Dick Lamb

Dick Lamb died peacefully at his home on the morning of Tuesday, 10 November 2026, following a lengthy illness, his spokesperson Chris Wilson said. He was 88. The nature of the illness was not specified, but the family asked that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to an Alzheimer's disease or blood cancer charity of the donor's choice.

His death was reported by WTKR, WAVY, 13NewsNow and the trade publication RadioInsight. Funeral and memorial arrangements had not been announced at the time of reporting.

Few details of Dick Lamb's childhood and family background have been published. He was 88 when he died in November 2026, which places his birth in about 1938. According to accounts of his career, he first broke into radio in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1955, while he was still a student.

Lamb arrived in the Norfolk, Virginia, market as a Top 40 disc jockey on 1310 WGH in the 1960s. In the 1970s he moved into local television as well, hosting a midmorning variety programme on WTKR called "The Dick Lamb Show", and he was also a television personality on WAVY.

In 1978 he and his business partner Gene Loving launched the adult contemporary FM station 101.3 2WD, WWDE, as ownership partners, with Lamb hosting the morning show, the "Breakfast Bunch", and serving as director of operations. The station was sold to Entercom in 1998, but he kept the morning show until January 2005, a run of more than 25 years.

When Max Media acquired its Norfolk cluster that year, Lamb, a minority partner in the company, sat out a six month non-compete clause and debuted "Dick Lamb and the Morning Wave" on 92.9 The Wave, WVBW, in July 2005. He announced his retirement from mornings on a Facebook Live in January 2019, and his final morning show aired on 11 January 2019. He then became programme director and midday host on Famous 1310 WGH and remained with Max Media in a management role.

Lamb kept his family life largely out of the spotlight, and published reports have said little about his relatives. On air he was known for good humour; announcing his retirement in 2019 he joked about no longer having to wake up at 4 a.m. and told colleagues, "You talk about a guy being blessed." Asked about stepping back, he said he still loved the job.

Colleagues described Lamb as a force in Hampton Roads broadcasting both on the air and behind the scenes, a personality and station owner who helped shape careers, influenced programming and entertained generations of listeners. As co-founder of 2WD he helped bring adult contemporary FM radio to the region, and his more than four decades of morning shows made him one of the best known voices in the market. His family said his legacy lives on through the broadcasters he mentored and the listeners whose lives he touched.