Gerrie Burke

'Oh no'. 

That was what I expressed in the early hours of this morning following a very short Google hunt for a radio presenter I used to listen to over a decade ago.

I was on TAFKA Twitter adding my Wordle result after midnight and, for an unknown reason, started looking through the lists of the accounts I follow.

There was 'Gerrie Burke' on the list. 'I haven't heard from him in a long time' I thought to myself. 

Burke used to be a producer on my favourite  American sports radio station - Sports Byline USA. I used to listen to many programmes on that outlet throughout my nights and when I'd wake up in the early hours of the morning.

I'd catch Sports Overnight America as I battled the will to get out of bed and start my day. I've always found sports radio fascinating, but I especially like the American variety.

Anyway, to cut a long story short - and this is going by my recollections, it might not be accurate - Burke served as the show's producer, but then covered a few nights and ultimately ended up becoming the permanent host.

I'd go so far as to guess (and remember, this is me not knowing the details) he played double duty on the late night programme serving as both presenter and producer.

He was knowledgeable about sports but I also found the occasions he talked about music to be very insightful. 

I cannot recall how long he remained in the role, but he vanished after a period never to be seen again. 

Last night's search, to see if Gerrie happened to be working for a different broadcaster nowadays, led me to an obituary page. 

Gerrie Burke passed away a little over three years ago. 

The page mentioned Gerrie's music and sport trivia knowledge (I can attest to those!), but it was also eye opening in another part.

It reads  'after graduating from Central High School in 1983, Gerrie attended Mansfield University for communications and then joined the military, where he spent most of his tenure stationed in Germany.'

Doing the working out, Gerrie could very well have been around Germany in the years I visited my relatives while my uncle served for the US military. My trips to the bases took place in 1987 and '88.

Man, it's one of those things I wish I had known earlier. 

It's something that might have made me get in touch with him to find out. Of course there were tons of US bases dotted across Germany back then, but would have been interesting to see if he had been stationed around Hahn (where my relatives lived) or in some of the other bases I visited on those holidays.

I'm very sorry to have found that news out this morning.