R.I.P.: Santa Cruz Broadcaster Don Husing

Don Husing

Don Husing, the voice of KSCO 1080 AM Santa Cruz news for decades, died Tuesday at his home.

He was 71, according to Santa Cruz Patch. 

Born and raised in Oakdale, California, Husing came to KSCO in 1966 while serving in the US Army at Ford Ord, where he wrote for the military’s Stars and Stripes magazine.  KSCO’s first operating owner, Vernon Berlin, gave Husing three months off to study for his FCC First Phone license. 

Husing then spent the next 47 years anchoring KSCO’s control room.  Husing’s duties at KSCO included broadcasting news, weather and traffic reports, producing and hosting the Hawaii Calls program, and co-hosting the Good Morning Monterey Bay commute show with Sleepy John Sandidge, Fred Riese, and Rosemary Chalmers.

During Husing’s 47 year tenure, KSCO was instrumental in covering major area events, including the 1982 floods, the 1989 earthquake, and all of the area’s natural and man-made disasters.   At KSCO, Husing was the broadcasters’ broadcaster, the man the station could always count on to be on duty on time, and he did so for all three of KSCO’s ownership groups, writes Brad Kava at Patch.

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