Carole Hemingway a pioneer radio personality, nationally syndicated columnist and head of the Hemingway Media Group, a media consulting firm in Beverly Hills, has died.
Hemingway passed away April 28 after a brief undisclosed illness at age 73.
A native of San Francisco, Hemingway graduated from Stanford University with a degree in International Relations, before moving to Phoenix, Arizona, where she would eventually launch her radio career at KPHX.
A move to Los Angeles followed, with Hemingway beginning what would be nearly two decades of on-air programming between KABC — including “The Carole Hemingway Show,” — and KGIL.
She also wrote an award-winning, nationally syndicated column for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate on political and social issues.
Hemingway started at KABC on August 8, 1974, the day Richard Nixon announced he would resigned the presidency because of the Watergate scandal. Hemingway used the resignation to show her new radio audience her political chops right out the gate.
A 1974 profile by the Los Angeles Times described her as “intelligent, unhaltingly self-assured and possessed of a combustible laugh. She has a kind of unimposing chic – alternately reserved and gregarious, soft and commanding.”
Hemingway also hosted numerous television talk shows for PBS and KCET Los Angeles, was a guest commentator for CNN and FNN. Most recently, Hemingway provided media consulting for everyone from A-list celebrities to Fortune 500 companies.
Hemingway is survived by her husband, Fred Harris, her son Dan and wife Cece, son John and partner D’nell, and seven grandchildren.