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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

News

Broadcaster Jack Popejoy Dies at 63

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Jack Popejoy (via CBS)

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Award-winning CBS Radio broadcaster Jack Popejoy died yesterday at his home in Sherman Oaks, reports CBS2. Popejoy was 63. Born in Austin, Texas, in 1947, Popejoy came to Southern California in the 1970s. "In 1972 he was hired as a weekend DJ, then weekday announcer for KIIS, eventually becoming the program director. In 1976 he started as a newscaster at KPOL AM & FM. A year later, as the program director, he changed KPOL-FM’s call letters to KZLA."

He also worked on television, at KCOP. He began his work at KFWB in 1986, where he did numerous things, including building their original website and serving as webmaster for a decade, and then anchoring the morning news there from 2000 to 2009, when he moved to KNX.

Popejoy was passionate about astronomy, and was once in line to be a "Journalist-in-Space" prior to the program's cancellation after the Challenger tragedy. He also was "frequently seen lurking in the halls and offices at Caltech and the USGS, and he was a long-time consultant to the Southern California Earthquake Center."

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