W3AM 1954 - 2020

---

Gary W. Blau Sebring, FL QCWA # 28491 Chapter |121|196|

First Call: WN3RMM in 1971       Other Call(s): WB3IRN

Gary Blau, Silent Key

Well-regarded engineer and ham radio operator had cancer

BY PAUL MCLANE ⋅ PUBLISHED: AUGUST 30, 2020 ⋅ UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 5, 2020 Gary Blau, WPGC

Lee Chambers remembers: This is from 1983 - at the time, he was the chief at RKO's WGMS in Washington and also pulled a weekend airshift at WPGC, also in Washington, where he followed me on the air on Saturday nights. This is Gary at WPGC. Two years later, we were reunited at WNBC when he became Chief and I was Wolfman Jack\'s on air sidekick. Gary was a pal and a true radio guy. No doubt, he is phase aligning that great tower in the sky as we speak! Photo: Lee Chambers Radio engineer Gary Blau has died.

According to his friend and colleague Hal Kneller, Blau died Sunday morning at a hospice facility in Sebring, Fla. after a three-year fight with cancer.

In 1999 Blau became director of engineering for Jefferson Pilot stations in Miami, which later were sold to Lincoln Financial and subsequently to Entercom.

He led the engineering for WMXJ, WLYF, WSFS and WAXY until last year when he was obliged to retire because of his health.

"Even during his retirement, while going for treatments, he kept his ham station W3AM active until as recently as last Sunday Aug. 23," Kneller wrote to Radio World in an email.

Before Miami Blau worked in Phoenix, New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles in both radio and television engineering. During his early years in the business, he was a partner in the ownership of an FM station in Pennsylvania.