In a rock-radio era when the great disc jockeys could become iconic local tastemakers, Jerry Lubin was a bona fide star.
Lubin, a pioneer of underground radio best known for his years at Detroit’s freeform WABX-FM, died Thursday morning in Los Angeles. He was 80.
Lubin had been hospitalized since Jan. 25 with COVID-19, his son Ethan Lubin told the Free Press, although a cause of death has not yet been officially declared.
The Detroit native and Mumford High School graduate made his name as one of the progressive station’s “Air Aces” from 1968 through the early 70s, part of a local radio career that included stints at WRIF-FM, WWWW-FM and again at WABX, before wrapping up at WLLZ-FM in the 1980s.
Dick Kernen, a giant of Michigan broadcasting who boosted the careers of countless familiar on-air voices and faces, died of natural causes Friday at home in Dearborn, his family confirmed. He was 82.
Kernen, who started with WXYZ-AM in the 50s and helped form WRIF-FM in the 70s, was vice president of industry relations at the Specs Howard School of Media Arts in Southfield, where he had worked since 1972.
A 2003 Michigan Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductee, Kernen was a guiding hand both inside and outside Specs Howard to some of the best-known names on the local airwaves in recent decades, having worked closely with the likes of Arthur Penhallow, Glenda Lewis, Carmen Harlan, Charlie Langton, Amy Andrews, Joe Wade Formicola and more.