PASSINGS / Bob Arbogast
Bob Arbogast, 81, a comedy writer and radio personality for several Los Angeles stations in the 1960s, died Saturday of cancer at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, according to his family.
Arbogast, who was residing in Mariposa, Calif., was the father of longtime USC football announcer Pete Arbogast. Born in Bellingham, Wash., on April 1, 1927, he attended Marshall High School in Los Angeles and served in the Navy at the end of World War II. After his discharge, he attended L.A. City College and the University of Arizona and did some radio work in Tucson. He worked in the Kansas City market before making his mark at WMAQ-AM in Chicago for several years in the early 1950s.
He came to Los Angeles in the early 1960s after working at KSFO-AM and KFRC-AM in San Francisco. From 1962 to 1967, he worked at KMPC-AM, where he wrote for star disc jockeys Dick Whittinghill and Gary Owens. He moved to KLAC-AM in 1967 and partnered on the air with Jack Margolis to create a highly rated show. They took their radio act to television for a time on what was then KTTV Channel 11. On his own, Arbogast was later on KFI-AM and KGBS-AM.
After leaving radio, he worked as a voice-over actor and was probably best known for his work on the “Roger Ramjet” cartoon series.
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