R.I.P.: KDKA-AM Pittsburgh Radio Host Mike Pintek

KDKA 1020 AM talk show host Mike Pintek passed away early this morning after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Pintek was 65, according to the station website.

For over 30 years, Pintek was the host of “The Mike Pintek Show” on KDKA Radio, which aired weekdays from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm.  In May of 2017, he was diagnosed with the disease but continued to broadcast his talk show.  His condition was inoperable, so he began an aggressive form of chemotherapy and radiation treatments and participated in experimental drug studies to ward off the illness, all while continuing to entertain his thousands of listeners daily on KDKA Radio.  Pintek was forced to take a leave of absence in late June of this year when his treatment was interrupted by a stroke.

Mike came to KDKA Radio in 1982 not as a talk show host but as a reporter.  In 1985, he shifted to the role of talk  show host and soon became one of Pittsburgh’s most influential voices.  He also worked on KDKA-TV as the host of “Pittsburgh 2-Day” and would serve as the station’s news break anchor.

Mike got his start in radio as a news director / anchor at WNOW in York, PA in 1974. In 1978, he moved to the state capitol to work at top 40 station WKBO Harrisburg, where he was worked in the news department with the late Fred Honsberger.  Honsberger left WKBO to join KDKA Radio and Mike was named News Director at the station.

It was at WKBO in 1979 that Pintek broke the one of the biggest stories of his career.   In the early morning of March 28, Pintek and then WKBO traffic reporter Dave Edwards noticed that steam was not emanating from the cooling towers at the Three Mile Island Nuclear power plant in nearby Middletown, and that fire companies had been dispatched to the scene.  Pintek’s call to the company to investigate the incident led to him being transferred to the main control room, where he confirmed that it was not a fire, but a problem with reactor number two.  Pintek was the first to report the news of the incident, which soon became the was the most significant accident in the U.S commercial nuclear power history.  The accident resulted in a number of changes and new regulations for the nuclear industry.

That nose for news served Pintek well as he soon made the transition to talk. After a two year stint as the morning news anchor at WASH-FM in Washington,  D.C., Pintek moved to Pittsburgh to join his former colleague Honsberger at the legendary KDKA Radio.