Utah radio icon Joe Lee dies at 88

Utah broadcasting icon Joe Lee will be remembered as a true gentleman with a great sense of humor, according to his friends and family. The 88-year-old died Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009, after battling diabetes, heart and kidney problems for some time.

Lee is remembered as the voice of KCPX 1320 AM, where he was news director and news anchor for 25 years during the '60s and '70s.

Lee got his first radio job at Provo station KOVO, earning 25 cents an hour. His son, David Lee, recalls when Lee first began his career, he went by his full name, Joseph Lee. But he soon decided it sounded like "Joe is a flea," and from then on, he went by Joe.

During his first year at KOVO, he announced the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. David Lee remembers his father recounting how the station received a brief teletype announcement that the Japanese had hit Pearl Harbor and then the line went down, leaving Lee to talk for three hours on little information. "At an early age he learned to improvise and think on his feet," David Lee said.

Lee then entered the Army Air Corps and served in the South Pacific for four years.

After returning from the Army, Lee graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in theater and began working for KDYL Radio in Salt Lake City.

Soon after, he moved to KNAK Radio. Lee told the Deseret News in 2007 that KNAK was the only Utah radio station that would play Elvis or the Beatles in the early days.

He also did the play-by-play of the Brigham Young University Cougars' first-ever basketball broadcast in 1948.

From KNAK, Lee moved to KCPX 1320 AM, where he became a broadcasting icon.

Gary Waldren, program director for KCPX in the 1970s, said, "Lee had the on-air persona of being the straightest guy you ever knew, but behind the scenes he had a fantastic sense of humor." Waldren said Lee gave credibility to a rock and roll station. "It was like God speaking when he came on," Waldren said.

Doug Wright worked with Lee at KCPX and remembers him as one of the great talents of Salt Lake radio. "Generations grew up with him as a familiar voice, whether doing news or commercials. It's hard to imagine the airways without Joe Lee," Wright said.

Wright remembers Lee barreling up to the station in his Mustang a few minutes before his 6 a.m. newscast, flying through the door and sight-reading the newscasts without reviewing them. "It was beautiful and flawless. I was in awe of Joe," Wright said.

Wright said Lee never made him feel like a rookie and treated everyone respectfully.