Longtime talk show host, former WHIO anchor Phil Donahue dies at 88

By WHIO Staff

August 19, 2024 at 1:21 pm EDT

By WHIO Staff

August 19, 2024 at 1:21 pm EDT

DAYTON — Longtime talk show host and former WHIO anchor Phil Donahue has died. He was 88 years old.

Donahue passed away on Sunday evening following a long illness, TMZ reported.

>> Photos: Phil Donahue through the years

Donahue’s family said in a statement that he passed away “peacefully” at home surrounded by family, TODAY reported.

Donahue was the host of the ‘Phil Donahue Show’ that became nationally syndicated in 1970.

He hosted “Conversation Piece,” an afternoon call-in talk show, from 1963 to 1967 on WHIO Radio, according to a previous News Center 7 report.

>> RELATED COVERAGE: Former WHIO anchor to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

Donahue left WHIO in 1967. The ‘Phil Donahue Show’ ended in 1996.

He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May of this year.

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Phil Donahue — Through the years Each day some 200 women are seated on metal chairs in the Donahue studio to see and participate in the show. There is a live telephone on the set and the aisles are wide so Phil can go into the audience to field impromptu questions—as he is doing here. Only the questions called in by telephone are pre-screened by an off-stage producer. Donahue firmly declares: “I’m for the women’s movement. I’m fascinated by it. I think it is good for us, and I don’t think it’s going to go away.” (Bettmann/Bettmann Archive)

Phil Donahue — Through the years Arriving in his cinderblock studio at WGN-TV Phil Donahue bones up for his morning program with a book by the author who will be on his show, Nancy Chodorow, who wrote “the Reproduction of Mothering—Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender.” The bronze cowboy figure on the desk was a gift from an Oklahoma admirer of the award-winning broadcast journalist. Donahue stays dressed in jeans and plaid work shirt until almost show time. (Bettmann/Bettmann Archive)

Phil Donahue — Through the years American talk show host Phil Donahue, wearing a beige three-piece suit with a white shirt and a diagonally striped brown tie, in the 6th Daytime Emmy Awards press room, at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, 17th May 1979. 'The Phil Donahue Show' won the 'Outstanding Host or Hostess in a Talk, Service or Variety Series', 'Outstanding Individual Direction for a Variety Program' and 'Outstanding Talk, Service or Variety Series' awards at the ceremony. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Phil Donahue — Through the years WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 3: U.S. President Joe Biden presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Daytime television pioneer Phil Donahue during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on May 3, 2024 in Washington, DC. President Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor, to 19 individuals including political leaders, civil rights icons and other influential cultural icons. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images) (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

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