David 'Kidd' Kraddick died from cardiac disease, La. coroner says

An outpouring of grief and memories on Sunday followed the sudden death of David “Kidd” Kraddick, a nationally syndicated radio personality and “an energetic dynamo" with an incredibly generous spirit.
Kraddick, 53, hosted the locally based Kidd Kraddick in the Morning. The program is broadcast on Dallas’ “Kiss FM” KHKS-FM (106.1) and more than 75 stations nationally. It is also broadcast on the television show Dish Nation.
Kraddick died Saturday in New Orleans at a golf tournament for Kidd’s Kids, a nonprofit he started that sponsors trips to Disney World for chronically and terminally ill children.
Based on the results of a preliminary autopsy, Jefferson Parish Deputy Coroner Dr. Granville Morse says David "Kidd" Kraddick died of cardiac disease.

"His heart was enlarged," Morse told The Dallas Morning News Monday. "You have several vessels, and three were diseased -- the worst of which was 80 percent blocked. That combination, an enlarged heart and cardiac disease, when someone dies like this it's usually dysrhythmia," which leads to an irregular heartbeat.

Morse said it's likely Kraddick died quickly.

"What happens is your heart goes into a non-perfusable rhythm," Morse said. "In English that means: imagine you turned off the faucet for the blood to go back to the brain. It not only doesn't get to the brain, but it doesn't get to the heart. Both stop working simultaneously."

This was just the preliminary autopsy; nothing will be final until the toxicology report is finished. That could be done by week's end, Morse said.

