WRNO Radio Founder Joseph Costello III Dies
Submitted By N.O.V.A.
Times Picayune 	04-26-1997


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Joseph Mark Costello III, the founder of WRNO-FM in New Orleans and owner of KXOR-
FM in Thibodaux, died Wednesday of complications from diabetes at Ochsner
Foundation Hospital. He was 56.

Mr. Costello, a lifelong New Orleans resident, graduated from Martin Berhman High
School and Loyola University. He also attended Harvard Business School.

His first job after college was at a small radio station in DeRidder, where he
became chief announcer. It was, Mr. Costello later said, the only time that he
worked for a company he didn't own.

In 1967, the son of Algiers grocery-store owners mortgaged his parents' rental
property to help raise $25,000 to build WRNO, a pioneer FM stereo rock-music
outlet that became one of the city's most listened-to and profitable radio
stations.

It was a risk, but, Mr. Costello said in a 1982 interview, he never was worried.

"I didn't know it would be successful," he said, "but I knew I could always make
money at something. It's easy. You just don't spend more money than you make."

When he couldn't hire a disc jockey, he acted as the station's announcer, too.
Even long after Mr. Costello became a millionaire with five homes and a 50-foot
yacht, his voice could be heard delivering the station's slogan, "We're the rock
of New Orleans."

In 1981, the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters named him broadcaster of the
year. In 1994, he was inducted into the New Orleans Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

Starting with midnight movies at the Abalon in Algiers, the theater of his
childhood, Mr. Costello also built a chain of 16 movie theaters in the New Orleans
area.

In 1982, he began WRNO Worldwide, the first American commercial shortwave radio
station. Its 3 million watts of power let the station cover North and South
America and - by beaming programming over the North Pole - Africa, Europe and the
Middle East.

Mr. Costello was a charter member of the Greater New Orleans Broadcasters
Association, a past president of the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters and a
former adviser to a U.S. House communications subcommittee.

He was a member of the Easter Seal Society board of directors, the Development
Council of the Mary Joseph Residence for the Elderly, the Visiting Committee of
the Loyola department of communications, the Committee on International
Broadcasting for the National Association of Broadcasters and the Greater New
Orleans Tourism and Marketing Committee.

Mr. Costello was a member of the National Radio Broadcasters Association, the
Society of Broadcast Engineers, the National Association of Broadcasters, the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, ABC Radio Network Advisory
Board, the Alpha Epsilon Rho Broadcast Fraternity, the American Radio Relay League
and the Military Affiliate Radio System.

He also was a member of the Knights of Columbus, the International Shrine of St.
Jude, the Diamondhead Yacht and Country Club, and the Variety Club board of
directors.

Survivors include his mother, Josephine Cortese Costello, and three brothers,
Martin Joseph, Donald Mario and Michael Angelo Costello.

A Mass will be said today at noon at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 1139
Dryades St. Visitation will begin at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery.
Lamana-Panno-Fallo Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.