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Darian O'Toole - R.I.P.

B

bobgowa

The All Access site is reporting that Darian O'Toole died yesterday after a long illness. She was most recently at KIFR in San Francisco.
 
This is terribly sad news. She was a wonderful, engaging broadcaster, and I hope that she's not remembered simply for the way her brief tenure at Free FM 106.9 ended.

I know that her website ceased to exist a few weeks ago (the domain name expired on March 5), and her blog hadn't been updated for nearly two years:

http://darianotoole.blogspot.com/

The last login on her MySpace page shows March 31 -- day before yesterday -- and her last post there was on December 3.
 
In my "early" days as a measly weekend board-op at KNBR she was working across the hall at KSAN. Extremely friendly, and always willing to talk to "the newbie to radio"... And just cool to hang with and chat on occassion.

Very sad news...
 
RIP

Here's hoping this thread does not get off topic...you know what I mean.

A radio person who made an impact and a great broadcaster.
 
Terrible news. I knew Darian from her Canadian radio days. Last heard from her a couple of months ago, she was sounding pretty optimistic about a new gig on the horizon. Radio heaven just got a bit crazier. RIP Karin.
 
I was CE at the changeover from KABL to Big 98 when Darian first started in the Bay Area. I believe that she did her best work at that time. I also worked with her at KSAN. She was a delight. Her humor, on and off air, made my day.

I'll miss her very much.
 
I remember her from her tour of duty in Philly on WXPN. She was on a "Dateline" show having scored an interview in one of the rags, claiming she had dated some Hollywood actor. She was the best thing that ever happened to that station for YEARS (until they picked up Y Rock). She will be sorely missed. Condolences to her family, show staff and friends. Another talent taken away far too young.
 
All I remember is that she was not very well-received in her brief stint at WAXQ in New York. Thoughts and prayers, regardless...
 
Remaster said:
RIP

Here's hoping this thread does not get off topic...you know what I mean.

A radio person who made an impact and a great broadcaster.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but unavoidable.

This post is a repeat and comes up each time Ms. O'Toole wants to check her popularity in a market. Whoever informed AllAccess of this info on APRIL FOOLS DAY might have been fooled themselves. Since this is a repeat post, I treat this "death" as I do with any soap opera death. The character isn't dead until a body is produced.

Sorry Darian, I thought these people who posted their kind words were smarter than the average bear.
And don't worry, you're still loved and we can't wait to hear you again soon.
 
"This post is a repeat and comes up each time Ms. O'Toole wants to check her popularity in a market."

I was thinking the same thing, so I hesitated to eulogize her, though I did thoroughly enjoy her show on K-Big in the mid 90s.

So I hope it's just an April Fool's prank. Think what a bummer it would be to actually die on April 1st.
 
If dead, a shame, she was too young. That said, she was anything but a nice person. Had some talent, but didn't know what to do with it without strong direction.
 
The woman I hired as Karin Begin in 1988 or 1989 in Nova Scotia has died. The woman who morphed into Darian O’Toole was responsible for my move to the US in 1994, a move which changed my life. As a disc jockey, she liked to cross the line and did so quite often, much to the consternation of my station manager. I loved what she did, told her so, and encouraged her to move to the US where a talent like hers could flower. It did, and she landed a morning gig in San Francisco. That’s when she called me and asked if I’d like to be her partner on K-BIG. To make a long story short, we had many adventures. I met my future wife, Laurie, at a James Taylor promotion. We moved the show to New York where Darian crashed and burned. I stayed in New York, and our parting was not amicable. We lost touch, although I would read about her escapades in various trade publications. This morning, I got an email from Mark Neumann who started as an intern on our show at Q 104.3 in New York and ended up as her on air partner in San Francisco. He asked if I had heard the news and was it another Darian prank for April Fool’s Day. Then I saw it on other online sites, so I called her father who confirmed that she had died of respiratory failure while in an Oakland hospital late Monday after she broke her leg about a week ago. I’m shocked and saddened by her death, but not surprised. She had many demons that tortured her. She was only 40. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude and I’ll always remember the good times.

Shawn Kelly
 
Thank you Shawn for the confirmation. She was a true talent as are you. Those were some good days on Battery St even with the old little curmudgeon in the corner office. How odd the timing of this news because I ran into Monkey Boy just yesterday. God's laughing right now WITH the Canadian Swamp witch. Thank you for bringing her into our lives.
 
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Jerry Lehane III Mars people animals fossils . I'll continue to post comments about Darian on message boards RonFez.net and MorningshowCentral.com since I only know toward the very end of her career and saved her emails to me as we only exchanged info from 2006-07,while I posted to her myspace up until last month(March).I usually posted positive things to cheer her and encourage her.We were trying to plan her comeback in mass media.If any biographers need that info I'm avail Jerry Lehane III (302)731-9930 myspace.com/jerrylehanei...myspace.com/jerrylehaneiii [email protected] She was very hungry for publicity and begged me to help her,so we had a mutual understanding.I would help her regain her former fame and she'd use me as a ghostwriter.She would want me to tell all,and I can prove it.
 
I first met Karen back in 2005 where we were doing some charity/volunteer work together. We got to talking & I found out who she was. Moments later, I told her I had a local college/community radio show (was 97.5, now 88.1 CKDU fm in Halifax). She became a fairly regular caller, just to call in & help pump up my 7 odd listeners (and occassionally harrass/give me a tough time due to my accent) on air.

She even came & watched me do stand-up comedy for the first time & even though we drifted apart after that night, she never had anything bad to say about me, and nor did I about her.

R.I.P my friend. You are & will be missed...
 
Very sad news, and more than a little shocking. Only 40? Respiratory failure? That's so tragic it's surreal. Very sad. Best to her family and friends, she was a talented broadcaster with a lot more to offer.
 
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