KUAD's Brian Gary |
His radio career at Townsquare's Country KUAD 99.1 FM began in 1988. And after thousands and thousands of hours of broadcast, Gary is hanging it up today, ending a career of entertainment as well as philanthropy, personal accomplishments as professional ones.
“It’s been in the back of my head that, maybe it’s time,” said Gary, 53. “The way life’s played out, it’s been real obvious that now is a really good time to go.”
The DJ’s swan song will come Saturday evening. Gary and his morning show co-host of all 30 years Todd Harding will host the 11th annual, and final, “Habajeeba Show,” a live variety act that Gary writes and the radio station hosts at the Union Colony Civic Center. “Habajeeba” isn’t just a nonsense phrase, either: Gary and Harding invented it years ago to express their excitement over it being Friday, like their own version of T.G.I.F.
They said it on air and it caught on throughout northern Colorado.
Gary isn’t officially retiring — “when you work in radio, you never make enough to retire,” he said. His next venture will be managing Brian Gary Happiness Warrior, which Gary envisions will take him across Colorado and the rest of the world to inspire people to be happy in the face of adversity.
Just like Gary is, who has overcome anxiety, depression, obesity and a heart attack, he said.
“I’ll be on stage and behind a microphone the rest of my life,” Gary said. “As far as radio goes, it's done.”
Gary has been awarded Broadcast Personality of the Year. He and Harding were two-thirds of the morning show that was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2017. The third person on the show, Susan Moore, left K99 several months before Gary announced he would.
In addition to entertaining drivers during their early commute, Gary and the rest of the morning crew has also raised millions for 28 Hours of Hope to help abused children, and raised money for local veterans.
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