A familiar voice in northern Minnesota, Ed De La Hunt passed away at his home on Saturday at the age of 87. He had a nearly 70-year career in the radio business that spanned ownership, air work, sales and engineering.
De La Hunt was co-founder, with his wife Carol, of Park Rapids’ 870 KPRM(AM) in December 1962. The station began what would become De La Hunt Broadcasting — now known as De La Hunt Media.
An outpouring of comments on the De La Hunt Media Facebook page remembered his voice from weekday mornings on his “Coffeetime” program, a favorite of both area residents and those who frequently vacationed in the Park Rapids/Hubbard County area.
He is fondly remembered for his 1950s and ’60s music show on Sunday nights. His voice could also be heard during his storm weather coverage and for high school hockey play-by-play.
Ed De La Hunt was respected for his engineering skills and was mentored in electronics by Bart Setchell. According to the Pavek Museum in St. Louis Park, Minn., he attended the Brown Institute and would become chief engineer at WMIN(AM) in St. Paul. He would work in engineering, on-air, sales and construction at stops in Thief River Falls, Brainerd and Sheldon, Iowa, before launching KPRM.
After KPRM signed on, De La Hunt built and operated a network of stations from the ground up. “I made up my mind in the 1980s to never build an AM station with less than 10,000 watts,” he wrote to Radio World in 2024. Over the years he wrote letters to the editor of Radio World on topics including HD Radio, noise on the AM dial and the responsibilities of the FCC.
Today, five stations in northern and central Minnesota make up De La Hunt Media, including the adult standards-formatted 100 kW 97.5 KDKK(FM) in Park Rapids.
In 2021, Ed and Carol De La Hunt sold the company’s stations to their son and daughter-in-law, Butch and Tammy De La Hunt.
De La Hunt is credited as a mentor to many broadcasters who went on to lead stations in larger markets or launch their own broadcasting ventures.
A post on De La Hunt Media’s Facebook page said that memorial arrangements will be shared as they are finalized.
