Tom Clay; Radio Disc Jockey, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer

Tom Clay, 66, radio disc jockey who produced an unusual hit record in 1971. Clay, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, worked at stations in Detroit, Cincinnati, New York and Los Angeles, including KDAY and KGBS in the Southland. He was known for predicting what records would become hits and for producing collages of music. His best-selling record, “Tom Clay’s What the World Needs Now Is Love,” was named for Burt Bacharach’s famous song of that title and combined music with radio broadcasts about the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Clay, who developed the recording from a tape he meant to play only over KGBS, said his intent was not to make money or make people cry but to “make people think . . . to remind them they had to love.” A native of Binghamton, N.Y., Clay had been teaching voice-overs in Hollywood until shortly before his death. On Nov. 22 in Burbank of cancer.