Mr. Gary Shores

1951 - 2023

News story
Mark Zaborney and Mike Sigov
Blade Staff Writers

Gary Shores, a Toledo radio personality for more than four decades who with longtime on-air partner Harvey J. Steele consistently topped drive-time ratings, died Sunday at ProMedica Ebeid Hospice Residence, Sylvania. He was 71.

He died after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis, WKKO-FM 99.9 (K-100) reported on its Facebook page.

"He loved radio," Cliff Smithers, a friend and longtime coworker, said on Monday. "That was his passion. He was also a country music fan, and he knew how to connect to the listeners."

For his fans, "he was just a regular guy as in two guys sitting at the end of the bar having a conversation. … And he was just a great guy and a friend," Mr. Smithers said, adding that Mr. Shores was his program director at K-100 in Toledo for nearly 30 years.

Mr. Shores, whose legal name was Gary H. Hoffar, signed off from his K-100 morning show in May, 2019. He learned he had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a condition in which lung tissue becomes progressively damaged.

"I get completely out of breath after talking for a minute or so, it's very frustrating," Mr. Shores posted on social media to announce his departure. "I've struggled with this disease for about three years now. It's a progressive disease. And there's no cure except a lung transplant."

He had stepped aside in June, 2018, as program director, a role he held for 33 years. Officially, he took a disability leave in the hopes of getting that transplant and recovering enough to return to the air.

His farewell broadcast included a funny reminiscence of his 1975 arrival in the Toledo market and gratitude to those who'd tuned in since.

"Thanks, guys. I appreciate it," Mr. Shores said.

The valedictory brought an in-studio performance by a band, a phone call from Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, and colleagues who stopped by or reached out.

The topper came with news that the WKKO-FM broadcast booth would be renamed the "Shores and Steele Studio," in tribute to Mr. Shores and his longtime air partner, Mr. Steele, who died Dec. 28, 2016, at age 60.

"Having Shores' and Steele's name live on, that's big time," Mr. Shores said after the broadcast.

About two months earlier, Mr. Shores had taken time off after he learned he had kidney cancer and underwent surgery.

His wife, Joanie, had died the previous November, and his younger sister, his mother, and Mr. Steele had died within a span of six years.

The celebration - of his career and its effect on his wide audience - was "the best day of my career," he said afterward, giving credit to Cliff Smithers and Lyn Casye, who had become his on-air partners, and his listeners.

Mr. Shores received a Touchstone Lifetime Achievement award in October, 2019, from the Press Club of Toledo. Yet he took a moment to offer encouragement to another honoree, young journalist Jaden Jefferson, who became known through his appearances on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and interviews of Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt.

Addressing young Jefferson, Mr. Shores said: "You, sir, are going to be a superstar on television one day. Everyone in this room is so proud of you."

Born Dec. 26, 1951, in Lakewood, Ohio, Mr. Shores' first job in Toledo radio was the 9 a.m.-noon air shift and production manager duties on the former WTOD-AM where he was hired around 1975, then the only local country station.

He moved to K-100 in September, 1981, when it became Toledo's first FM country station, and Mr. Steele joined him 13 years later as co-host of the afternoon drive show.

The notion of the pairing started with a conversation between Mr. Shores and a K-100 general manager, who suggested Mr. Steele join Mr. Shore's solo afternoon program.

Mr. Steele was morning host on an AM country station run by the same management. They'd worked together on live remotes, were friends outside of the station - and the general manager - sensed their chemistry during their brief broadcasts together.

The pair agreed to try a live remote from what is now Savage Arena to promote a concert at the University of Toledo. Mr. Shores told listeners early in that broadcast, "Look, we're trying this experiment. We're calling the show Shores and Steele. We're going to play your favorite songs and we'll try not to suck."

Listeners tuned in and stayed, the next ratings report showed.

By 1995, Mr. Shores and Mr. Steele were the Country Music Association's "broadcast personalities of the year" in a medium-sized market.

But in 1997, Mr. Steele, who had hepatitis C, was in end-stage liver failure and left the show for a time, ultimately receiving two liver transplants.

Mr. Shores remained on the air, "beating the drum about organ and tissue donation," Mr. Steele told The Blade in 2014. "Not about me, but that we could use this to point out the fact that there are people dying every single day because there's not enough donated organs."

The Shores and Steele duo moved to morning drive in 2000, succeeding "Mitch and Mary Beth." Hosts Jack Mitchell and Mary Beth Zolik had dominated local ratings and were moving to the morning shift on another station.

Mr. Shores and Mr. Steele on K-100 became the top-rated morning radio program. They routinely signed on at 5 a.m., an hour earlier than their contract specified, to get a head start on competition.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the pair helped lead a local fund-raising drive that raised nearly $1 million for the American Red Cross. In recognition of their charitable work and for what they have meant to the city, Toledo City Council unanimously approved a proclamation to honor them.

"In our business, a lot of people jump around trying to get to bigger and bigger markets to make more money and have more success," Mr. Shores told The Blade in 2014. "And all of those things sort of came to us here in Toledo without us having to move."

He and the former Joan Vavasori met at WGMA radio in Hollywood, Fla., where she worked. They moved to Toledo in 1975 and married. She died in 2018.

Surviving are his daughter, Julie Garwatoski; sons, Garrett Hoffar and Alan Hoffar, and a grandson.

Funeral services are pending.