Joe McDonnell, a well-known Los Angeles sports radio personality, died Friday. He was 58.
A cause of death has not been reported for McDonnell, who went by the nicknames Big Joe and Big Nasty throughout his career in
Los Angeles sports-talk radio, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“Although Joe was opinionated and brutally honest in his coverage, I always felt he was knowledgeable and fair,” Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said in a statement. “He loved covering sports in our beloved city, and had a presence at every major sporting event. As both a player and executive, I enjoyed working with Joe since I arrived in town in 1981. I will miss seeing him at our games, practices, and press conferences.”
McDonnell began his radio career at KGIL when he was 19, according to the Times. He co-hosted a radio talk show with Long Beach Press-Telegram sports columnist Doug Krikorian.
Krikorian called McDonnell “loud, opinionated, obnoxious, irreverent, outrageous, unpredictable, knowledgeable, brash and, most of all, entertaining,” according to the Times.
McDonnell was a freelancer for United Press International and worked for stations including KFI, KMPC, KMAX, KWNK, KABC, KIIS/AM/KXTA, KFWB, KABC, KSPN, KLAC, and
KNX, The Hollywood Reporter said.
McDonnell weighed more than 700 pounds before undergoing gastric-bypass surgery in 2004, The Reporter noted.
Last month McDonnell posted about the death of other area personalities on Twitter.
Twitter users remembered McDonnell.
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