Pogo Poge would do almost anything to get people to listen to KIMN radio.

Sometimes that included setting a world record for sitting on a Ferris wheel. Or spending two weeks in a snake pit with more than 100 snakes, some poisonous, a stunt that put him in the hospital.

Poge, whose real name was Morgan Branch White, died of heart problems Sept. 2 in a Provo, Utah, hospital. He was 86.

Poge was in Colorado and later in Honolulu during the heyday of disc jockeys doing wacky things to get attention.

In 1984, Denver Post television critic Clark Secrest called him “Denver’s favorite disc jockey ever.”

“There was some ham in him,” said his son, Steve White of Austin, Texas. “He always had to be the center of attention.”

White lived in Denver from 1957 until 1964. After moving to Honolulu in 1964, he did amateur theater and appeared on TV’s “Hawaii Five-0.”

When Secrest was a reporter, he was sent out on a slow-news Saturday night to 16th Street by an editor who told him “to see what was going on.”

Secrest listened as teen-laden cars cruised 16th and 17th streets downtown and “every one of them had their radios tuned to KIMN and Poge,” said Secrest.

“It was like a gigantic stereo system,” said Secrest, of Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Secrest called White “personable,” someone “who connected with the kids. No one who heard him ever forgot him, as they did other DJs.”

White and the snakes were on 16th Street at the dug-out site of a Zale’s Jewelry store for 13 days. White was bitten by a water moccasin and was hospitalized because the antidote was given incorrectly, said Steve White.

Known for his outrageous costumes, White once bounced on a pogo stick from Denver to Boulder and another time sat atop a flagpole at a South Broadway used-car lot for days. Another time, he broadcast while sitting on a giant block of ice.

On one April Fool’s Day, he played “Tom Dooley” for the entire day, although at the end of each playing he would announce another number. It always turned out to be “Tom Dooley,” said his daughter, Tonya Riches of Murray, Utah.

He was a hero to many teens because he gave them advice over the air, according to a 1976 Denver Post story.

He also emceed gigantic “sock hops” at Mammoth Gardens (now the Fillmore) that featured some of the era’s leading rock ‘n’ roll figures.

In Hawaii, White was a fixture on a popular television show, “Checkers and Pogo” a kids’ program that ran two hours after school weekdays.

Morgan Branch White was born in Monroe, Utah, on July 25, 1924, and earned a degree in speech and drama from Utah State College. He married Mildred Tanner on June 5, 1951.

White was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as a young man, served on a church mission to Sweden. He hosted many events for charitable organizations.

In addition to his wife, son and daughter, he is survived by three other sons: Morgan White of Sevier, Utah; Kimo White and Keoni White both of Salt Lake City; his sister, Beth Nordgren of Salt Lake; 18 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; and one great-great- grandchild.

Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com