Death cause of Jamie Samuelsen, a longtime Detroit radio personality was reveled by him before he died on Saturday, August 1, at the age of 48.
Jamie Samuelsen was a radio personality who has been a fixture in the world of Detroit sports for above 20 years, according to radio station 97.1 The Ticket.
The Detroit News columnist Bob Wojnowski reported Samuelsen’s death in a tweet Saturday on behalf of the family. Samuelsen was “surrounded by his wonderful family, and he went peacefully,” Wojnowski tweeted.
He is survived by his wife, Christy McDonald, and his three children.
Death cause of Jamie Samuelsen published on the air
Samuelsen revealed on the air last Monday, for the first time, that he had been battling colon cancer for the past 19 months. He noted that his diagnosis following an infection recently forced him to take some days off.
He had explained his condition and stated: “Each morning since my diagnosis, I got up, turned on the radio mic, and got to talk sports. I needed the escape from cancer, just like so many of our listeners who face hardships, grief, and illness, too — they turned to us in the morning for some levity in this crazy world. So I wanted to continue to have fun and not let cancer get in the way of doing what I loved.”
Just 5 days after we lost Jamie Samuelsen, he passed away Saturday night at his home, surrounded his wife, Christy McDonald, an anchor and reporter for Detroit PBS, and their three children, Caroline, 16, Josh, 14, and Catherine, 11.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Jamie Samuelsen and his family.
Jamie Samuelsen career life
He co-hosted the “Jamie and Stoney Show” with Mike Stone on 97.1 FM Ticket at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday.
Samuelsen spent more than a quarter-century in Detroit’s sports-media scene, and it was a career that spanned all the mediums — radio, television, and print.
“I was diagnosed with cancer January of ’19, like so many men and women around here. Doesn’t make us unique or different or special, but it is certainly a massive gut punch for where you think your life is headed,” Samuelsen, who has been in and out of the hospital the last few weeks, said on the air Monday. “It throws you for a loop, it makes you reassess everything, it makes you hug your kids a little bit tighter, your family and friends a little bit tighter. It’s a battle, and the battle goes on.”
Samuelsen made his debut on Detroit sports radio at WDFN 1130 in 1994 before becoming a show host the following year. Samuelsen later moved to 97.1 The Ticket where he was a co-host of an evening show with Wojnowski before eventually partnering up on a morning show with Stone. He has been on the air with Stone since 2016. He was also a contributor to the Detroit Free Press and Channel 2’s SportsWorks show.
Samuelsen was a native of Lafayette, California, outside of San Francisco and a graduate of Northwestern University.
Khang Huynh, a producer at 97.1, tweeted, “The collective IQ at 97.1 just dropped by about a million.”
