Mr. Invincible #1: Meet Mr. Invincible

"Mr. Invincible" was the focus of a hilarious series of public service announcements that were aired on Newstalk 780 KOH in Reno, Nevada. Sean McDevitt and Phil Galbraith wrote, produced and performed 51 of these traffic safety spots from 1997-2000.

In February 1998, Phil was asked to post some biographical info on the early version of the KOH website; what he wrote actually offers up an excellent explanation of what Mr. Invincible was all about:

"Phil Galbraith started his career in radio in July of 1996. He has been avidly listening to news talk radio since he was 14 years old. While his classmates were going nuts over Oingo Boingo, he could be found listening to the likes of Owen Spann and Ron Owens. Phil shares the following: 'Something I do not like doing is reporting on the death of a person who was in a car accident without wearing their seat belt. So Sean McDevitt and I came up with Mr. Invincible, a carefree and irresponsible character who does not always do the safe thing. I am the voice behind Mr. Invincible. Not only is he a lot of fun to do, but it is our hope that he will get more people to buckle up'".

That pretty much sums it up. In June of 1997, Northern Nevada was still reeling from what had been a terrible Memorial Day weekend on the highways- there had been multiple crashes and several fatalities. Phil & I were mulling it over, wondering if there was something we could do: I was KOH's Public Service Director at the time, and I remember wishing out loud that maybe we could somehow localize those famous crash test dummies, Vince & Larry (voiced by actors Jack Burns and Lorenzo Music). It then occurred to us: why not create our OWN traffic safety character? And it took off from there, with the blessing of the Nevada Highway Patrol (for a little while anyway; more on that later). We always pictured Mr. Invincible as a chubby middle-aged guy, decked out in a loud Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts; the amount of fun that we had putting these things together is palpable. I'd like to think that the inspiration behind some of the humor is obvious, too: a tip of the hat to the "Bloom County" comic strip here, a dash of Mel Blanc there, and a sprinkle of Weird Al Yankovic and Spike Jones too; mix it all together with the comic sensibilities of two sleep-deprived guys (Phil and Sean worked a combination of the swing and graveyard shifts at KOH), and you've got "Mr. Invincible".

(Interesting note: this was recorded about two years before the KOH production studios would go digital; those of you in the radio business will know what I mean when I reveal the fact that this first spot was recorded and then mixed, one line at a time, on carts and reel-to-reel machines only.)

Photos from:
http://www.google.com,
http:///www/flickr.com

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Mr.
• Invincible
• Sean
• McDevitt
• Phil
• Galbraith
• Reno
• Nevada
• Newstalk
• 780
• KOH
• radio
• traffic
• safety
• message
• McBraith
• Entertainment

[twallace233]

hilarious!

[lmorgan92392]

I used to live in Reno and I totally remember these commercials LOL