To listeners in upstate New York, he was their answer to national icons such as Dick Clark and Wolfman Jack. He was also one of the last old school disc jockeys still working into the present day. Today, the radio & television community in New York is mourning Joseph Motto, alias Boom Boom Brannigan, who passed away Wednesday at 82.
The only time I saw Brannigan in person, the impression I gleaned from seeing this man was that maybe, just maybe, he was separated at birth somehow from the late singer Roy Orbison. He had the same hair, not quite the same style sunglasses. It was at an outdoor concert in Albany sometime in the late 90's, if memory serves. I didn't get to talk to the man, but the fact that he was still active in radio in, at the time, his fifth decade in the business, was amazing.
Brannigan is best remembered for having spun the hits at WPTR & WABY in the 50's, 60's, & 70's, and even owned a station of his own during the 90's. Whomever said that James Brown was "the hardest working man in show business", apparently never met Boom Boom Brannigan.
Rest in peace, Boom Boom.
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