Ian Punnett, 63, the Chief Operator and Faculty Advisor for K-State's student radio station, Wildcat 91.9 FM, passed away Thursday after a brief illness.
Punnett was a weekend host from his Manhattan home for the syndicated radio show Coast to Coast, a children's book author, and a recipient of the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Distinguished Service Award.
Dan Engle, Eagle Radio Operations Manager in Manhattan and Junction City, said, "It is a huge loss for K-State and the radio community. " He also noted that Punnett was perceived as a great friend of Eagle Radio
Since 2000, Punnett has, in various incarnations, been a valued host of Coast to Coast AM, including regular weekend hosting duties, his own spin-off show Coast to Coast LIVE with Ian Punnett, a podcast entitled Vaudeville for the Frightened, and most recently twice a month hosting duties.
Punnett co-hosted rock morning radio shows on WXLP in the Quad Cities on then-rock music station WKDF in Nashville, Tennessee in the early-to-mid-1990s, was also morning man on WMJY in Long Branch, New Jersey. He moved to talk radio at WGN in Chicago in 1994 and then Atlanta, Georgia in 1997 to host a nightly talk show. In Minneapolis-St. Paul, Punnett hosted the morning show (6-10 am) on KTMY-FM. It was known as Ian & Margery, and was co-hosted by his wife, Margery.
While working full-time in radio, Punnett completed a Master of Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta. In 2017, he completed his PhD at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, part of Arizona State University. In 2018 he joined the faculty of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University as a professor of practice and chief operator of the award-winning KSDB-FM. He co-edited and wrote Moving Sounds: A Cultural History of Car Radio (2019) from Peter Lang Publishing and two chapters for Praeger’s Religion and Technology Series: How Religions are Embracing Virtual Media, Social Networks, and Mobile Devices (Vol. II) (2019). He was the author of several books, including How to Pray When You’re Pissed at God from Random House, Toward A Theory of True Crime (2018) from Routledge, and the trade book, A Black Night for the Bluegrass Belle (2017), as well as two children’s books written to raise money for canine charities, Dizzy the Mutt with the Propeller Butt and Jackula the Vampire Dog.
He is survived by his wife, Margery Punnett, and two sons.