Brad passed away suddenly Friday, August 26 while enjoying a week along the North Shore of Minnesota - one of his favorite spots. Follows is a bio Brad worked on shorly before his untimely death. He will be missed by all.

After more than thirty-five years in broadcast media, radio host and author Brad Walton found a new calling: helping people to develop internal resources to survive and flourish in difficult times. Realizing that the stories he’d amplified as a radio host had changed him forever, Brad immediately focused on conversation as a powerful tool for people passionate about sharing their stories of healing and growth. By connecting authors and everyday storytellers with listeners hungry for the universal lessons found of the human experience, Brad gives storytellers what they need: a broad and responsive audience.

Brad has lived his whole life with story. After graduating with a degree in social work and minor in psychology, he began a career in radio at a time when even the largest networks depended on strong local ties. Brad has interviewed locally and nationally known personalities including then Vice Presidents Walter Mondale and George H.W. Bush, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Bob Hope, First Lady Rosalyn Carter, Johnny Cash, B.J. Thomas, and Kathryn Crosby. Brad also earned a reputation behind the scenes as a hardworking producer and a promoter with his eye on the ever-changing needs of the community. His distinctive voice, skill, and style as an interviewer made him a popular figure in Minnesota broadcasting, culminating in twelve years as the host of the #1-ranked Brad Walton Show on WCCO/CBS Radio.

In 1999, after undergoing open-heart surgery, Brad began a deeper inquiry into the power of story—a pursuit that would change his life. As producer and marketing head of ColorSong™ Productions, Brad had already developed two extended audio series dealing with grief and loss and midlife transition, each with the goal of engaging head and heart in the healing process. Now, with the head-heart connection in mind, he explored in more depth the heart’s intrinsic connection to the nature of love and the healing of our physical and spiritual pain in his book, How Does the Heart Know Love?. Brad shared his personal story in prose and poetry speaking to the universal conversation of love and the human heart. The end of his award-winning show gave him the opportunity to act as a media and communications consultant for a wide variety of communication platforms, venues, and constituents, especially authors.

Today, as the owner of Brad’s Voice Works, he continues in his commitment to finding and promoting good stories. Working with noted carol scholar, Ronald M. Clancy, Brad voiced the history of more than twenty-five beloved Christmas carols for the American Christmas Classics collection. He established Life Conversations as a gathering place to honor the life stories of everyday people and, as he says, “to renew the significance of conversation in our listening and our speaking and to rediscover and build a sense of community itself.” His experiences as an interviewer and a writer led him to found Author Conversations and Author Radio, two sites dedicated to building relationships between authors and readers through warm, personal conversations.

Through the gift of shared story, Brad encourages people to hear and participate in deeper conversations. His call to empower people through the telling of their own stories shapes his new work as a paradigm thinker, promoting a rebirth of stewardship, responsibility, and legacy-building. He asks, “How do we empower each other with integrity and compassion, both in ourselves and as a community?” The answer he finds, as it has been throughout human history, is story. He has rededicated his life to encouraging others to thrive through its nourishing power.

Brad is an outstanding speaker with a variety of meaningful topics and stories to share for your event or publicity project. His compassionate voice and voice work communicates with clarity and inspiration. Brad’s years of experience in communications and with a numerous types of media have given him a wide range of contacts and sensitivities making him a valuable resource as a media consultant.

PRAISE FOR: How Does the Heart Know Love?

“It leaves the reader with a knowing that we can, and do have the strength to heal, that we can survive tragedy and choose to love again and again... fearlessly!” — Dr. Janis Amatuzio, MD - Midwest Forensic Pathology, Author of Forever Ours

PERSONAL QUOTE:

“The language of love is both universal and essential to our individual and our collective health as individuals and to our very survival as a human community.”

PERSONAL CAREER QUOTE:

“It was a continual learning process. The studio became a classroom with every program I was privileged to host during my broadcast years. The art of conversation is essential to reclaiming and renewing our sense of relationship with both ourselves and each other to develop the healthy compassionate community essential to our healing and our survival.”