Longtime radio talk show host dies

Saturday, April 8, 2006 | 7:29 a.m.

When a local radio station's longtime format was changed last year from standards to country music, Las Vegas radio talk show host Frank "Frankie Dee" DeMatto was among the more vocal protesters.

"Country music didn't make this town," DeMatto told the Sun in an Oct. 12 story. "If we don't play Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and all those others, the kids today will never know what made this town. We've got to keep those entertainers alive through the music on radio stations."

DeMatto, who from 1979 to 1995 hosted a one-hour celebrity talk show Fridays on KUNV 91.5-FM, died Tuesday at his Las Vegas home. He was 91.

Services will be 1 p.m. today at Davis Funeral Home, 6200 S. Eastern Ave. Viewing will be from 10 a.m. until the start of the services.

On his radio show, "Celebrity Hour," DeMatto interviewed B.B. King, Bob Anderson, Louis Prima, Pat Cooper and others who regularly performed in Las Vegas.

DeMatto started in show business as a 13-year-old tap dancer. At age 17, he was a big band ballroom dance emcee. He teamed up with actor Dennis James to broadcast Jersey City Giants football games and later studied broadcasting at Radio City Music Hall School of Radio Technique.

DeMatto served in the Army during World War II and settled in Old Bridge Township, N.J., after the war. In 1979, he retired from the Middlesex County, N.J., Roads Department and moved his family to Las Vegas.

He was a member of the Grandsons of Italians in America Club.

DeMatto is survived by three children, Bonnie Jones of Las Vegas, Renee Rogari of Henderson and Rick DeMatto of Colorado Springs, Colo., and five grandchildren.

His family said contributions can be made in his memory to St. Jude's Ranch for Children, PO Box 60100, Boulder City, NV 89006-0100.