R.I.P.: WKKO Toledo Morning Host Harvey Steele Dead At 60

Harvey Steele

Harvey Steele, the longtime co-host of Toledo's top-rated morning radio show Shores and Steele on WKKO 99.9 FM K100, has died, the radio station confirmed on Facebook Friday.

He was 60, according to The Toledo Blade.

Steele's liver began to fail in 1997 after he unknowingly contracted hepatitis C in a blood transfusion in 1985. He had one liver transplant in 1997, followed by a second transplant a week later at the Cleveland Clinic that saved his life.

He was part of K100 with Gary Shores since 1994, and with Cumulus Media since 1981.

In 2016, Mr. Steele received the National Donor Memorial Award for Excellence in Richmond, Va., for his efforts in promoting the cause of organ donation.

The United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, a private, nonprofit organization based in Richmond that manages the nation’s organ transplant system under contract with the federal government, established The National Donor Memorial Award for Excellence to honor “unsung heroes who have gone above and beyond in promoting organ donation in their community.”

“I guess I wouldn’t want to think of it as an award,” Mr. Steele told The Blade in June, 2016, “because the true heroes of organ donation are the donors and donor families, people who at the worst time of their life somehow saw through their personal grief and allowed their loved one to save someone else’s life.”

Steele and Shores teamed up to do afternoons on K100 starting in 1994 and were an instant success. They were #1 in PM Drive for six years and were honored to win a Country Music Association Award as Best Medium Market Broadcasters in 1995. In 2000, the talented team moved to Morning Drive on K100, where they became the  #1 morning show and the longest-running morning duo in the market.