Sam Putney, a long-time Dallas radio host, passed away on Monday, according to his family.
Putney, 76, was well-known for many years as a singer and newsreader on a highly regarded Dallas morning radio show.
“I don’t care how old you were, what age group, what demo of the audience, everybody loved Sam Putney,” Nanette Lee said.
“The best thing about this is, we’re going to laugh and we’re going to cry,” Lee said. “So that’s what I think people are getting now.”
Tuesday, NBC 5 received thoughts from Nanette Lee, Chris Arnold, and Wig about their coworker. On K104 FM’s Skip Murphy and Company Morning Show from 1993 until 2006, they comprised three of the show’s five personalities.
Following his tenure at K-104, Putney, who was born and raised in Houston, worked in radio in Los Angeles and Dallas at WBAP after graduating from Jack Yates High School in 1966.
The Dallas radio program with Sam Putney as a news anchor was a ratings powerhouse.
“He would have, like, a news story and then he would have a funny story,” Chris Arnold said.
“Sam liked to make music,” Lee added.
Tuesday’s midday episode on Smooth R&B 105.7 featured songs by Lynne Haze that are still loved and remembered.
“He could sing this song, and it was stupid as hell, but it was so funny, and it would just make us feel good. But the community loved him because he knew how to connect,” Haze said.
Former coworkers and lifelong friends hope that listeners will enjoy and cling to this relationship as they remember Sam Putney.
“He really was your uncle, your brother, your cousin,” Lee said. “That’s our motto, family for life,” Wig and Arnold said, completing each other’s thoughts.
