Don Lancer, longtime KYW Newsradio broadcaster, dies at 68

DON LANCER, whose baritone was familiar to listeners of KYW Newsradio for 37 years, died yesterday of cancer at the age of 68.

"He loved putting together an entertaining show, an informative show, and he could do it with style," said longtime friend Harry Donahue, a morning news anchor at KYW.

After reporting general news for years, Don got into broadcasting business reports, which he also made interesting, Donahue said on the CBS Philly website.

"I mean some of the best radio we've ever had, I think, was Don Lancer and Fred Sherman in the morning," he said.

In February 2008, Don and South Jersey bureau chief Ed Kasuba volunteered to leave the station after CBS Radio started slashing jobs and demanded two layoffs from KYW.

In retirement, Don could still be heard doing commercials at the station.

Steve Butler, KYW vice president of programming, told Radio-Info.com that "although his background was as a DJ, he was born for all-news because he could ad-lib just about anything."

In December 2009, Don announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. "It's my own fault," he said, "40-plus years of smoking." He had quit seven years before, but it apparently was too late.

Don started in radio as a disc jockey in small stations in his native New York state. He was only 17 when he got his first DJ job, on Station WSGO in Oswego, N.Y. Other small stations followed before he made it to Philadelphia.

Services: Funeral Mass 11 a.m. Thursday at Mother of Divine Providence Church, 333 Allendale Road, King of Prussia. Friends may call at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Bacchi Funeral Home, 805 DeKalb St., Bridgeport, and at 10 a.m. at the church. Burial will be private.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to World Wide Marriage Encounter, c/o Tony & Cathy Witczak, 30 Sullivan Road, Wayne, PA 19087.