Kidd Kraddick

Kraddick was born in Napoleon, Ohio[1] and grew up in Dunedin, Florida.[5] His first radio position was in Tampa.[1] He later worked in Fresno, California (KYNO-FM), Miami, Salt Lake City (KAYK & KLRZ), and Los Angeles (KHTZ),[1] where he also worked comedy clubs as an emcee.[6]

Kraddick received the nickname "Kidd" from a radio producer and used the name on-air from 1978 until his death. He won the Billboard Magazine “Air Personality of the Year” Award three times, received the 1992 and 1997 AWRO "Air Personality of the Year," the Marconi Award for "Radio Personality of the Year", won the first annual 1999 WB Radio Music Award as the "Best Radio Personality in the Country", and also the 2001 "Radio and Records CHR/Pop Personality/Show of the Year."[7][8]

Dallas

He moved to Dallas in 1984[6] and took over the night shift on the newly formatted rock-leaned top-40 station KEGL (The Eagle) and established a following.[6] In 1990, Kraddick was named to the Ten Outstanding Young Americans list by the United States Junior Chamber. KEGL changed formats from Top 40 pop/rock to Modern Rock in 1992 and Kraddick was released from his contract. After eight months off the air, he was hired to a morning position at Top 40 KHKS-106.1 "Kiss-FM" in Dallas-Fort Worth.[6] He won a 1998 Marconi Award for Major Market Radio Personality of the Year while he was with KHKS[9] and the next year he won Air Personality of the Year at the Radio Music Awards.[10] He began to syndicate the show in 2001 and moved the production to an independent studio in Las Colinas.[6] He became a member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.[8] In 2016, Kraddick was posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.[11]

The logo for Kidd Kraddick in the Morning.

In the early 1990s, Kraddick launched two radio oriented businesses. A monthly publication for morning personalities called "The Morning Mouth" and a show prep "sharing service" for air personalities called "BitBoard".[12] Kraddick subsequently sold both entities; BitBoard is now operated by Clear Channel Communications[13] and The Morning Mouth is owned and operated by Talentmasters in Atlanta.[14]

In 1991, he founded a charity organization named Kidd's Kids, with the mission to "provide hope and happiness by creating beautiful memories for families of children with life-altering or life-threatening conditions." What initially began as a bus ride to Sea World in San Antonio expanded into a family trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando for over a thousand children.[15]

Kraddick attended the University of Miami for a semester, but dropped out to study broadcasting.[16] Kraddick was Catholic. He and his wife, Carol, were separated in 2007 and divorced in April 2008. They had one daughter, Caroline.[17] He had planned on remarrying in the near future to Lissi Mullen to whom he was engaged the week before his death. They had been together over two years.

In 2009, Kraddick was diagnosed with lymphoma, which he kept hidden from his coworkers and family.[18]

Kraddick died on July 27, 2013, while attending an annual fundraiser for his charity, Kidd's Kids, at Timberlane Country Club in Gretna, Louisiana. Jefferson Parish Deputy Coroner Granville Morse said heart disease was “evident” and that drug use and foul play were not suspected, according to his findings after a routine autopsy. Morse said Kraddick had an enlarged heart. He also had three diseased vessels and one of his arteries had an 80 percent blockage. In early August 2013, the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office concluded Kraddick's cause of death was arteriosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease.[8][19][20][21][22]