Gary Chew

Through: Wednesday, January 24, 2007

(retired)

On January 5, 2007, KXPR listeners and staff bid a fond adieu to Gary Chew, KXPR's midday classical host.  After 51 years in broadcasting...18 of those years at KXPR...Gary announced his retirement.

Except for a hitch in the U.S. Army, Gary has always worked in either  radio or television. After many years in commercial broadcasting, Gary happened to hear All Things Considered in 1974 on a university FM station.  He knew it was time for a change!  Ever since, except for a four-year stint starting up a new commercial classical music FM station, Gary has been heavily involved with public radio or public television, bringing KWGS-FM---at the University of Tulsa--- to Corporation for Public Broadcasting qualification; and as Assistant Director for Research and Planning at the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority in Oklahoma City, expanding OETA's TV translator coverage and developing a yet-to-be-realized state public radio network.

Music, however, has always been Gary's chief interest, particularly jazz, starting early in his life (listening overnight to WWL-AM in New  Orleans) and for the past twenty-five years, classical music.

Chew, who lives in Sacramento, is a bachelor and the father of two daughters, from two previous marriages. Gary's widowed mother lives in Wichita, Kansas and, as he puts it, "keeps me on the straight and narrow via weekly phone instructions".

Read Gary's latest film reviews online at http://www.tulsatvmemories.com/