Vince Campagna; KFWB News Anchor

Veteran KFWB radio news anchor Vince Campagna died Saturday following complications from surgery--less than two weeks after his retirement. He was 64.

Campagna, who joined the station when it went to its all-news format in 1969, reported on key events and newsmakers in Southern California and well beyond--from Charles Manson and the Hillside Strangler to Watergate and the Gulf War.

“He was the heart and soul of the news operation,” KFWB Vice President and General Manager Roger Nadel said Saturday. “He has been there right along with us through so many of the events that shaped Southern California. I don’t look at his time with us so much in years as in the events that he helped us all through.

“I think we all lost a friend, whether we knew him as a colleague or as someone we listened to in our living rooms or our cars,” Nadel said.

Campagna spent 45 years in radio news, including 29 years at KFWB. He retired Nov. 27 and was planning to attend a station-sponsored retirement party in his honor Friday night.

Earlier in the week, however, Campagna fell ill and was hospitalized for tests. He underwent surgery Friday night and died a few hours later, Nadel said.

Campagna, who lived in Montrose, is survived by his wife, Jean, and several grown children, Nadel said. Funeral services were pending. The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the American Cancer Society.

In his final memo to KFWB co-workers on the day he retired, Campagna penned a farewell that Nadel said he found particularly haunting and ironic. Campagna’s memo read:

“What more can I say. So many years. There are a lot of names I leave behind. But none that I will forget. None that will not stay with me . . . in my mind, in my heart, in my soul, till the day I die.

“Love and Godspeed, Vince.”