(February 10 - 8:34 a.m.) Dan Avey celebrated 50 years in the broadcast business last Saturday with a lunch at the Disney Soda Fountain on Hollywood Boulevard with family and friends.

Dan has won 15 Golden Mikes and more than a dozen other major awards for sports, news anchoring, reporting and writing at KFWB. In the Southland, he started at KWIZ-Orange County in the 1970s, moving to KFWB in 1975 for one of three stops at the all-News station.

He served in Vietnam as a green beret. Dan was a captain in charge of 12 senior sergeants.

Dan was born in Spokane, Washington and was raised in Whittier. "I spent my high school years hanging out at KFWB [ironically, since I ended up there later], going in at night to pull records and referee fights between Bill Ballance and B. Mitchel Reed.”

Dan went back to Spokane for college and law school at Gonzaga University, where he also "warmed the bench" on the basketball team. His first job in radio was at KXLY-Spokane as a college freshman. For the next 7 years he was the morning dj, sometimes pd, and afternoon tv kid show host of Mr. Wallaby and Dan.

He spent a year in the mid-70s running the Forum and its teams for Jack Kent Cooke. In the late 1980s he teamed with Gary Owens and Geoff Edwards on morning shows at KFI, where he also did a nighttime sports show. In 1990 he ran Metro Traffic's LA office. Dan has taught sports PR and broadcasting at USC and Cal State Northridge. He's heard nightly with Marc Germain on TalkRadioOne.com.

Congratulations, Dan. We all should be so lucky to work for half a century in a profession that we love. You can reach Dan at: danavey@sbcglobal.net (A number of photos from Dan's career appear in the subscriber section)