Gene LaVerne Has Passed Away
Mark Watson
markwats@comcast.net
Sun Jul 11 22:58:53 EDT 2004
Longtime WFGL-WFMP Fitchburg MA radio personality Gene LaVerne (real
name: Jean LaVergne) passed away Tuesday July 6 in Concord NH. He was 80
years old. LaVerne started his radio career as a country & western singer on
WHEB in Portsmouth NH. He later went on to work at WFEA in Manchester NH,
WLAW in Lawrence MA, WMEX in Boston and his final and best known radio stop,
WFGL & WFMP, where he hosted his "Country Carousel" show for many years
until WFMP changed formats to AC in 1979 and eventually changed calls to
WXLO. WFGL also changed formats at that time IIRC and LaVerne was out the
door.
LaVerne also performed with early country music stars such as Roy Rogers
and Smiley Burnett. He also managed the Lone Star Ranch in NH where he
brought many country stars to perform live back in the 50's. The past
several years he had hosted old time country music shows during the
Deerfield (NH) Fair held the last weekend of September.
Mark Watson
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