MARY TURNER,
1947-2023

Trailblazing rock DJ Mary Turner, a fixture during the glory days of KMET Los Angeles, died on 5/9. She was 75.

During her decade-long run at “the Mighty Met” (1972-82), Turner was known as “The Burner, Mary Turner.” She later hosted Westwood One's syndicated Off the Record With Mary Turner, which was heard by an estimated 25m listeners.

“It was an exciting time back then, because you didn’t operate under any rules,” Turner once explained. "You could play anything you wanted, say anything you wanted and who cared? FM at that time was a joke, especially to Top 40 people. We were the hippies, and they were the stars.”

“When I arrived at KMET in 1974, Mary was already there paving the way for women in radio,” onetime KMET PD Sam Bellamy recalled. We became fast friends and partners in crime, based a lot on our shared sense of humor and intense desire to succeed. I learned very quickly that Mary would set the bar high for aspiring air personalities and radio executives alike, especially in the highly competitive L.A. market.”

“I think being a woman helped more than anything else,” she said of her KMET years. “The time was right for it, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

The Baltimore native was a TV/radio major at Indiana University in Bloomington. She wanted to be a television director and left for San Francisco after graduation. Her first industry job was in traffic at Metromedia's KNEW/TV. She then moved on to ABC's KSFX and KSAN, where she worked as an engineer for the legendary Tom Donahue before snagging a weekend shift.

Turner was married to Westwood One founder and Chairman Norm Pattiz, who died last year. The two were devoted Lakers fans. TV cameras frequently caught them cheering courtside at Staples Center, as in the photo seen here.

In the early ’90s, Turner conquered her substance-abuse problem, becoming a UCLA-certified drug and alcohol counselor, earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and becoming chairwoman of the Betty Ford Center at Eisenhower Hospital in Rancho Mirage, California.