Lovell Dyett, WBZ radio personality, has died at 77

By Colin A. Young, Globe Correspondent

Long-time WBZ NewsRadio 1030 AM personality Lovell Dyett has died after a long illness, the station announced on its website today. He was 77.

Dyett hosted a talk show on the station for nearly 40 years. His career at WBZ began on Dec. 3, 1971, as host of The Lovell Dyett Program, which was promoted as a “telephone-talk show that dealt with all issues affecting the black community,” the station said in a posting on its website.

“A natural leader, trusted friend, and mentor, Dyett will be greatly missed by not only those who knew him personally, but also by those whose lives he touched over the airwaves of WBZ,” the station said in the posting.

In addition to WBZ NewsRadio, Dyett worked at WBZ-TV, WGBH-TV, and the former WNAC-TV, WBZ said.

“In Boston we did not have a person of color of his intellectual depth and quality of broadcasting who could captivate an audience from 9 o’clock until 12 midnight every Saturday night,” said Bruce Wall, pastor of Global Ministries Christian Church in Dorchester. “Not only the black community in Boston, but the white community, too; people in Boston all loved to listen to Lovell Dyett because he could address any issue across the board.”

Wall said Dyett was a mentor to him as he began his own radio and television broadcasting career.

“Lovell Dyett became a mentor for me,” he said. “He would tell me, ‘Don’t speak to everybody, speak to one person who is listening.’ Because of him I now own my own radio and TV station.”

Dyett, along with several other WBZ employees, was let go in 2009 in budget cutbacks. But after a public outcry, he was brought back for a half-hour show.