boone once wrote of him. “But if you were the type who enjoyed being plunged into the day by high-voltage, crack-a-minute radio, the Birdman was in a class by himself.”

Lockwood was born in Hazleton, Pa., where he got his start in the business hosting a nightly polka show in the early 1960s.
He made his Montreal radio debut in 1968 at CFOX, but left in 1971 and landed a job on a morning show in West Palm Beach, Fla.

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Returning to Montreal in 1972, Lockwood quickly became one of the city’s top morning hosts at CKGM.

Ralph Lockwood in 1979. Mac Juster / Montreal Gazette

A fast-talking, cigar-smoking wisecracker, his taglines caught on with Montrealers. How’s your bird? How’s your old oiseau? That’s what she said at the Bell Canada picnic. Don’t forget to put on your Côte des Neiges.
Lockwood voiced his own fictional sidekicks — Professor Frydock, Dorion Smith and a caricature of Mad Dog Vachon.
An early morning institution, he had a penchant for corny one-liners and double entendres — and doing his show shirtless. One morning, he played Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog over and over, claiming he had locked himself in the studio.
Lockwood was also known for his quirky television commercials — he donned a barrel for a Dorion Suits ad, andfor the Bar-B-Barn restaurant, he devoured succulent chicken and ribs for 30 seconds without uttering a word.

He left CKGM in 1981, but remained a Montreal media mainstay.
He became CFCF radio’s afternoon show host before moving to TV as host of a daily morning show on CFCF-TV. For a time, he was also the the play-by-play caller on the Montreal Concordes’ CJAD football broadcasts, and host of a weekly football highlights show on CFCF TV.

Ralph Lockwood, left, takes a break from his frenetic radio show to pose with his traffic reporter, Mary Ann Carpentier on Jan. 25, 1974. Garth Pritchard / Montreal Gazette

In 1985, CKGM, hoping to revive its flagging morning show, hired Lockwood for five years at a six-figure salary. But the effort failed and Lockwood was fired in 1987.
A year later, Lockwood returned to the United States to host the morning show on WSBA, a station in York, Pa., not far from his hometown. He worked there for 11 years, going on to do radio consulting and public relations.
In a 2002 interview with the Montreal Gazette, Lockwood said: “I miss radio like crazy — except when I listen to where it’s going, with all the bitching and complaining. I saw it as a nice vehicle for entertaining people. I made it like a bubble. It was my escape. And, geez, I miss the Bar-B-Barn.”
Lockwood’s wife, Lois Lockwood, died in 2008.

Ralph Lockwood in a 1985 CKGM publicity photo. jpg

   You can see the complete Gazette article here at this link,which includes sound bites and video,old ads etc etc                                                                                                                   https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/ralph-birdman-lockwood-zany-montreal-radio-morning-man-dies                      Cheers ! LesF