Wally Kennedy is dead; my last visit with him

I knew it was coming, but it’s hard to take: Longtime TV host and radio anchor Wally Kennedy has died at 76.

6abc carried an unusually short, in my opinion, death report.

The on-air TV report said he had left the station, but there was a little more to that, as Wally told me over lunch back in January. It was the last time I was to see him alive.

We met in King of Prussia, as Wally wasn’t feeling well enough to trek into town. We ate at Chili’s because neither of us are pretentious, 

He looked good, but told me he had been in a serious battle with cancer, but that things were looking up.

Less than a week ago, his wife Glendia texted me to say he was in hospice, with days to live.

That was shocking.

Glendia said she quietly was letting some friends know. I was not actually a “friend,” but he told Glendia he respected my work when I covered him as a TV critic in the early ‘80s. The respect was mutual.

He had transitioned from the milquetoast Midwest to the hard-edged big city of Philly, and then transitioned to TV from radio.

I liked his work on radio, and was a guest on his show a few times, and continued to like his work on TV. He had a gentle interviewing style, but could close in for the kill on the few occasions it was necessary. 

He was best-known for hosting “AM Philadelphia” and then  “AM Live, which was canceled in 1996 due to other programming concerns, not because of ratings.

6abc did not find another role for the man who had been there two decades, so Wally became an anchor at KYW radio, which made good use of his voice, but not his interviewing talents.

Back in January we had a laugh over some criticism I had written about his show, constructive, I thought. And he agreed. A lot of high-profile people can’t stand any kind of criticism, but Wally’s talent was bigger than his ego.

He will be missed.