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K-State professor and hall of fame broadcaster Ian Punnett passes away
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Tom Betts
Dec 23, 2023, 9:00:16 AM12/23/23
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https://1350kman.com/2023/12/k-state-professor-and-hall-of-fame-broadcaster-ian-punnett-passes-away/
Local broadcaster, author and professor Ian Punnett died Thursday following a brief illness. He was 63.
Punnett was the Chief Operator and Faculty Advisor for Kansas State University’s student radio station Wildcat 91.9 FM. He joined K-State in 2018 as a professor of practice in the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication. Retired A.Q. Miller School Director Steve Smethers was one of Punnett’s colleagues.
“First of all this news hits us very hard. Ian Punnett was a ray of sunshine. He brought such a professional quality into the classroom. It was his efforts that really put that radio station in the national spotlight. Ian was a man who could teach so many things, everything from media history to media law to our basic introductory course. His talents on the faculty will be missed, but what we’ve really lost is a quality human being,” he said.
Under Punnett’s leadership, Wildcat 91.9 FM was recognized as the Best College/University Radio Station in the nation for schools with more than 10,000 students at the 2023 Intercollegiate Broadcasting Awards ceremony, held in New York City in February.
In addition to his work at K-State, Punnett was a weekend host of Coast to Coast AM, heard overnights on News Radio KMAN, and hosted a podcast entitled Vaudeville for the Frightened. Coast to Coast AM Executive Producer Lisa Lyon issued the following statement Friday afternoon.
“I’ve had the privilege of producing for Ian these past 24 years, and I will miss our friendship and the professional collaboration. Every conversation behind the scenes was as lively and entertaining and everything we strive for on the air. Ian was great radio personified.”
His broadcasting career spanned 35 years, including stints in hard rock morning radio during the 1990s and working for stations like WGN in Chicago and WGST in Atlanta. He also co-hosted a morning show with his wife at KTMY in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In October, Punnett was inducted into the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
He is survived by his wife Margery and two sons. Funeral services are pending.
Local broadcaster, author and professor Ian Punnett died Thursday following a brief illness. He was 63.
Punnett was the Chief Operator and Faculty Advisor for Kansas State University’s student radio station Wildcat 91.9 FM. He joined K-State in 2018 as a professor of practice in the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication. Retired A.Q. Miller School Director Steve Smethers was one of Punnett’s colleagues.
“First of all this news hits us very hard. Ian Punnett was a ray of sunshine. He brought such a professional quality into the classroom. It was his efforts that really put that radio station in the national spotlight. Ian was a man who could teach so many things, everything from media history to media law to our basic introductory course. His talents on the faculty will be missed, but what we’ve really lost is a quality human being,” he said.
Under Punnett’s leadership, Wildcat 91.9 FM was recognized as the Best College/University Radio Station in the nation for schools with more than 10,000 students at the 2023 Intercollegiate Broadcasting Awards ceremony, held in New York City in February.
In addition to his work at K-State, Punnett was a weekend host of Coast to Coast AM, heard overnights on News Radio KMAN, and hosted a podcast entitled Vaudeville for the Frightened. Coast to Coast AM Executive Producer Lisa Lyon issued the following statement Friday afternoon.
“I’ve had the privilege of producing for Ian these past 24 years, and I will miss our friendship and the professional collaboration. Every conversation behind the scenes was as lively and entertaining and everything we strive for on the air. Ian was great radio personified.”
His broadcasting career spanned 35 years, including stints in hard rock morning radio during the 1990s and working for stations like WGN in Chicago and WGST in Atlanta. He also co-hosted a morning show with his wife at KTMY in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In October, Punnett was inducted into the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
He is survived by his wife Margery and two sons. Funeral services are pending.
radioacti...@gmail.com
Dec 23, 2023, 10:45:35 AM12/23/23
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This is simply dreadful news, Tom, but I'm nonetheless grateful you so promptly posted it.
This Ian Punnett fellow was far and away the best host the syndicated pseudoscience talk radio program Coast to Coast ever had--an overnight production much more accurately described as "Hoax to Hoax" ever since the late Art Bell founded it in 1992.
The late Punnett was always genial in tone, and downright smart-as-a-tack--and thus I wonder how much of the non-stop malarky his guests nightly doled out to the ever-gullible C-to-C fan base Punnett ever actually bought into. (Of course, it's a lot easier for a talk host to maintain a straight face in the face of nonstop, physics-defying nonsense on radio than on television.)
Punnett was also blessed with a charming vocal timbre, and (unlike most of Bell's many successors on the show) always demonstrated top-notch broadcasting skills while dispensing all that severely-silly subject matter the format of the long-dominant national program demanded.