"Until we get that back," he said, "we don't know for sure."
A golf professional at the charity event said that Kraddick did not feel well and took only a few swings before leaving the event.
Kiss FM owner Clear Channel Communications said in a statement Saturday that Kraddick died doing what he loved, working selflessly for children.
Kraddick’s fans reeled from his death Sunday. Some called in to the station or left notes and flowers outside the radio studio, where fans once again gathered Monday morning. Celebrities tweeted condolences. His Facebook page and Twitter drew a steady stream of listeners’ memories.
KLUV-FM (98.7) radio host Jody Dean said the outpouring reflected Kraddick’s ability to connect with a wide audience of teenagers, commuters and soccer moms alike. His talent made it hard for Dean and other broadcasters to compete, he said.
“What’s remarkable about Kidd is that he took that wall that’s always been there between broadcasters and audience and in his show, he completely wiped it out,” Dean said. “You didn’t feel like you were listening to a show. You felt like you were listening to a friend.”
Monday morning's show was a brief one, starting an hour later than usual -- at 7 a.m.
"Our hearts are very heavy at the loss of Kidd Kraddick, and words are very difficult for us to come up with at this time," said an announcement made at 6 a.m. "But for just a little bit this morning, starting at 7 a.m. central, Kellie Rasberry, Big Al, Jay Si and Jenna will be here to express their thoughts and feelings. And most importantly, we're going to open up the phone lines and hear from you as well. 1-800-KIDD-LIVE. 1-800-K-I-D-D-L-I-V-E. We hope you join us starting at 7 a.m. central this morning to express the love we felt for Kidd Kraddick."
Once Kraddick's co-hosts shared their memories, it was announced they would take the rest of the week off to mourn his death. It's unclear when, or how, the show will return after that.
Family man
Longtime friend Dr. Phil McGraw, called Kraddick “an energetic dynamo” on the airwaves, but also described Kraddick as a generous philanthropist and devoted father to his grown daughter, Caroline.
Kraddick loved “cutting up” with McGraw and doing impressions of him on the radio, but off the air they exchanged advice about family, parenting and show business. Kraddick frequently showed off photos and gave updates about Caroline. “He just bust the buttons off his shirt talking about her,” McGraw said.
When she was a toddler, Kraddick recorded a standing comedy bit called “Bathtime with Caroline” and “people fell in love with her,” said Amy Austin, who worked as a radio host with Kraddick on Kiss from 1995 to 1998.
“He invited you into his family, and you invited him into yours,” Austin said.
Caroline Cradick declined to comment Sunday. She tweeted, “I will never wrap my brain around my fathers passing. Please keep me and my family in your prayers and ask The Lord to watch over my daddy.”
Kraddick, who was divorced in 2007, was planning to get married again. Two weeks ago, he showed McGraw the engagement ring. “I’ve never seen him happier,” McGraw said.
On Saturday, McGraw sent Kraddick a text message but did not receive a reply. It seemed unusual for Kraddick, who is usually wired to technology and multiple gadgets, McGraw said.
A reply eventually came from Kraddick’s fiancee, who said she needed to talk to McGraw.
Kraddick debuted as a deejay at his suburban Tampa, Fla., high school. In 10th grade when he was class president, there were limited funds for a school dance, so he borrowed his dad’s stereo and did the music himself.
He attended the University of Miami for a semester. He dropped out to go to broadcast school and got his first gig at a small radio station in Sarasota, Fla.
His next stop was Q105, a radio station in Tampa, where the program director began calling him “kid” — a nickname that stuck.
“My biggest asset was also my biggest detriment,” Kraddick told The Dallas Morning News in 1994. “I have a young, non-radio sounding voice. Teens really turned on to my voice and thought, ‘Hey, he’s 16.’”
He described his humorous and energetic style as “radio without a net.”
Kraddick worked on nighttime radio shows in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles before taking his show to Dallas in 1984.
He became a staple in the area with his late-night debut that year on “The Eagle” KEGL-FM (97.1). His ascension to mainstay status began in 1992 when he moved to Kiss FM and began broadcasting his morning show.
Texas native and actor Matthew McConaughey once admitted that he pretended to be Kraddick to get into Dallas nightclubs.
Kraddick’s signature sign off was: “Keep looking up, ’cause that’s where it all is.”
Matchmaker
Kyle Herron, 43, of Dallas remembered calling Kraddick at The Eagle in 1985. Herron, then 15, told the deejay about a girl he liked. The homecoming dance was coming up, and Herron was too shy to ask the girl. He worked up just enough courage to request a song for her.
“But he wanted to take it a step farther and call her on the air,” Herron, of Dallas, recalled Sunday.
Although Herron was hesitant, Kraddick convinced him and said, “I hope this girl says yes,” as they dialed her. Luckily, Herron said, the girl answered the phone and did say yes.
Retired morning broadcaster Ron Chapman described Kraddick as a trailblazer in the radio business.
“He reinvented how morning radio was delivered to a new generation,” Chapman said. “He didn’t work for Kiss; he produced his own show and sold it to them and then to other stations around the country.”
In the early 1990s, Kraddick started a subscription-based newsletter called Bitboard where radio personalities exchanged ideas to use in different markets. First distributed by fax machine, it became a business concept that Kraddick later sold.
Gordon Keith, radio host on “The Ticket” KTCK-AM (1310), tuned in to Kraddick’s radio show as a teenager in the ’80s. He was stunned when he got a phone call from Kraddick in 1996, early in Keith’s radio career.
“He was a man who lived on Mount Olympus in my mind,” he said.
Over phone calls and food, the two developed a friendship. Sometimes, they spent “eight-hour lunches … holed up in the back of Campisi’s talking life and radio.”
Kraddick “had a smile inherent in the timbre of his voice” and was a savvy businessman who knew “how radio works underneath the hood,” Keith said.
Former Kiss co-host Austin said Kraddick encouraged everyone in the radio business to “use our power for good.” In 1991, he founded his nonprofit, Kidd’s Kids.
Kraddick found ways to combine his sense of humor with his commitment to charity work. He wrote a romance novel spoof to raise money for Kidd’s Kids. Another time, he danced at a club that features male strippers as a fundraiser.
Austin and other broadcasters said when they heard news of Kraddick’s death, they thought he — or one of his radio competitors — was pulling a prank.
Last month, Austin ran into Kraddick at Klyde Warren Park. He was walking his dogs.
“We just kind of attacked each other and hugged each other,” she said.
Austin told him she’d just gotten married and was moving to Atlanta. They caught up on each other’s lives before saying goodbye, she said.
“He looked at me and said, ‘I want you to really have a good life. I’ll miss ya.’”
Kraddick hosted his morning radio show with Kellie Rasberry and Big Al Mack, Jose “J-Si” Chavez and Jenna Owens. They will be live on the air at 7 a.m. Monday to share their feelings on Kraddick’s death.
Rasberry wrote Sunday on her Facebook page that being Kraddick’s “on-air wife … will always be the biggest honor of my life.” She credited him “for every good thing that has ever happened to me.”
“Every single day, I was sure he was going to fire me. And every single day, he was sure I was going to quit,” she wrote. “But I could never leave Kidd, and he knew that. While we pushed each other’s buttons, we truly shared an unconditional love.”
‘Rough few hours’
On Kiss on Sunday, deejay Billy the Kidd invited listeners to call in and share memories.
“It’s been a rough few hours,” he told listeners. “And there’s going to be a lot of rough hours ahead, days and weeks as things kind of sink in.”
One woman who called said she’d been listening to Kraddick for a decade. “I’m at a huge loss for words,” she said. “It’s one of the things where he always brightened my morning. Because who’s ever happy about being up at 7 o’clock in the morning? He always made me happy.”
Billy said Kraddick would have liked the comment. “He appreciated that so much — that you made him a part of your day. It was like his job, his passion was to make you laugh, to do anything he could to make your day a little bit better.”
“I’ll always admire that about him.”

Source : http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/park-cities/headlines/20130728-david-kidd-kraddick-died-from-cardiac-disease-la.-coroner-says.ece