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Ted Brown, Talk Show Host and New York Radio D.J., Is Dead

Correction Appended

Ted Brown, a disc jockey and radio talk-show host who broadcast for more than 40 years on the New York City radio stations WMGM, WNEW and WNBC, died on Sunday at the Hebrew Home for the Aged, in the Bronx. He was in his 80's.

The cause was complications of a stroke he had in 1996, his daughter Samantha Brown said. She would not reveal his age, saying he always kept it private.

Mr. Brown broadcast in the 1950's and 60's, during what was considered the golden age of AM radio when melody and lyrics still mattered in popular music. He was one of a group of distinctive personalities, including William B. William, Jim Lowe, Cousin Bruce Morrow, and Gene Klavan and Dee Finch, who became familiar companions of millions of New York radio listeners.

As a teenager in the 1950's, Jonathan Schwartz, another New York radio colleague, watched Mr. Brown broadcasting from his basement studio at his home in Riverdale, in the Bronx. In a phone interview yesterday, Mr. Schwartz recalled the ditty, sung to the tune of "Am I Blue," that Mr. Brown used as his theme: "Am I blue? No, I'm Brown/Got a smile on my puss, not a frown./Every morn from seven 'til nine/We play discs and commit general crime."

Theodore David Brown was born on May 5 in Collingwood, N.J., the youngest of four children of Meyer Nathan Brown, who owned a grocery store, and Rose Brown. He attended Roanoke College in Salem, Va. He told Mr. Lowe that he got his first taste of broadcasting at a dance when the master of ceremonies failed to show up and he filled in.

After college he joined the United States Army Air Force during World War II. He was a tail gunner in a B-17 bomber, was shot down over Germany and spent 18 months as a prisoner of war, his daughter said.

He was married three times, first to Rhoda, who teamed up with him on the air as "Ted Brown and the Redhead." They had a son, Eric. He then married the actress Sylvia Miles, with whom he had several acrimonious battles on the air, particularly over alimony. His third wife, René Lee Brody, was the mother of their two daughters, Samantha and Jami Brown, of New York City. His daughters and Ms. Miles survive him.

"He was a major talent, with a keen sense of the ridiculous," Mr. Lowe said. "He took his shtick with him wherever he worked. He would describe himself as 6 foot 3, which was not the case, with piercing green eyes. He would close his show by saying, 'Warm up the coffee, Ma. I'm coming home."'

Correction: March 24, 2005, Thursday An obituary of the radio talk show host Ted Brown on Tuesday misspelled the surname of a noted fellow broadcaster. He was William B. Williams, not William B. William.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 17 of the National edition with the headline: Ted Brown, Talk Show Host And D.J. on New York Radio. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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