Longtime WKLH-FM morning show host Dave Luczak plans to retire, but not until 2024

Dave Luczak, shown on the air during WKLH's Miracle Marathon fundraiser for Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, told listeners on WKLH-FM (96.5) that he plans to retire at the end of 2024.
Dave Luczak, shown on the air during WKLH's Miracle Marathon fundraiser for Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, told listeners on WKLH-FM (96.5) that he plans to retire at the end of 2024.
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Dave Luczak, who has been co-hosting the morning show on WKLH-FM (96.5) in Milwaukee since before it was WKLH, told listeners Thursday that he's planning to retire at the end of 2024.

"Much like Pat Sajak, who is (retiring after) 40 years as host of 'Wheel of Fortune,' I'm also going to call it a day at the end of next year," Luczak said on "The Morning 'KLH With Dave and Dorene" Thursday.

"After all these years of waking up at 3-something in the morning, it's definitely going to be a change," Luczak said.

You can hear Luczak's low-key "announcement" at about 7 minutes into the clip below.

Luczak, who turned 65 this month, began hosting the morning show on WMGF-FM, then an adult-contemporary station at 96.5 on the FM dial, with Don Michael Girard on Feb. 13, 1984. (Luczak, who was born in Pittsburgh, and Girard had been a morning show team at a station in Rochester, New York, when they were brought to Milwaukee.)

The Milwaukee station switched to its current classic rock format, and to the WKLH call letters, in January 1986.

While WKLH's format hasn't changed much, the lineup for its morning show has — except for Luczak.

Carole Caine, who joined the morning show as a newsperson in 1985, became co-host a year later when Girard left. "Dave & Carole" was one of Milwaukee's most popular, and longest-running, morning radio shows, until Caine's contract was not renewed in 2015. Other local personalities in the show's mix over the years have included comedian Kevin "KB" Brandt and movie critic and celebrity interviewer Gino Salamone. Salomone left in 2021, after he and the station couldn't come to terms on a contract; Brandt has co-hosted a show on WRNW-FM (97.3), also known as The Game, for the past six years.

Dorene Michaels joined the morning show as a news reader the week after Caine left the station; she later was made co-host of the show.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly called Kevin "KB" Brandt Kenny "KB" Brandt.

RELATED: Conservative talk-radio host Jeff Wagner will retire at Milwaukee's WTMJ-AM (620)

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: WKLH-FM (96.5) morning host Dave Luczak plans to retire in 2024