Betty Sanders, longtime host at WBBM Newsradio with husband Bob, dies at 93

Betty Sanders, who spent a decade as a midday host on WBBM Newsradio, died last week.

The station reported that Sanders died Friday, Feb. 20. She was 93.

WBBM Newsradio reported Sanders was born Oct. 20, 1932, in St. Louis to Joseph and Elizabeth Kwitzky. She briefly worked as a model, and then met broadcaster Bob Sanders, whom she married in 1954, the station reported.

Bob Sanders' radio career took him from St. Louis, Kansas City, Wichita, and finally Chicago, the station reported. Bob Sanders joined WBBM-AM in 1956, when the station was still playing music. WBBM went all-news in 1968.

In 1972, Betty Sanders joined her husband on the air. At the time, WBBM Newsradio was owned by CBS and headquartered on the second floor of the old CBS Chicago broadcast center at 630 N. McClurg Ct., upstairs from WBBM-TV, Channel 2.

As noted in contemporary advertising, the Sanderses were billed as "the couple who give the news a completely new dimension." WBBM Newsradio's Rachel Pierson reported the pair was known for a lighter alternative to the daily news headlines, "blending celebrity interviews, playful banter, ad-libbed commercials and hourly quiz questions."

The couple even lent their name to a book of quizzes on an almanac's worth of subjects.

Bob and Betty Sanders' midday show remained on the air until November 1982. Afterward, they worked as goodwill ambassadors for the Salvation Army and then spent a couple of years in New York City at WMCA, WBBM Newsradio reported. Their last stop before retiring was WISN radio in Milwaukee.

The Sanderses retired in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, near Lake Geneva, where Bob Sanders suffered a stroke in 1993, WBBM Newsradio reported. Betty served as Bob's caregiver for 20 years until he died in October 2013.

Betty Sanders then moved to Schaumburg, Illinois, and was active into her 80s, Pierson reported.