Former Kicks/Eagle PD Dene Hallam passed away Friday, Nov 20

[rho01]

Moby just informed me that Dene Hallam passed away last night. Not being next of kin, he wasn't given a cause of death. He just knew Dene was at the ICU at Grady the past week. He said Dene would often complain of ailments so he wasn't sure how serious this one was until he heard Dene had been admitted into intensive care.

Dene, as Roddy noted in the previous thread, was a very well-respected program director in radio circles for a long time. But after he lost his Kicks job seven years ago, his life was never the same. Moby helped keep him going the past few years even when the chips were down. Moby said he was in his mid-50s.

Dene has an estranged ex wife and kids, Moby said, but didn't have any real close adult next of kin nearby.

Google pops up a nice piece written about him just before he was let go in 2002 here:

http://www.allbusiness.com/transportation-communications/communications-radio/4357982-1.html

I recall having great conversations with the man. His candor got him in trouble but as a reporter, I found him invaluable in terms of his insights into the business. This article above gives you a sampler.

"The guy was smart as a whip, a great out-of-the-box thinker," said Steve Mitchell, formerly of Eagle who worked with him earlier this decade. "I don't know what happened to him."

 

[beachguy3b]

I already replied in the other thread, but seeing this one makes me feel the loss a bit as well. We'll just say I understand some of those things he lived with.

I wasn't aware of the troubles he had the last few years, but I know, in my mind, when I hear his name, I always think of first-class talent.

 

[Jimc]

Someone ought to tell Radio-Info wen people to update their Home Page Headline about Mr Hallam.

 

[DToTheJ]

Moby is doing a good job this morning paying tribute to Dene on occasion during an otherwise regular show. He just commented on Dene's condition at the time of his passing. Moby says "they found a mass on his liver" but did not specifically say it was cancer... just a "systemic shutdown." Moby added that Dene had high blood pressure in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, for someone who was such an important figure in New York radio, I was astonished to not find anything on R-I's New York board about his passing. I had to start a thread myself.

 

[rho01]

Moby sent this email out to friends. He said it was okay to post here:


Dear F-O-D-H (Friends of Dene Hallam)
I'm sitting here on this Sunday morning just stunned.
Dene Hallam has passed away!! "WHAT!?!"
Dene won't be sitting behind that pile of crap that was his desk ever again.
I can't believe I'm actually going to miss the mess that was wherever Dene was. At his office at the Moby Network facility, and in the apartment in the basement of our home, where he lived for over a year and a half, the pile was at least knee deep, and was all things that, "Pal, I might need that one day."
Honestly, I don't even know why I chose to write this and send it to those in my address book that I know Dene loved, that loved him back. Such a small percentage of those to which that would apply.
So, pardon my rambling if you'd be so kind, and just let me lean on you for a few paragraphs.
Dene was like my twin brother. We'd said that to each other so many times over these past few years. We'd laugh so loud the next offices could hear us, and cuss each other to the point they'd probably want us to hold it down, just like families do. We were Dene's family, and he was a large part of ours.
Holidays would find Dene around our family table. (With Hayleigh, if it happened to fall on "his days") I've been sitting here reading Facebook entries, and I'm at a good bit of a loss as to how to proceed.
I grieve over the tortured soul that Dene had become, and over the fact that his twins weren't part of his life these past few years, yet he tried over and over again to support them in any way he could think of knowing he'd not feel any of that love returned in any way.
I'm so sad thinking that those girls have lost their dad, without ever getting to tell him thank you for being such a good and giving man.
A pain in the neck? Sure he was. We can all be in our own ways, especially me. But I have to ask myself could I ever show such love, unwavering commitment, & dedication, while feeling none of it returned?
God, he was a good man.
Those facebook posts are from scores of good people that Dene had made better, or at the very least attempted to. They're mainly from people that were exposed to Dene when he was at the top of his game, and benefited from being there.
They, thank God, weren't there to see, feel, and hear the trauma of a loving man who felt he'd lost everything.
For the final chapter of his life, Dene programmed our Moby network, and did it with the same amount of passion he'd had for the biggest station he'd ever taken ot the top regardless of the odds against him.
Many times I'd come to work at 0'dark thirty, and there he would sit, having been there all night, agonizing over the logs, and making sure in his own mind that it all flowed right.
There's a tremendous void at Moby Enterprises now that we won't fully realize for a while.
We'll deal with the hole left by this loss in the weeks to come, but for now, I just think of his desk piled to the ceiling with crap he'd never need, and some very important things among the pile that he could find if pressed.
For now, I'm just reading the submissions from those he touched over his long and glorious career.
The end of his journey came with him under our umbrella, and because of that, I'm feeling a deep sense of responsibility to insure he's properly put to rest.
He was full of love, and kindness for all that had come in his wake. No man ever loved his children more than Dene loved Sam and Liz and especially Hayleigh.
Mary Beth, Gracie and I were his closest family as his life ended, and with that position we feel the need to take the lead to ensure anything done "for Dene" will directly benefit "Dene's daughters" that he gave endlessly to.
We're in the process of making that happen, and will post the "How To Help Dene's Girls" stuff on www.mobyinthemorning.com and get it to the trades ASAP.
Thanksgiving week isn't the best time to get a ball like this rolling.
Dene would have never begun something of this magnitude at the beginning of a 3 day week.
Honestly, this might be better, because there's no time for grief. We've got a big job to do, and very little time to get it done.
My list of those to send this to is painfully short. Those that read it directly from me, would you be so kind as to forward to others that you're aware of that might need/want to see it.
Thank you & God bless,
MOBY

