Ronnie Bradford, former longtime KNX executive producer and assistant news director, has passed away. He was 82.
He was the driving force in the newsroom, first joining the station just after it became an all-news station in 1968 and ending his career with KNX nearly 40 years later.
He was born Aug. 26, 1941 in Los Angeles. He then moved to Kansas City, Missouri where he graduated from Central High School in 1959.
He returned to Southern California to attend USC and graduated in 1962, according to his LinkedIn page. He was a passionate and lifelong Trojans football fan.
After graduating, he served in Vietnam for two years. When he returned, he worked at KABC radio before joining KNX News in 1968.
Bradford first worked as a news writer, according to the Los Angeles Times. He became a news producer in 1982. In 2002, he became an executive news producer.
Former KNX anchor and reporter Tom Haule said Bradford knew “every inch” of Los Angeles.
“We had two-way radios that would communicate with the assignment desk and sometimes I'd get lost,” Haule recalled. “He'd say, ‘Well, where are you?’ And I'd give him the coordinates, the streets where I was, [and] he'd say, ‘Ok, go east for another two blocks and then turn left on this street. Go for about three blocks and you'll hang a right on such and such.’ And he'd help me find my way out of there without so much as looking at a Thomas guide.”
Haule called Bradford the “heart and soul” of the KNX News operation.
“He knew exactly what was going on. He was the kind of editor who was on top of everything and almost seemed to know the story before we did,” he said. “When we were out in the field, he ate and drank and slept news. It seemed his entire life.”
Former anchor and reporter Jack Salvatore said Bradford was on the job “from the time he got in to the time he left.”
“He was an incredible guy,” Salvatore said. “As an assignment editor, as a colleague in general, he was just terrific.”
Bradford retired in 2007.
He is survived by daughter Leslie Bradford and sister Judi Bradford-Bing.
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