Bruce Vidal, big-voiced radio disc jockey, dies at 54

Sunday December 15, 2002

LOS ANGELES (AP) Bruce Vidal, a well-known disc jockey who held his ``dream job'' at KIIS-FM (105.9) for 15 years, has died. He was 54.

Vidal, whose sonorous voice was featured on local airwaves from 1982 through 1996, died Friday of an apparent heart attack at his home near Palm Desert, said Don Barrett, author of the book ``Los Angeles Radio People.'' Vidal had suffered from complications of diabetes.

During the mid-1980s, the 300-pound Vidal was married to one of his chief competitors, Laurie Allen. The two both held evening DJ's seats from 6 to 10 p.m. five nights a week, Vidal on KIIS and Allen on KMGG-FM (105.9).

Their professional rivalry earned them an appearance on ABC's ``Good Morning America'' and articles in People magazine and the Times, among other publications.

The son of a postman, Los Angeles-born Vidal took five years to get through high school and then graduated to a job parking cars. After seeing a television commercial for the Career Academy School of Broadcasting, he took the six-month course in 1970 and landed his first radio job at a small station in Washington, Iowa.

He also worked at a station in Detroit Lakes, Minn., where he met Allen, and stations in Omaha, Neb., and San Francisco before he joined the staff at KIIS-FM.

``It's my dream job,'' Vidal said of his KIIS stint in a 1985 Los Angeles Times interview. ``When I got into radio, I wanted to come to Los Angeles, work at the No. 1 Top-40 station in town, make a lot of money, live in the Valley, have a house with a pool and drive a Corvette. And it's happened.''

In 1997, Vidal moved on to smaller radio stations, first in Thousand Oaks and in 1999 to what had become KELT-FM (92.7) in Riverside.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)