Longtime radio and television broadcaster Larry King has died at the age of 87.
King’s son, Chance, confirmed the news of his father’s passing, while the broadcaster’s verified Facebook page issued a statement.
“With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles,” the statement said. “For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster.”
CNN.com
Although the statement didn’t mention a cause of death, King had recently been hospitalized due to COVID-19. However, it’s not confirmed if that played any role in his passing.
Born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger, King began his broadcasting career in 1957 in Miami. He chose his new surname of “King” shortly before his first broadcast when WAHR station manager Marshall Simmonds, claimed that Zeiger was “too ethnic” and “difficult to remember”. “King” was taken from an advertisement in the Miami Herald for King’s Wholesale Liquor and two years later he would legally change his name to Larry King.
King eventually went national with the Larry King Show on January 30, 1978. From midnight to 5:30 am King would conduct an interview for 90 minutes then take phone calls for another 90 minutes. At 3 am he would open the phone lines for another 90 minutes where callers could discuss any topic they please before the show was closed out with the final segment of King editorializing with his own political opinions.
In June of 1985, King took on television broadcasting starting his longtime CNN show Larry King Live which helped propel the Ted Turner venture into the mainstream. King’s non-confrontational approach and easy, open-ended questions made his show an attractive option for high-end public figures looking to avoid contentious interviews on the national stage. CNN claims that King had conducted over 30,000 interviews during his career.
King’s final CNN broadcast came on June 29, 2010 after 25 years on the network.