William L. Kimble, 81, radio host

William L. Kimble, 81, of Jeffersonville, a radio host for WPEN for 14 years, died Tuesday, March 6, of interstitial lung disease at home.

In 1984, Mr. Kimble joined the lineup at WPEN, which then had a "Station of the Stars" nostalgia format.

Hosting the 7 p.m.-to-midnight slot, his family said, he "Kimblized" listeners with his deep, resonant voice.

The Inquirer reported in 1988 that WPEN, with a 5,000-record library, had the highest ratings of any big-city nostalgia station in the country. Fifty years of crooning by Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Sarah Vaughan, Jack Jones, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, and Tony Bennett, The Inquirer said, "was not going to corner the market on young listeners. But who cares? The formula at 'PEN is 'play gray, earn green.' "

In the 1990s, Mr. Kimble broadcast a summer "Dancing Under the Stars" series from Penn's Landing for WPEN.

He loved Motown and some music from the 1960s and '70s, but his favorite was big band music, his wife, Valerie, said.

Mr. Kimble left WPEN in 1998. The station replaced nostalgia with a sports-talk format in 2004.

A native of Sunbury, Pa., Mr. Kimble enlisted in the Air Force in 1948. During the Berlin Airlift, he was a radio operator aboard C-47 "Gooney Bird" cargo planes. The airlift was in response to an almost yearlong Soviet blockade of West Berlin by air and water. He told his wife that in addition to provisions for people, the planes dropped hay for starving farm animals.

After his discharge, Mr. Kimble sold vacuum cleaners and life insurance door to door. When one of his customers suggested he should be a radio announcer, he applied at a station in Sunbury and got the job.

Later, he had a children's television show, Barnacle Bill, in Binghamton, N.Y. His costar was a puppet named Iggy. He also hosted a TV teen dance show in Binghamton, mimicking Dick Clark's American Bandstand.

He was then a radio station announcer in Buffalo, N.Y., and in Joliet, Ill., where he met his wife. He was a patient in a hospital where she was a nurse.

For two years, he was program manager at WARM-AM in Scranton before moving to Philadelphia.

After leaving WPEN, Mr. Kimble drove a truck, which he nicknamed "The Moose," for a friend. From 2000 until 2008, his wife said, "his great joy" was driving a school bus for "his kids" in the Great Valley School District.

Mr. Kimble enjoyed doodling pen-and-ink caricatures and sketches of trees.

He and his wife were licensed pilots and enjoyed flying together along the eastern seaboard. They were members of the Valley Forge Taildraggers, a flying club based at Perkiomen Valley Airport.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Kimble is survived by daughters Leslie Styles, Cindy Lorti, and Lenlie Quirk; a son, William Jr.; 10 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 10, at Manoa Community Church, 153 N. Eagle Rd., Havertown, Pa. 19083. Mr. Kimble donated his body to science.

Donations may be made to the church.