Though one DOES wonder how many of those hundreds of C-to-C affiliates would have purchased C-to-C--even for, say, a paltry $25/week--IF the preposterous program wasn't distributed gratis, like virtually all syndicated talk radio is. Yep, it didn't cost the local stations carrying it even a dime, and thusly C-to-C displaced HUNDREDS* of top-notch local shows hosted by guys and gals (often WAY more talented than little ol' me) who actually expect to be paid for their efforts.** (Syndicated shows make their money via their imbedded commercial spots, along with a couple other never-publicized income streams their parent syndication companies drum up.***)
I always hoped to run into Sir Punnett at one of the many pro radio conventions I attended over the decades around The Lower 48, but alas, that never happened; I longed to rhapsodize to him in person how he represented a hugely talented hosting exception on a national show that otherwise is profoundly a national broadcasting embarrassment.
And yes, I'm EXTREMELY biased here...as significant (and far-and-away my favorite) portions of my own commercial newstalk radio hosting career 1989-2013 were in that long-neglected (and sometimes even ridiculed) broadcast time-slot known as "overnights".
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
===================
* If your syndicated show is on 600 stations, it ipso facto means 599 former local-yokel hosts are reduced to mere lowly-listener (or caller) status.
** An unfortunate, genre-corrosive fact few loyal late-night talk radio listeners ever realize, as that free-to-carry arrangement is something industry insiders only voice amongst themselves, and NEVER during media interviews.
*** This is the dirty BIG secret of syndicated radio. Consider this: recurrently over the decades, whenever some hard-core talk radio fan would meet me--at some house party, a station event or just on the street--and was conversationally curious about the talk radio biz once they learned I was a local talk radio yakker, I would LOVE posing this hypothetical: "Please think about this for a moment, and then estimate how much you imagine your local station pays for the right to air a standard Mon-Fri/3-hour call-in program out of New York, L.A. or D.C., such as Michael Medved's, Dennis Prager's or Art Bell's. After a few moments pondering the question, their estimates would ALWAYS minimally be in the $1000-$5000 range per week--at least for the largest, strongest-signal "heritage" local stations--and several times I even got a guestimate number of $50,000/week. And in all my years of posing this--often ALSO offering up the huge hint that "It's a rather round number"--NOT ONE person ever responded with the correct answer: "$0".
This Ian Punnett fellow was far and away the best host the syndicated pseudoscience talk radio program Coast to Coast ever had--an overnight production much more accurately described as "Hoax to Hoax" ever since the late Art Bell founded it in 1992.
The late Punnett was always genial in tone, and downright smart-as-a-tack--and thus I wonder how much of the non-stop malarky his guests nightly doled out to the ever-gullible C-to-C fan base Punnett ever actually bought into. (Of course, it's a lot easier for a talk host to maintain a straight face in the face of nonstop, physics-defying nonsense on radio than on television.)
Punnett was also blessed with a charming vocal timbre, and (unlike most of Bell's many successors on the show) always demonstrated top-notch broadcasting skills while dispensing all that severely-silly subject matter the format of the long-dominant national program demanded.
Though one DOES wonder how many of those hundreds of C-to-C affiliates would have purchased C-to-C--even for, say, a paltry $25/week--IF the preposterous program wasn't distributed gratis, like virtually all syndicated talk radio is. Yep, it didn't cost the local stations carrying it even a dime, and thusly C-to-C displaced HUNDREDS* of top-notch local shows hosted by guys and gals (often WAY more talented than little ol' me) who actually expect to be paid for their efforts.** (Syndicated shows make their money via their imbedded commercial spots, along with a couple other never-publicized income streams their parent syndication companies drum up.***)
I always hoped to run into Sir Punnett at one of the many pro radio conventions I attended over the decades around The Lower 48, but alas, that never happened; I longed to rhapsodize to him in person how he represented a hugely talented hosting exception on a national show that otherwise is profoundly a national broadcasting embarrassment.
And yes, I'm EXTREMELY biased here...as significant (and far-and-away my favorite) portions of my own commercial newstalk radio hosting career 1989-2013 were in that long-neglected (and sometimes even ridiculed) broadcast time-slot known as "overnights".
BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
===================
* If your syndicated show is on 600 stations, it ipso facto means 599 former local-yokel hosts are reduced to mere lowly-listener (or caller) status.
** An unfortunate, genre-corrosive fact few loyal late-night talk radio listeners ever realize, as that free-to-carry arrangement is something industry insiders only voice amongst themselves, and NEVER during media interviews.
*** This is the dirty BIG secret of syndicated radio. Consider this: recurrently over the decades, whenever some hard-core talk radio fan would meet me--at some house party, a station event or just on the street--and was conversationally curious about the talk radio biz once they learned I was a local talk radio yakker, I would LOVE posing this hypothetical: "Please think about this for a moment, and then estimate how much you imagine your local station pays for the right to air a standard Mon-Fri/3-hour call-in program out of New York, L.A. or D.C., such as Michael Medved's, Dennis Prager's or Art Bell's. After a few moments pondering the question, their estimates would ALWAYS minimally be in the $1000-$5000 range per week--at least for the largest, strongest-signal "heritage" local stations--and several times I even got a guestimate number of $50,000/week. And in all my years of posing this--often ALSO offering up the huge hint that "It's a rather round number"--NOT ONE person ever responded with the correct answer: "$0".
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