George Nicholaw, longtime general manager at news radio station KNX-AM (1070), has died. He was 86.

Nicholaw died on Saturday after being hospitalized for an infection, according to news reports.

Nicholaw started out working on the television side of CBS in 1955. He went to work at KNX as the station switched to an all-news format in 1968. Nicholaw told the Business Journal in 1997 that around-the-clock radio news was a novel and exciting idea at the time.

“The fact that you could start a radio news format that was live, 24 hours a day, was very, very exciting to me,” he said.

He ran the station, which is owned by CBS Radio, until his retirement in 2003.

Nicholaw was known by listeners for his on-air editorials. He was also an avid tennis player.