R.I.P.: Garry Mac, Longtime Chattanooga Radio-TV Personality

Garry Mac

Garry Mac, a TV and radio personality and a figure in the Chattanooga area medical and nonprofit communities, died Tuesday in Florida where he lived and spent most of his time. He was 67, reports The Times Free Press.

Mac worked at WDXB and WGOW and is perhaps best known for his work with partner Dale Deason at WGOW, where they hosted a morning show in the 1980s. In recent years, Mac filled in at WGOW talk radio as a substitute when hosts were on vacation or sick.

After leaving broadcasting, Mac went to work for Memorial Hospital as a marketing assistant. At Memorial, Mac started the water bottle program, which urged people to drink plenty of water a day. He was a news anchor for WDEF-TV 12 for two years in the mid-'90s,. He was also a spokesman for Hospice of Chattanooga and a frequent guest on local TV news and talk programs.

"Garry was a tremendously gifted air personality and deeply loved and respected by the broadcast community, and everyone he met. He always carried a smile with him and I'll miss that a lot. Prayers for the family," fellow broadcaster and broadcasting executive Ben Cagle said.

Mac was also an active member of the loosely organized Veterans of Radio Wars. He and fellow broadcaster and friend David Carroll, Local 3 News anchor, started the group in the early '90s with others who were "getting out of the radio business, and (WGOW personality and UTC Mocs broadcaster) Jim Reynolds, who is still in it," according to Carroll.

Carroll said by phone that their small group would meet for lunch and eventually it grew.