Ernie Myers, a San Diego media star whose two great passions in life were radio and horse racing, died Tuesday morning at his home in La Mesa from the effects of Parkinson's disease. He was 86.
Myers was once the top radio DJ in San Diego and enjoyed a career that spanned nearly four decades. Longtime friend Onyx Novelle Jones, who was in Myers' company when he died, said he had been fighting Parkinson's for the past four years and had just recently entered into a hospice care arrangement.
The affable and smooth-toned Myers was a DJ from the 1950s through the 1980s. He started out playing big band music, then transitioned to rock & roll before moving to talk radio and becoming the leading radio personality in San Diego for many years. In the summer, he would broadcast from the backstretch at Del Mar and feature many of racing's big stars and regulars on his programs.
Myers also called races, a job he said was the most difficult in sports for an announcer. He called at Caliente in Tijuana, on the California fair circuit and in New Mexico. He also was a television host for the satellite feed at Del Mar.
Service arrangements are pending.
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