 

[RoddyFreeman]

Moby is doing a good job this morning paying tribute to Dene on occasion during an otherwise regular show. He just commented on Dene's condition at the time of his passing. Moby says "they found a mass on his liver" but did not specifically say it was cancer... just a "systemic shutdown." Moby added that Dene had high blood pressure in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, for someone who was such an important figure in New York radio, I was astonished to not find anything on R-I's New York board about his passing. I had to start a thread myself.

I started a thread yesterday on the "New York Radio Message Board" at http://www.musicradio77.com/wwwboard/ that attracted a lot of response from Dene's former employees and friends, some of whom told their favorite Dene stories.

Howie Rose, who does play-by-play for the New York Mets, told a story about when they were classmates at age 11. Dene had a crush on a girl named Sherry Orr. He went to her house with a bouquet of roses. When her mother answered the door and said Sherry wasn't home, Dene handed her mom the roses and sang (to the tune of Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter), "Mrs. Orr, you've got a lovely daughter."

 

[DToTheJ]

I did read that story, and countless others from the likes of Al Bernstein and Steven Roy. As well as your thread. While it doesn't surprise me that those folks would be on that board, I'm more surprised at the fact that the New York board here was too busy with business as usual (i.e. Party 87 is not the late Pulse 87) to let a post about Dene's passing surface.

 

[story@11]

Hey Mitchell - now Dene is/was "smart as a whip" and an "out of the box thinker"... funny that you didn't have a kind word to say about him EVER in the years he was in the building.

 

[Mitchell]

Hey Mitchell - now Dene is/was "smart as a whip" and an "out of the box thinker"... funny that you didn't have a kind word to say about him EVER in the years he was in the building.

The fact that he did (and tried to do) some counter-productive things does not take away from the fact that he was a smart guy and he had my respect. Clearly, you don't know the half of it.

 

[joepa4ever]

Hey Mitchell - now Dene is/was "smart as a whip" and an "out of the box thinker"... funny that you didn't have a kind word to say about him EVER in the years he was in the building.

The fact that he did (and tried to do) some counter-productive things does not take away from the fact that he was a smart guy and he had my respect. Clearly, you don't know the half of it.

Dene wasn't the easiest guy to like. For whatever reasons he seemed to thrive on conflict.

Moby, it was nice reading your essay. He was lucky to have such a good friend.

 

[onetake]

There are many lessons to be learned from his life, career and how he faced challenges. None of us is perfect and I'm moved by Moby's interpretation and presentation of the side many didn't see.
We often talk about the personalities of recording artists who were big years ago and how their attitude can get in the way. Many radio people, who lived off the alter ego for affection and fame, today have a hard time adjusting when the job is gone and the offers don't come in.
I never knew and it's not important why Dene couldn't land a job he felt good in but it is good that he and Moby found each other again. It was a good situation for both of them.
Powerful personalities in all forms of business can get in their own way. But no question Dene loved radio very much and did many good things, his way.