West Palm Radio Pro Andy Preston Dies

• The South Florida radio community is stunned and saddened by the news of the death of Andy Preston after a Tuesday night car accident. Preston, who was 63, notably spent three decades at iHeartMedia Classic Rock WKGR (98.7 The Gater)/West Palm Beach as MD and afternoon personality. Making this bad news even worse, if that’s even possible, Preston was one of four people who were downsized from the cluster on Tuesday due to corporate restructuring.

As reported by the Palm Beach Post, Preston was sitting in a parked 2009 Mercury Mountaineer shortly after 9pm Tuesday outside the Pelican Cafe in Lake Park. According to a sheriff’s office report, Preston’s longtime partner Amy Woods, 51, went to get into the front passenger seat of the car and Preston accelerated, causing Woods to fall and sustain a minor injury to her knee.

The SUV continued through the parking lot and over several parking stops and sideswiping a parked car before crashing into a tree. When the vehicle came to a stop, Preston opened the door and fell out, hitting his head on the asphalt. He was transported to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he died Wednesday night. The sheriff’s office said both Preston and Woods were impaired at the time of the crash.

Woods, when reached by phone by the Post, declined to speak about the wreck but described Preston, her boyfriend of 11 years, as “the love of my life.” She added, “He was a gentle soul, but at the same time he was the life of the party. Everyone loved him, but no one loved him more than I did.”