Paul Harvey, the news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose staccato style made him one of the nation's most familiar voices, died Saturday in Arizona, according to ABC Radio Networks. He was 90. 
Gene Parrish, a longtime host of classical music programs on KUSC Los Angeles, CA, public radio who also wrote and produced syndicated programs on worldwide jazz and American choral music, passed away at age 82. Parrish, of Hermosa Beach, CA, died Friday, 2 JANUARY 2009, of lung cancer at a Kaiser Permanente hospice-care facility in Harbor City, CA...MORE
HOWARD REIG dies at 87 Reig was best known as the voice behind the introduction to the "NBC Nightly News." He worked with famed anchormen John Chancellor, Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams during his more than 70 years of on-air announcing. He also had a brief stint as an announcer with "Meet the Press."
All Things Considered, October 31, 2008 · Legendary oral historian, author and radio personality Studs Terkel has died at his home in Chicago. He was 96. Terkel's health had been declining for some time and he was very frail; his son, Dan Terkel, said his condition worsened on Oct. 30, and he died "quickly and peacefully" just before 3 p.m. on Oct. 31.
George Putnam, the pioneer television news anchorman and conservative commentator whose distinctive stentorian voice was familiar to millions of Southern Californians during his heyday in the 1950s and '60s, died 12 September 2008. He was 94. Putnam, who had been suffering from a kidney ailment since December, died at Chino Valley Medical Center, said Chuck Wilder, Putnam's co-host, producer and announcer.
The "King of Voiceovers" died Monday in Los Angeles at age 68. Don LaFontaine, whose voice was on nearly 5,000 movie trailers, died 1 SEP 2008 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He died of complications from a collapsed lung.
Jo STAFFORD ...R.I.P. .....Nov. 12th 1917/July 16th 2008
An early talk radio host, competitor to Johnny Carson and performer of a Grammy winning spoken word record has passed away. Les Crane was 71. CNN has the story. ABC tried to run his talk show opposite Johnny Carson in 1965. MORE
Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, 22 JUNE 2008. Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems, died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains. MORE | ON THE WEB | SHOP George Carlin
Jim McKay, 86, a longtime television sports journalist, has died of natural causes in Maryland, according to a statement from the McKay family. McKay is best known for hosting "ABC's Wide World of Sports" and 12 Olympic Games.
Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like "Make the World Go Away" made him one of the most successful singers in history, died Thursday, 8 MAY 2008, at a care facility just south of Nashville. He was 89. Arnold's radio debut was finally achieved in 1936 on the Jackson station WTJS, after which he gradually expanded his reputation into cities such as Memphis and St. Louis. By 1940 he had landed a job with Pee Wee King's Golden West Cowboys, providing him with regular appearances on the Grand Ole Opry and a place in their associated touring shows; towards the end of 1943 he emerged from the group as a solo performer to host an almost-daily radio program on WSM under his nickname "The Tennessee Ploughboy". Before long, a contract with the RCA label was secured, and by 1944 his recording career was underway.
WEB LINKS | IMAGES | SHOP Eddy Arnold
Top banana in show business as a singer and band leader, then as a talk show host and developer of game shows for television. Griffin's career as a television talk show host was associated from the beginning with that of Johnny Carson, ...Merv Griffin, RIP (Part II)
Three years later the nationally known big band leader Freddy Martin came north from the famous Coconut Grove in Los Angeles to play at the St. Francis in San Francisco. Martin was urged to listen to Merv Griffin's radio show-and he ...
...more... ...more... | Google Griffin Links
Tom Snyder, a former late-night staple and veteran newsman, died Sunday at his home in San Francisco from complications of leukemia. He was 71. Snyder got his start as a radio reporter in Milwaukee in the 1960s and jumped to television news in the '70s. The Milwaukee-born Mr. Snyder’s career started on radio. His work then took him from the middle of the TV day–he co-anchored the first noon newscast in the country in 1965 at KYW-TV3 in Philadelphia–to the middle of the night when he debuted on “The Tomorrow Show” after “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” on NBC. At that time he could and did smoke on the air.
Color TV was still a bit of novelty then, as was Mr. Snyder’s show-opening suggestion to viewers that they should "Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air.In 1972, he was hired as host of NBC's Tomorrow Show, which aired after the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Between 1973 and 1982, Snyder conducted a raft of memorable interviews with Tomorrow guests including Charles Manson, Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and KISS. ...MORE NYTimes
Television personality Mike Douglas, whose daytime talk show ran for two decades until 1982, died on Friday, 11 AUG 2006, his 81st birthday, at a hospital in North Palm Beach, Florida.
Douglas, who began his career as a singer and performed with bandleader Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge, also was the singing voice of Prince Charming in the animated Disney film "Cinderella."
Douglas' wife, Genevieve Douglas, told the Associated Press that her husband passed away at a Palm Beach, Florida, hospital, one day after his admission. She said he'd been treated on and off for dehydration for the past few weeks, but that she did not know the cause of death.
Douglas' long-running show debuted on local Westinghouse TV in Cleveland in 1961, and went national two years later, from Westinghouse's KYW3 studios in Philadelphia, 1619 Walnut Street.
Posted on Wed, Nov. 30, 2005
Request for permission to display article made on 1 DEC 2005 and granted by the author....
David L. Kurtz, FM pioneer
By Gayle Ronan Sims,
Inquirer Staff Writer
David L. Kurtz, 73, founder of the widely popular B101 - one of the last independently owned FM stations in a major U.S. market - died of kidney cancer Thursday at home in East Falls.
Born in Ephrata, Lancaster County, Mr. Kurtz tinkered with electronics and loved music when he was a child.
"He bought a kit and built his family's first television set," his son, David, said. "He worked part-time at a radio station during high school."
In 1954, Mr. Kurtz earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University. He immediately started working at Philco in Center City, designing submarine radar devices. He lived humbly, bringing his lunch each day in a paper bag to save money to fulfill his dream of starting an FM radio station.
In 1963, during a time when advertisers were pouring their money into AM radio, Mr. Kurtz founded WDVR, a 24-hour station playing adult contemporary music. Two years later, he quit his job at Philco and devoted his attention to his radio station.
Crammed into four small rooms in Germantown, Mr. Kurtz and his staff of seven within months made WDVR the most popular FM station within 100 miles of the Philadelphia region.
After a few years, Mr. Kurtz took on one of the original seven staffers, the outgoing Jerry Lee, as partner. Under Lee's direction, the station grew. In 1967, the station moved to its present location on Presidential Boulevard in Bala Cynwyd, and in 1980 it became WEAZ. The station changed its call letters again in 1993, becoming WBEB, nicknamed B101.
"He always owned one more share of stock than I did. In 1968, we billed $1 million," Lee said. "Today we bill more than $32 million."
The two men were a match. While Lee thought big and rode a chauffeured Cadillac to functions, Mr. Kurtz drove an older station wagon and avoided the party life. Both men were named to the National Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.
Lyle Cedric 'Skitch' HendersonSkitch Henderson, the Grammy-winning conductor who lent his musical expertise to Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby before founding the New York Pops and becoming the first "Tonight Show" bandleader, died Tuesday. He was 87.
...LINK to complete BIOGRAPHY
Dresslar's baritone voice is known by virtually everyone in America who has turned on a radio or television since the mid-1960s.
And that's for singing just three little words
"Ho Ho Ho," in a commercial for Green Giant food products that featured the Jolly Green Giant character.
...LINK to complete GREEN GIANT Site
...Was member of Singers Unlimited
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