DC Radio: Longtime Radio Host Ed Walker Signs-Off

Ed Walker

Ed Walker, a fixture on Washington radio for more than 60 years, will end his career next week with the airing of his final program on WAMU 88.5 FM, his broadcast home since 1990.

The Washington Post reports the 83-yerar-old Walker is battling cancer and is retiring to focus on his health, WAMU said in a statement Thursday. He has entered a skilled nursing facility.

For the past quarter-century, Walker has been the host of “The Big Broadcast,” a four-hour weekly retrospective of programs from radio’s golden age, such as “Gunsmoke” and “Johnny Dollar.” The Sunday-night program is WAMU’s longest-running, airing since 1964.

Ed Walker, Willard Scott

Walker is well known to an earlier generation of radio listeners as half of the “Joy Boys,” the daily entertainment and comedy program that he co-hosted with Willard Scott on local stations from 1955 to 1974. Scott, who went on to become the weatherman on NBC’s “Today” show, first teamed with Walker on the radio when the two were classmates at American University in Washington, the owner of WAMU.