San Diego Publisher, Hotelier Lee Bartell Dead of Cancer at 81

Pioneer San Diego hotelier, broadcaster and publisher Lee Bartell, whose ownings have included radio station KCBQ, Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn and the La Jolla Village Inn, has died of cancer at 81, his family announced.

Bartell died Nov. 6 at UC San Diego Medical Center.

Bartell was born in Russia and raised near Milwaukee. He moved to San Diego in 1956 to run KCBQ, which was purchased by a broadcasting company formed by him and his brothers nine years earlier and which also owned stations in New York, Milwaukee, Boston, Miami, Birmingham, Ala., Phoenix and San Francisco.

Under Bartell’s management, KCBQ became the most listened-to station in San Diego, at times capturing 30% of the radio audience.

By 1960, the family had sold KCBQ and, in 1976, it bought and operated radio station KMJC (Magic 91) in San Diego. It sold that station in 1989.

Bartell founded and was a partner in Bartell Hotels, a family-owned company that is one of the largest independent hotel operators in San Diego with more than 1,500 rooms. Among the hotels are Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn on Shelter Island--site of the popular Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay series--the Ramada Inn and the Days Inn on Hotel Circle, and the La Jolla Village Inn.

From 1961 to 1969, Bartell was president of the publicly traded Bartell Media Corp., which published such magazines as True Story, Photoplay, True Romance, Sport and Pageant.

Bartell is survived by his wife of 57 years, Ina; two sons, David, of Rancho Santa Fe and Michael of La Jolla; a daughter, Rusti of San Diego; two brothers, David of La Costa and Melvin of San Diego; two sisters, Belle Franklin of Los Angeles and Rosa Evans of Milwaukee, and eight grandchildren.