R.I.P.: 'Mother' Of Minnesota Radio Joyce Lamont

Joyce Lamont

For more than five decades, Joyce Lamont’s folksy, familiar voice was a fixture on Minnesota airwaves.

“She was a pioneer,” said retired WCCO radio announcer Charlie Boone, who worked with Lamont for many years.

Lamont died Sunday at age 98,  according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

She grew up in Duluth and began her career in the Twin Cities at a time when few women were heard on radio. She started behind the scenes, as a “continuity director,” writing copy for others to read on the air. But once she got the opportunity to be a substitute host, she became a regular on-air presence for more than 40 years at WCCO 830 AM  and later at KLBB 1220 AM, until her retirement in 2003.

“She had a marvelous voice,” Boone said of Lamont, who was inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2001. She became the voice of “Dayton’s Musical Chimes,” the long-running “Best Buys” and other programs. She worked with many of the best-known personalities in Minnesota broadcasting, including Bob DeHaven, Howard Viken and Jergen Nash.

“She loved it (radio), and loved her listeners,” said longtime friend Dee Larson.

Lamont’s listeners returned the love. She received as many as 10,000 letters a month, more than any other broadcaster at WCCO, according to her Hall of Fame biography.

1986 AUDIO SAMPLE: Click Here   (More at RadioTapes.com)

She became an on-air broadcaster purely by accident. While working at WCCO radio as a script and ad writer in 1950, she was asked to read a couple of lines on air because a woman's voice was needed and no other woman was in the office. Her voice was perfect for radio. Soon, she was recruited for on-air segments that led to the popular "Morning Program." There she served as the on-air home economist despite the fact that she had little time to cook herself.

Lamont left WCCO in 1989, after her contract was not renewed, but soon found a home at KLBB, where she rejoined several of her former WCCO colleagues. Leaving WCCO was “very painful,” according to her friend Larson. “But she was happy to be invited over to KLBB, and she loved it there.”

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