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Ralph “Birdman” Lockwood, the legendary zany morning man of 1970s Montreal radio, died Sunday. He was 80 years old.

His death, in York, Pa., was confirmed by CJAD host Andrew Carter on Facebook.

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“Lockwood’s constituency never included listeners who liked to be eased out of bed by a radio morning show,” Montreal Gazette columnist Mike Boone once wrote of him. “But if you were the type who enjoyed being plunged into the day by high-voltage, crack-a-minute radio, the Birdman was in a class by himself.”

[audio src="http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/ckgm-composite-73.mp3" /]

Lockwood was born in Hazleton, Pa., where he got his start in the business hosting a nightly polka show in the early 1960s.

He made his Montreal radio debut in 1968 at CFOX, but left in 1971 and landed a job on a morning show in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Returning to Montreal in 1972, Lockwood quickly became one of the city’s top morning hosts at CKGM.