Dan Ingram - Quotes

Quotes

• Does that sound particularly slow to you?....Everything sounds like it's running in slow motion....The lights are dimming in the city; you wouldn't believe what's going on in this studio, folks!....The electricity is slowing down; I didn't know that could happen! — Ingram on the air, minutes before the great Northeast Blackout of 1965, as decreasing electrical frequency caused the music he was playing to run slow
• I just got some terrible news. I read the ratings, and WABC is only the 13th ranked station…in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania! — On WABC in 1971
• "WABC, the station that loves you, because your ears are a saleable commodity!"
• "Hi Kemosabe"
• "Roll your bod"
• "The word of the day is…"
• "You're in the honored group of the day"
• "The boys in blue are looking for you, with radar."
• About Cass Elliot: "I love the chunky Mama."
• "The Teeny Weeny Brass" — for the Tijuana Brass
• "on the Ingram Mess"*
• "on the Ingram Flingram"*
• "on the Ingram Travesty" (occasionally "the Ingram Catharsis")
• " zay gezunt" — a Yiddish expression, meaning "be well." Upon hearing this, many listeners believed him to be Jewish. (He is actually Presbyterian, of English and French-Canadian heritage.)
• "Jeg elsker dig" — a Danish expression, meaning, "I love you." Used nearly always as a sign off, he would pronounce it "Yay hoolska day."
• Sometimes preceding a weather forecast: "Peter the Meter Reader and his Weather Machine aided by his lovely wife, Fats Pontoon, her mustache, beard and orchestra" or "Peter the Meter Reader and his Weather Machine aided by his lovely wife Fats Pontoon and her weather balloon" or "... her pearly green skin and her orchestra."
• Sometimes during a weather forecast: "Chance of brief showers… watch out for those briefs…"
• Introducing Howard Cosell's Speaking of Sports segment: "And now it's time to broach the coach."
• "Big Dan here, laughin' and scratchin'"
• " might start off slow, but you can be guaranteed it'll slump off from there."
• Following a pre-recorded commercial which he had voiced, "Thank you, me!"
• He frequently "doubled" the voiceover of a pre-recorded commercial or station promo, voicing it live on air while the recorded version was playing, perfectly matching the pacing and inflection of the recorded version, to sound as if there were two of him speaking.