A long-time radio show host in the Poconos has signed off.
Gary Smith is a jack of all trades when it comes to keeping people entertained. For decades, he made listeners laugh on the radio. He's spent the last several years at Pocono 96.7 as the host of "Gary in the Morning."
"I started in 79/80 at a radio station in Gloucester, Virginia, population 30 people. I worked my way up to the bustling borough metropolis of Stroudsburg. I've been here, it would have been 30 years in March that I did radio on and off here," Smith said.
For Gary, one of the best parts about his job was working with his long-time friend and co-host Elisa Chase. But when Chase suddenly passed away earlier this month due to health complications, everything changed.
"What happened was, you know, I battled because I really loved doing the show, but every time I thought, I can do this or change that, and I came to the end of my assumption on what I can present now, or how I would continue the show, it always went back to, yeah, but Elisa is not there. I couldn't get over that, so I decided it was time for me to hang it up for now."
Gary tells Newswatch 16 he has many fond memories of working in the Poconos. One that sticks out is when he orchestrated the grand opening of the 7th Street Bridge in Stroudsburg back in 2012. What was supposed to a less than exciting unveiling, turned into a huge celebration.
"We were just going to do a live broadcast, so we called up the band from Stroudsburg, and the band was going to play going across. Suddenly, all these people wanted to be there, the senator, state representatives. It became this whole thing, and I just stood back and went, 'OK, whatever,'" Gary recalled.
Gary says he isn't officially retired, just working on a new normal, and he thanks his listeners for many, many years of tuning in.