LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Longtime Kentucky journalist and political TV host Al Smith has died. He was 94.
Smith was the host of KET’s “Comment on Kentucky” when the show began in 1974 and remained host until 2007. Smith died at his Florida home on Friday after declining health in recent weeks, The Courier Journal reported.
Current “Comment” host Bill Bryant announced Smith’s passing on the show Friday night.
“This is certainly a loss for Kentucky journalism,” Bryant said. “He was a colleague and mentor for all of us.”
Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said Smith set “the gold standard of community journalism in the Bluegrass.”
“On radio, on television and in print, he covered everyone from Kentucky’s most famous to those who wouldn’t be known outside their small town,″ said McConnell, the U.S. Senate minority leader. “In short, Al told our story.”
Smith served as co-chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan from 1979 to 1982.
He was a charter member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame and helped establish the Rural Journalism Institute at the University of Kentucky. The institute bestows an annual Al Smith Award.
The family plans to hold a memorial service at a later date.
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