Perry Moore Biography

Perry was the top rated morning jock at WDBO-AM 580 for 14 years. From 1970 until 1984 he headed a lineup which included Jim Turner , (on in the afternoons then), Clive Thomas and Morton Downey, Jr. In 1985 Perry, under the pseudonym Mel Burns, would do afternoons at then WCKS-FM 101.1. Perry would join WHOO-AM 990 when it made the switch from country to big bands as WMMA-AM 990 in 1985, but would not attain the same success as he did at WDBO. In 1987 Perry would leave WMMA and go to WWLV-FM 94.5 in Daytona Beach. Perry died of heart failure in 1995 at age 50.

Photo courtesy Dave Edwards

Morning Man Perry Moore Passes
Perry Moore, a radio funny man who woke up more Central Floridians than any other disc jockey throughout the 1970s and early '80s, has died. He was 50. Moore died Friday, September 12,1995 of heart failure. Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at the Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Home on Lake Ivanhoe. Burial is at Glen Haven Memorial Park in Winter Park. Moore was Orlando's top-rated morning disc jockey for most of the 1970s and '80s on WDBO-AM 580. He left the station in 1984 after 14 years. After a short break, he went to work at other Orlando-area stations, both on the air and in sales, but he never again attained the same success. ''Perry was the morning man,'' said Tom Kensington, his former boss at WDBO and now manager of film and television development at Disney-MGM Studios. Said Ron Hill, who worked as WDBO's morning news anchor opposite Moore for about a year, ''He was a good morning guy who would wake you up and make you smile.'' For a time, Moore headed a lineup at the station that included Jim Turner, Clive Thomas and Morton Downey Jr. ''He was funny. He was very quick-witted,'' said Bud Brewer, former on-air personality at WDBO, as well as WWNZ-AM 740 and WLOQ-FM 103.1 and now head of marketing at Massey Services Inc. Friends and family said Monday they remembered Moore as a community activist and sports enthusiast. He served as president of the University of Central Florida Gridiron Club and the Tangerine Sports Association, predecessor of the Florida Citrus Sports Association. Moore is survived by his wife, Jackie, of Orlando, daughter Rachel Finklea of San Diego and son Tom Finklea of Encinitas, Calif.

Here's Perry on WMMA-AM 990