Larry Moon Thompson
Larry “Moon” Thompson grew up on a family farm in Cheyenne County, Nebraska, whose hometown of Sidney featured one radio station and had a population of around 7,000 people. In 1974, he began a 45-year radio broadcasting career when he saw a note on the bulletin board of his high school advertising a part-time job at KSID. The owner liked the way he sounded even at his young age, and he started doing weekends and nights before being moved to afternoons and mornings.
In 1976, a bigger station, KMMJ in Grand Island, Nebraska, called him to do middays. He was also the music director and eventually the assistant program director. The next 18 months he had 3 jobs: KRGI FM Grand Island, KOGA Ogallala, and finally KQKQ/KLNG Omaha, Nebraska. At this station he was named Moondoggie after a character on the Gidget TV show. He finally got his big break when he was hired for nights on KRXY 108 in Denver, Colorado. He remained Moondoggie and was number one in his time slot for 8 years. After ABC sold the radio station, Moon landed a job at KQKS Denver doing mornings.
After two years he ended up at KZMQ Las Vegas. It was here where he and his partner took the show from 8th place to second place in adults and first in women in just under a year. Another company, Nationwide Broadcasting, wanted him to leave town and they hired him at KHMX in Houston, Texas. Moon became Mix 96.5’s longest running morning host. He and his partners took the ratings to the highest they had ever been in both adults and women. He began interviewing presidents, rock stars, and comedians, which became one of his favorite parts of his job.
In 2002, a new chapter began at KS95 Minneapolis/Saint Paul, run by Hubbard Broadcasting. Along with Staci Matthews, their show in afternoon Drive was number one in women for almost their entire 17-year run and number one in adults for more than a decade. He and Staci raised millions of dollars helping kids with disabilities and cancer for KS95 for kids, and they had the largest fundraising team for the Komen Foundation Race for the Cure. Moon and Staci were nominated for four Marconi awards for the National Association of Broadcasters and they won large Market personalities of the Year in 2012.
Moon’s battle with MS forced him into retirement in 2019, but his commitment to the industry puts him where he belongs: in the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame!
Larry “Moon” Thompson died on January 25, 2024.
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Larry Moon Thompson – KS95 – Obituary
Larry Moon Thompson – KS95 – Obituary
Larry Moon Thompson
Larry Moon Thompson
Obituary
Popular former KS95 afternoon DJ Larry “Moon” Thompson has died after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. He was 65.
The station announced Thursday that Thompson, a 17-year vet of KS95’s “Moon and Staci Show,” died overnight due to complications related to MS. By that afternoon, management had billboards up around the Twin Cities honoring Thompson that read: “Love you to the Moon and back. Moon 1958-2024.”
Thompson started at the station in 2003, was diagnosed with MS two years later and left KS95 in October 2019 to focus on his health.
“Mr. Moon, oh my,” said his former co-host Staci Matthews. “He was the most unusual man I’ve ever met and funnier off the air than on. We couldn’t air the funnier stuff. He was more than just a coworker, he was like my brother. That’s the best way I can describe it, we have something special and that’s why it hit us so very hard.”
“Moon had a heart of gold,” said Greg “Hutch” Hutchinson, who took over Thompson’s spot on the afternoon show. “He was always in your corner and a genuine friend to everyone he met. He made the listeners feel like they were family.”
A Nebraska native and lifelong Huskers fan, Thompson co-hosted successful morning shows in Houston, Denver and Las Vegas before taking the job at KS95. The idea of a morning-style show in the afternoon was a new one, said Dan Seeman, vice president/market manager for KS95’s parent company Hubbard Radio.
“Until Moon and Staci, afternoon drive was mostly about music,” Seeman said. “This gave them the opportunity to be entertaining and not worry so much about playing music. Hubbard felt entertaining personalities were going to be the difference and they dominated for 17 years. It really was Moon and Staci that build that foundation.
“You know how someone can own the room? He was able to do that on a radio station. It’s hard to be personal in broadcasting, but Moon made it personal with everyone who listened. His life was an open book.”
In 2012, Thompson and Matthews won the Marconi Radio Award — which Seeman called the biggest honor in the industry — for personality of the year, large market. In 2020, he was inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame. When Thompson learned about the honor he took to the former Twitter to look back at his career: “I had so much fun! If could live my life over again I would do it exactly the same. Except I would have taken the higher paying jobs first … then worked my way back to broke.”
Both his coworkers and his listeners knew Thompson for his humor, sincerity and candor, Seeman said.
“Moon loved being Moon. He was a character. And that doesn’t mean he didn’t love everything else. He loved radio, he loved his family, he loved everyone around him,” Seeman said. “He had this incredible capacity for joy and I don’t remember him ever complaining. He was never going to retire, because this is what he loved so dearly. When that was taken away, he never complained, he just moved on to the next chapter with typical Moon joy.”
Thompson shocked his listeners when he announced he was stepping down in 2019. “Sometimes in life you don’t get to choose what goes on and my health is now making my decisions for me,” he wrote in a statement on the station’s website. “For the last 14 years this thing has taken things away from me that I love. Like dancing with my wife, and playing with my kids and stuff. It’s made a mess of things. But I just kept coming back, and I got to play radio star. And I’m so damn glad I did.”
Thompson is survived by his wife Cynthia and three children. KS95’s website has a page devoted to memories of Thompson and has set up the Moon’s Miracle Fund to Fight MS, with proceeds benefiting the MS Society of Minnesota.
Originally posted by www.twincities.com