Mary Turner Pattiz, who as Mary Turner was a silky-smooth-voiced disc jockey at KMET, the album-oriented rock station that soundtracked Southern California in the 1970s and early 1980s before leaving radio to become an addiction counselor and philanthropist, died on May 9 at her Beverly Hills home. She turned 76.
The cause was cancer, said Ace Young, a former KMET news director.
KMET was a hard-rocking upstart in the early 1970s, with its laid-back jockeys bringing a steady stream of new music from bands like The Who, Pink Floyd and Steely Dan, along with a bit of naughty banter – a bit of sexual innuendo, endless stoner jokes – that was a welcome counterpoint to the Top 40 hits produced by AM stations.
They were proud renegades, mixing surf reports with coverage of events such as the Mexican government’s spraying of illegal marijuana crops with paraquat, a deadly poison. (When Jim Ladd, a nighttime DJ, told his listeners to call the White House to protest the practice, 5,000 callers jammed the White House switchboard.) Their bright yellow billboards were often installed upside down. They had a signature cheer, “Whooya” (the “w” was silent), which all the jockeys incorporated into their programs; the neologism was a refinement, Mr. Young said in an interview, “of the coughing sound we made when we smoked too much weed.” Mrs. Pattiz—then Mary Turner—was known as “the Burner,” a nickname supposedly given to her by J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf, for her seductive performance and good looks, and she held the main night spot , from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m
When big bands came to town to perform or promote a new record, they stopped by KMET to be interviewed by Ms. Pattiz. She was gentle and jovial, a friendly conversationalist who once teased Bruce Springsteen by asking, “Do you really know a nice little town in Southern California, in San Diego, where they play guitar all night and all day?” (She quoted “Rosalita,” a song from Mr. Springsteen’s second album.) Most importantly, she allowed her subjects to talk without interruption. For his part, Mr. Springsteen was so impressed with her that he asked her out, and during his performance at the Forum in Inglewood, California the night after the interview, he dedicated the song “Promised Land” to her.
