Former KOWL/KRLT on-air personality dies
By Robert D. Dávila, Sacramento Bee
Dean Adraktas, a broadcast journalist who was a news reporter at KFBK until his voice on the air was silenced by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, died Aug. 28, his wife said. He was 49.
Dean Adraktas
With a booming voice, outgoing personality and enthusiasm for covering breaking stories, Mr. Adraktas advanced steadily in radio news. He began working at KVNA in Flagstaff, Ariz., and KFYI in Phoenix after earning a broadcast communications degree from Arizona State University in 1987. He moved to South Lake Tahoe in 1992 and was a reporter, talk show host and news director for KOWL/KRLT.
His thorough reporting, meticulous writing and fun sense of humor impressed colleagues at KQMS radio in Redding, where he was a news director and morning news anchor from 1995 to 1998. He moved to Sacramento to work at KFBK and covered a variety of stories as a morning reporter, including social issues and politics.
“He was very professional but very gregarious,” KFBK news anchor Kitty O’Neal said. “He took his work very seriously, but he interacted with people very easily. He had a great sense of humor and was very vital.”