StarDate's Sandy Wood to Retire

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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StarDate’s Sandy Wood to Retire — spaceref.com, dated 01 Jul 2019

Any other fans of StarDate here? StarDate plays on my local news radio station (KCBS 740AM, San Francisco) every morning @0952. I’ve enjoyed her presentations for many (many!) years. And her voice is so pleasant. This morning, a show about lunar rocks that have never as of yet been touched here on earth — lo and behold, a different voice! A guy’s voice! Where is Sandy Wood? IIRC, I’ve never before heard a voice other than Sandy Wood’s.

So I searched and found this article. She’s already retired. Her last show was on 16 Jul.

Thank you, Sandy Wood. I enjoyed your presentations.

In 2009 on a road trip to Texas, my wife and I visited the University of Texas McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, TX. It’s a nice place to visit, albeit far off the beaten path.

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Ditto to all the appreciation for Sandy Wood. I used to hear her on my local NPR station, I don’t remember at what time, but I think it was in the morning hour when I was getting up. Now that I’m retired I don’t listen to the radio in the morning and so I haven’t heard her in a while.

I just looked it up, the program is at 6:37 am. That’s exactly right, my radio alarm went off at 6:30 and often I was still waking up when she came on (I’m not one of those hop-out-of-bed types).

I’m sorry to hear that it is health problems that are the cause of her retirement. I wish her the best. She has the perfect radio voice for waking up in the morning.

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I’d heard her on StarDate on WBBM, the newsradio station here in Chicago, for many years (it runs in the evening here, at 9:41pm). The other night, I was listening to WBBM at that time, and was surprised to hear a male voice!

I agree, Sandy has a great voice, and I’ll miss hearing her (though I’m glad that the show is continuing). Wishing her the best.

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Does the new guy’s name go with the four notes they played after the show? “I’m san dee wood”.

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BTW, StarDate’s website has a tribute article to Sandy on her retirement, including some very funny outtakes. :smiley:

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His name is Billy Henry, so, alas, not the same cadence.

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Well, hell, why did they hire him, then?

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“You’ve got the job, Billy!”

“Wow, thank you!”

“Ummm…there is one small requirement.”

“What’s that?”

“You have to shave a syllable from your last name.”

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That’s more like it!

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Hey Jo-el Block’s name fit. Why stop a great tradition?

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It’s 0952 right now. It’s going to take me a long time to get used to this guy, Billy Henry.

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If he changed it to Bill Henry, the music would fit. That is the important thing.

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That’s it!

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I still miss Sandy Wood.

Billy Henry just came on again for StarDate, on my radio news, @0952 PST on AM740 KCBS San Francisco. So far it’s been 4 months of Billy Henry. I think it’ll take me years to get used to him.

I think I’m in love with Sandy Wood :), even though we’re both married (and happily so, for me) and even though she’s retired and about 20 years older. Here’s an NYT article from 2011 celebrating her 20 years on StarDate: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/us/sandy-wood-the-voice-of-stardate-for-20-years.html.

Ten years ago my wife and I and our dog (R.I.P., Dusty Rose!) took a month vacation and road-tripped through the SW USA states, from San Francisco to Houston for Thanksgiving there with my mom. On that trip we visited the visited the McDonald Observatory in west Texas. Recommended.

gMap >> Google Maps
McDonald Observatory Visitors Center, 3640 Dark Sky Drive, Fort Davis TX; +1-432-426-3640

I hope she’s enjoying her retirement. I still miss Sandy Wood. (sigh)

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Bumping this again because I just heard another agreement of StarDate with Billy Henry. And for the life of me I couldn’t remember the name of the last host.

Sandy Wood passed way one year ago. Rest in Peace.

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Typo fix: segment, not agreement

She was 76 when she passed way. Her obituary on legacy.com, here ➜ Sandra Wood Obituary (1948 - 2024) - San Antonio, TX - San Antonio Express-News ■ . According to that she did StarDate for over 10,000 segments in 28 years, from 1991 to 2019.