Johnny Magnus (KGFJ, KMPC, KGIL, KRLA, KBRT, KPRZ, KMPC, KJQY and KKJZ) died on May 18, 2025. There were no published obituaries. A friend confirmed the death with SAG-AFTRA.
IMDB shows a date of birth of April 5, 1938, but in past years, Johnny had said he was born in 1935 and 1932---so his age at the time of his death could be anywhere from 87 to 93.
With the death of Wink Martindale April 15 of last year, Johnny outlived all of his fellow KMPC personalities from his first stint there (1963-1973) except for @Kathy Gori .
Magnus was born in Frankfurt, Germany. His family escaped the Nazis and made it to New York. Johnny learned English by listening to the radio, and became fascinated with the medium. His first job was as a page at NBC's Radio City at Rockefeller Center. The late Don Barrett's LARadio website says Johnny then got on-air jobs at WWRL, WOV and did live remotes from Birdland on WABC.
Johnny moved west in 1957 and landed at KGFJ, then an MOR/Jazz station, and then, in 1963, landed the late-night slot at KMPC, where fellow new kid Gary Owens (who'd just come over from KFWB) nicknamed him "The Prince of Darkness".
Very little of Johnny's on-air work is online. This unscoped aircheck, from just a few days after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, is the best and longest example:
Magnus, frustrated by being passed over for daytime openings, left KMPC in the spring of 1973. As Lee Grant showed in this devastating feature in the L.A. Times' Calendar section, it was like breaking a mirror---seven years of bad luck:
As noted in the last section of the article, Magnus came back to do Contemporary Christian music at KBRT, and less than a year later, moved to KPRZ (1150) when it went adult standards. He jumped ship back to KMPC in 1985 and stayed there until its move to sports in 1992.
After that, it was KJQY (1260), some work for the Music of Your Life satellite network and finally, from 2014 until 2021, weekend mornings on KKJZ (88.1), replacing the late Chuck Cecil's "Swinging Years" with his own show called "Swing Time".
KKJZ (owned by Cal State Long Beach but operated by Saul Levine) did not comment about Johnny's departure other than to say his health was not a factor. If Johnny talked about it to anyone, it never made it into print or pixels---or even the "Johnny says..." kind of conversations people in the industry have. No one I know had spoken to Johnny. He and I had corresponded sporadically over the years via email. Mine went unanswered.
I wish I had more evidence that I could post here to support the truth that Johnny Magnus was a one-of-a-kind talent. Those who heard him just know it. But his story---especially the part told in the Calendar piece from 1980---illustrates all too well that talent, even in the supposed "glory days", wasn't enough and that it could and can be a very cruel business.
Rest in peace, Johnny.
IMDB shows a date of birth of April 5, 1938, but in past years, Johnny had said he was born in 1935 and 1932---so his age at the time of his death could be anywhere from 87 to 93.
With the death of Wink Martindale April 15 of last year, Johnny outlived all of his fellow KMPC personalities from his first stint there (1963-1973) except for @Kathy Gori .
Magnus was born in Frankfurt, Germany. His family escaped the Nazis and made it to New York. Johnny learned English by listening to the radio, and became fascinated with the medium. His first job was as a page at NBC's Radio City at Rockefeller Center. The late Don Barrett's LARadio website says Johnny then got on-air jobs at WWRL, WOV and did live remotes from Birdland on WABC.
Johnny moved west in 1957 and landed at KGFJ, then an MOR/Jazz station, and then, in 1963, landed the late-night slot at KMPC, where fellow new kid Gary Owens (who'd just come over from KFWB) nicknamed him "The Prince of Darkness".
Very little of Johnny's on-air work is online. This unscoped aircheck, from just a few days after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, is the best and longest example:
Magnus, frustrated by being passed over for daytime openings, left KMPC in the spring of 1973. As Lee Grant showed in this devastating feature in the L.A. Times' Calendar section, it was like breaking a mirror---seven years of bad luck:
As noted in the last section of the article, Magnus came back to do Contemporary Christian music at KBRT, and less than a year later, moved to KPRZ (1150) when it went adult standards. He jumped ship back to KMPC in 1985 and stayed there until its move to sports in 1992.
After that, it was KJQY (1260), some work for the Music of Your Life satellite network and finally, from 2014 until 2021, weekend mornings on KKJZ (88.1), replacing the late Chuck Cecil's "Swinging Years" with his own show called "Swing Time".
KKJZ (owned by Cal State Long Beach but operated by Saul Levine) did not comment about Johnny's departure other than to say his health was not a factor. If Johnny talked about it to anyone, it never made it into print or pixels---or even the "Johnny says..." kind of conversations people in the industry have. No one I know had spoken to Johnny. He and I had corresponded sporadically over the years via email. Mine went unanswered.
I wish I had more evidence that I could post here to support the truth that Johnny Magnus was a one-of-a-kind talent. Those who heard him just know it. But his story---especially the part told in the Calendar piece from 1980---illustrates all too well that talent, even in the supposed "glory days", wasn't enough and that it could and can be a very cruel business.
Rest in peace, Johnny.
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