Paul Compton; DJ Known for Sinatra Show

Paul Compton, a major Southern California radio disc jockey for 40 years who was best known for his long-running show, “Sinatra, Compton and Strings,” has died. He was 70.

Compton died Wednesday at his home in Cambria, Calif., said his friend, former Times radio critic Don Page.

He was known for years as “Frank Sinatra’s favorite disc jockey.” Compton’s show, heard on KHJ and the RKO network in the 1960s and reprised and syndicated in 1980, incorporated voice tracks made by Sinatra with the singer’s records, giving the illusion that Sinatra was co-hosting the show.

Compton said Sinatra was simply “the greatest singer that ever lived.”

“To me,” he once told The Times, “there’s never been another like him.” Compton’s audience felt the same way about him.

“They don’t make disc jockeys like Paul Compton anymore--bread-and-butter musicologists who not only program their own shows but flesh out the music with their own insights and observations,” Times radio writer James Brown said in 1980. “His low, rumbling, expressive voice could set a mood all by itself--a nighttime mood where the pace was slow and easy and the music was served like good champagne.”

As moody musical programs faded into talk shows and rigid formats, Compton’s popularity waned. Fired unceremoniously by KFI, which replaced him with Dick Whittington in 1975, Compton disappeared from the airwaves. He spent a few years programming shows for airlines, syndicated his old show with Page in 1980 and then retired in 1982.

Born Paul Compton Abbott in Ontario, the entertainer grew up in Long Beach and majored in journalism at Los Angeles City College and San Diego State. He started working for radio stations in his youth, and also enjoyed a brief career as a club jazz singer.

Over the years, he spun records and musical knowledge for KMPC, KRLA and KGIL as well as KHJ and KFI.

Compton is survived by his wife, Nece, and daughter, Debby.