Jim Packard, longtime announcer on public radio’s Whad’Ya Know?, died June 18 at a New York City hospital. He was 70.
Michael Feldman, host of the national comedy quiz show produced by Wisconsin Public Radio, itold the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Packard suffered from cardiopulmonary disease, and that “his lung function had been decreasing visibly” for the past eight months.
Packard had been in New York for a live broadcast of the popular show on June 9, at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University, the Journal Sentinel reported. Packard entered the hospital on June 10. Feldman said Packard was “great” on the June 9 show, although “noticeably slower in his delivery.”
Packard had retired from Wisconsin Public Radio in 2010.
“We’re all deeply saddened by the news,” said WPR Director Mike Crane on a tribute page on the station’s website. “We loved Jim, and Jim returned that love to his colleagues and to listeners everywhere.”