RIP Kidd Kraddick

[Football_Bat]

This news stuns me.

David "Kidd" Kraddick, whose morning radio show aired nationally, has died. He was 53.

The cause is unknown, his management company said.

He died Saturday in New Orleans at a golf tournament to raise money for his Kidd's Kids Charity, said Ladd Biro with Champion Management.

"He died doing what he loved, and his final day was spent selflessly focused on those special children that meant the world to him," Biro said.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/28/showbiz/kidd-kraddick-death/index.html

The first person to tweet the news was, of all people ... Mark Cuban.

Adding link: https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/361313172621238274

 

[Chef2]

He was on one of the affiliates here in town.
Not a big fan of the show, but by briefly hearing his voice, had no idea he was in his 50's.

 

[Boom_70]

Sorry I've never heard of him or his program. It sounds like I missed something good.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

SJ's favorite post-mortem line is in play.

 

[poindexter]

Never heard of him.
I think the term "morning show aired nationally" has a different meanining than I think it must mean.

 

[da man]

Never heard of him.
I think the term "morning show aired nationally" has a different meanining than I think it must mean.

The guy was on in something like 75 markets from California to Florida. Sounds national to me.

 

[Pilot]

I used to listen to him. He was entertaining and he worked hard. Easy to say after he's died, but he always seemed to stand out as a really good guy, a real nice person, which isn't always easy to do in talk radio. I never heard the show get raunchy at all and sometimes it was straight up sappy, talking about this kids charities or going on about his co-hosts and listeners. It stood out because of how wholesome the show and the humor were.

 

[Colton]

Sounds like a good guy and 53 is just too young.

RIP

 

[SockPuppet]

His show's sign off was "Keeping looking up ... cause that's where it all is."

Also, one of his last shows he riffed on what would be, if he was on his death bed, the last things he would say to listeners and loved ones.

 

[linotype]

Doesn't anybody else find it strange that they'll release the cause of death "at the appropriate time?" Why keep it a secret?

 

[Chef2]

Aneurysm, thus sayeth the wiki......

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidd_Kraddick

Still nothing officially released.

 

[apeman33]

Never heard of him.
I think the term "morning show aired nationally" has a different meanining than I think it must mean.

The guy was on in something like 75 markets from California to Florida. Sounds national to me.

To add, syndicated radio doesn't work the same way as syndicated TV. Where every single market in the US probably has a station broadcasting reruns of the Big Bang Theory, usually only the larger markets can afford the cost of importing something like Kidd Kraddick. If they are importing something rather than going local, its a service that broadcasts 24/7 with local add ins such as station IDs and commercials. I once worked at an AM-FM combo in Dodge City (just two stations at the time). When we weren't local (which was only morning drive, 6 to 9 a.m., and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.), we were broadcasting a service from Dallas on the FM station (I don't know where the AM programming came from -- both were ABC services). And in one place just perfectly located one day, I hit the "scan" button on the radio and heard that same format on our station, one in or near Hays and one in Colby.

 

[DanOregon]

His show's sign off was "Keeping looking up ... cause that's where it all is."

Also, one of his last shows he riffed on what would be, if he was on his death bed, the last things he would say to listeners and loved ones.

Here's the show

 

[Football_Bat]

Never heard of him.
I think the term "morning show aired nationally" has a different meanining than I think it must mean.

The guy was on in something like 75 markets from California to Florida. Sounds national to me.

To add, syndicated radio doesn't work the same way as syndicated TV. Where every single market in the US probably has a station broadcasting reruns of the Big Bang Theory, usually only the larger markets can afford the cost of importing something like Kidd Kraddick. If they are importing something rather than going local, its a service that broadcasts 24/7 with local add ins such as station IDs and commercials. I once worked at an AM-FM combo in Dodge City (just two stations at the time). When we weren't local (which was only morning drive, 6 to 9 a.m., and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.), we were broadcasting a service from Dallas on the FM station (I don't know where the AM programming came from -- both were ABC services). And in one place just perfectly located one day, I hit the "scan" button on the radio and heard that same format on our station, one in or near Hays and one in Colby.

The way radio is these days is a lot like newspapers ... sometimes worse. Depending on the cost of the network programming, it's cheaper to run syndication in a lot of places than it is to pay a jock. Or stations pay one jock to voicetrack multiple shifts for different stations. During the school year, I push sports copy to one such voicetracker in California.

 

[DanOregon]

The last "local DJ" I identified with was Don Rose at KFRC in SF. He was great, goofy as hell and hilarious to a 12-year-old's sense of humor.
Finding a connection to a local radio person is tougher and tougher. Grew up on news talk, moving north, the only consolation was I could pick up the SF talker at night. Now, there is just a lot of syndicated crap. Every radio station is USA Today. No local personalities showing up at local events because there are fewer and fewer local personalities. You really notice it in times of a serious local or national emergency event. Radio is such a great medium to feel a connection to a place, but only if it is actually from that place.
RIP Kidd - I never heard you, but I know what your listeners are feeling right now. And it is the loss of someone who was a part of their lives every day.

 

[Football_Bat]

Aneurysm, thus sayeth the wiki......

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidd_Kraddick

Still nothing officially released.

Coroner says it was cardiac disease. Enlarged heart and blockage in three arteries.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/park-cities/headlines/20130728-david-kidd-kraddick-died-from-cardiac-disease-la.-coroner-says.ece

The sad thing is, a simple EKG would've discovered the hypertrophy.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

Used to listen to him every morning as I was driving my sisters and I to school.

RIP.