By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

ANDERSON TWP. - The day that Ted Florko started as a newscaster for WCKY-AM (1530) in 1965, he broke the story that a new stadium would replace Crosley Field.

Riverfront Stadium is gone from Cincinnati's skyline, and Mr. Florko is gone from the city's airwaves. A radio broadcaster for more than 40 years, Mr. Florko also flew WCKY's traffic helicopter from the mid-1960s through the 1990s.

He died Wednesday at Vista Care Hospice in Anderson Township of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was 71.

Theodore W. Florko was born in Newark, N.J., in 1932 and came to Cincinnati in 1962 from Fort Irwin, Calif., to work for WZIP. He had been commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Army Military Police Corps after receiving a degree in communication arts from Seton Hall University in 1954.

He eventually attained the rank of captain and served in the Signal Corps, where he learned to fly airplanes and helicopters. Mr. Florko tested an Army L-20 "Beaver" equipped with insecticide tanks in Korea. He taught other aviators how to use the tanks to combat an encephalitis epidemic.

In Cincinnati, he worked for WGUC, WGRR and WKRC, in addition to WCKY and WZIP.

Over the years, he interviewed such notables as Paul Brown, Harvey Korman, Judy Garland and President Ford.

His 1983 report of the Air Canada fire at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport was broadcast on CBS National News.

Mr. Florko was emcee for the Forest Hills Instrumental Music Association Band Expo for more than 17 years, and he narrated the Nativity story at Comboni Missions' annual Christmas display in Anderson Township for more than 10 years.

Mr. Florko was president of the pastoral council at St. John Fisher Church and a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus.

He was proud of having started a Catholic radio station in Cincinnati in 2000. He oversaw the purchase of WNOP-AM-740 by Sacred Heart Catholic Radio.

His sons asked him last month how he would like to be remembered. He said, "I would like to be remembered as a Christian person who loved people, definitely first loved Jesus and helped many others to do the same. Aside from that, I'd like to be remembered as a very positive person."

Survivors include his wife, Virginia L. Florko; three sons, Gregory of New York, John of Tucson , and Brian of Fort Worth, and a brother, Donald of Palm Harbor, Fla.

Visitation is 2-6 p.m. Sunday at T.P. White & Sons Funeral Home, 2050 Beechmont Ave., Mount Washington. Mass of Christian burial is 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. John Fisher Church in Newtown.

Memorials: Sacred Heart Radio-AM 740, 5440 Moeller Ave., Cincinnati OH 45212 or the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, Southern Ohio Chapter, 105 W. Fourth St., Cincinnati OH 45202.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com