Radio Pioneer McLendon Critical After Shooting Self

Gordon McLendon, the “Old Scotsman” who pioneered Top 40 radio, was in critical but stable condition today from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, a family spokesman said.

McLendon’s son, Dallas businessman Bart McLendon, said a .38-caliber revolver fired accidentally as his father was cleaning it Thursday afternoon at the family ranch at Lake Dallas.

Denton County sheriff’s investigators, however, said they are investigating suicide as a possible motive. McLendon was said to have been in poor health.

“The gun discharged and broke his jaw and did some other minor damage,” Bart McLendon said. “The doctors tell us . . . he has a very good chance of survival.”

The sheriff’s spokesman said McLendon suffered severe blood loss from the face wound.

McLendon, 64, one of the pioneers of American popular radio, helped originate the “Top 40” format in the 1950s. He sold his radio empire in the 1960s and 1970s.

McLendon got his start in broadcasting by doing Yale baseball and basketball games with classmate James Whitmore in the 1930s. He bought his first station after World War II.

He eventually built the 458-client Liberty Broadcast System, centered around his play-by-play recreation of sporting events supplemented with the sound of ticker-tape machines, crowd and sound effects.