A free memorial service open to the public will be held Saturday at Roxbury Community College for the late Lovell Dyett, a pioneering radio personality who hosted a radio show for nearly 40 years before his death last year. He was 77 years old.
His career at WBZ began on Dec. 3, 1971, as host of “The Lovell Dyett Program,” which was promoted as a “telephone-talk show that dealt with all issues affecting the black community,” according to WBZ.
Born in Florida in 1934, Dyett grew up in a household with his father, an Episcopal minister and history professor, and his mother, a college administrator. A graduate of Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla., Dyett worked in the late 1960s to elect Edward Brooke to the U.S. Senate. Brooke was the first African American senator to be popularly elected. Dyett also worked as an organizer in the campaign to elect Tom Atkins, Boston’s first black city councilor.
Outside of work, Dyett was involved with the Boston chapter of the Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Roxbury YMCA and the Congressional Black Caucus.
The memorial service will be held this Saturday at RCC’s Media Arts Center between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. A reception will be held between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. at the Student Center Café.
