From actor to disc jockey.

Don Pietro got his start in acting at age 13, and later appeared in 1950s movies like Follow The Sun and An Affair To Remember (opposite Cary  Grant). It was great training for an award-winning radio career that began in 1960 at KROG Sonoma, California.

It was at KROG that Pietro utilized the first of many character voices that would serve him well during his years in radio. Calling himself The Purple Pizza Eater, with his sidekick Bruno J. Grunion, Pietro gained huge ratings as the early evening jock at KRIZ in 1963. He moved to KXOK St. Louis in 1964 where as Jimmy Rabbitt he earned some of the highest ratings ever seen in the Gateway City.

Pietro returned to KRIZ in 1969 for the 3-7 shift, a gig that landed him Billboard's coveted Major Market Performer of the Year award. The Los Angeles native retired from live radio in 1971 to teach film production and voiceovers in Hollywood, while also voicing numerous commercials himself.

Named to the St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame in 2001, the Los Angeles native died four years earlier of complications from emphysema. Don Pietromonaco was 61.

Enjoy Don Pietro on KRIZ (UNSCOPED) here.

Enjoy Don Pietro on KRIZ (SCOPED) here.
 

(The Joe Fazio Collection)

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