New meaning to the expression "dead air"

There’s a recent article that says that Rush Limbaugh’s syndicator is going to keep his voice on his radio show even though he passed away (happily not until learning that Biden is now president).  That may sound a little ghoulish to keep his voice on the air, but at least they’re acknowledging he’s dead.

Back when XM and Sirius were two competing satellite radio providers (i.e.. the good old days), XM had Wolfman Jack shows they were playing nightly.  You’d think they were live because they included phone calls.  And I don’t recall any disclaimer explaining that Wolfman Jack had long since shuttled his mortal coil.  

But the weirdest one I can remember started in the ‘60s.  

There was literally a ma and pap radio station called KCHJ 1010 in Delano, California.  Carl & Jean Johns owned the station.  Carl had done a ton of voice tracks for the morning show including weather reports, intros to songs, good morning wishes for Monday and Thursday and Easter, whatever.  

He died in a car accident in 1968 and  they kept playing his voice tracks in the morning.  His loyal audience never knew he was dead.  This went on until 1991 when Jean sold the station.   It’s a good thing they didn’t bill themselves as “the new music station.”  But how weird is that? 

from By Ken Levine