''He started sports talk in this market at night,'' said ESPN sportscaster Hank Goldberg, a one-time WQAM colleague.

``He had a memorable, deep baritone -- a little bit raspy, but full of energy even at his age. He didn't lose that.''

Born Milton Harold Tokson, he took the name of his hometown, Malden, Mass., for his on-air persona, said lifelong friend Manny Steinhart, of Delray Beach.

He said that Malden, of Davie, ``was a smoker, and he hasn't been well for a couple of years. It finally caught up with him.''

After he broke a hip last month, doctors found a mass in his lungs.

Long divorced, with no children or living siblings, Malden died in hospice care on May 1.

WQAM talk host Neil Rogers called Malden ``one of the finest people I have ever worked with in this business. He was all class and nobody ever had a bad word to say about him. I will miss him a lot. He was always great to me.''

Malden began his radio career after serving on a U.S. Navy supply ship during World War II, playing jazz, blues and early rock 'n' roll.

'Smack in the middle of the rock 'n' roll revolution in 1955, a frisky, young Boston rock jock sent President Eisenhower a letter and several hit records,'' Miami Herald guest columnist Ike Seamans wrote in 2003.

Calling it ''the music of young America,'' Malden hoped the music would make the president ' `look alive and dig the jive.' ''

Malden came to South Florida in 1959 ``and covered the whole [Cuban influx] for [WGBS] when the people started to come here. . . . It was a 50,000-watt station that reached Cuba.''

He went on to be the station's program director.

Goldberg said Malden gave him his start in sports reporting.

''He was the first guy who put me on the air down here,'' Goldberg said.

After a stint as communications director for the now-defunct Biscayne Kennel Club -- a dog-racing operation -- Malden joined WQAM in 1996 and for the past decade was doing afternoon sports newscasts.

Steinhart said he was ''let go'' by WQAM this year.

''He was probably the most skilled writer we ever had, and he brought a level of professionalism and honor -- being right and doing it right,'' said Josh Darrow, WQAM's program director. He wouldn't discuss the circumstances of Malden's departure.

``He was like the wise sage. If there was something on your mind and you really wanted to get a heartfelt opinion, you'd run it by Kenny.''

Friends will gather at noon Friday at Shula's Steak 2 in Miami Lakes to remember Malden.