Colorado Public Radio has announced that Morning Edition anchor Mike Lamp will retire on Friday, September 12 ending a 44 year career in broadcasting.
Lamp has hosted mornings at CPR since 2000. He began his career in Flagstaff AZ hosting overnights at a Country station. He would later work in other commercial radio and television stations in Flagstaff and Phoenix before spending four years at KNAU Flagstaff prior to joining CPR.
Lamp commented, “I think what really drove home to me the power of radio and the way a single human voice can really grab you and put you at the scene was the clip they played in every first-year broadcasting class: Herb Morrison describing the landing and ‘Oh, the humanity!’ – the destruction of the Hindenburg. I have felt good about being someone who wasn’t panicked, who was able to say how things were and not necessarily more than that. You hope that you are a voice of stability and the opposite of panicking or frantic.”
CPR News Executive Editor Kevin Dale said, “Mike will be missed in the mornings on CPR News. His steady, calm, authoritative voice welcomed listeners into the day for 25 years. He is curious, understands how people might need to be eased into the day and, even so, when the news demanded it, he was powerful and to the point. That combination of skills is rare. We’ll miss him, and we know our listeners will too.”
In an interview with CPR’s “Colorado Matters”, it was noted that Lamp’s final day will be his 64th birthday. He added that the federal funding cuts had nothing to do with his decision stating, “No, it’s around the time that I would retire anyway. It is circumstances outside of the office that have precipitated my leaving now.”
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com