MIAMI HEIGHTS - Dave Lee Bunce, a former WKRC-AM (550) midday personality known for his impersonations, died Sunday at Mercy Hospital Mount Airy. He had a heart attack a couple of years ago. The Miami Heights resident was 64.

Known as Dave Lee on the radio, Mr. Bunce starred at WKRC during the 1970s and 1980s. His listeners delighted in his impersonations of Jimmy Stewart, Walter Cronkite, Truman Capote, Elvis Presley, Richard Nixon, Telly Savalas, Jimmy Carter and John, Robert and Ted Kennedy. He also did a talking Irish setter and a myna bird.

"He was probably one of the most talented impressionists that I've ever heard," said Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes, who worked with Mr. Bunce at WKRC. "He was an entertainer. He wasn't a disc jockey. Dave could reach out and communicate. He always loved his fans and the people really loved him. They responded to this guy."

In 1986, Mr. Bunce fooled former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle by calling him and pretending to be former Bengals head coach Forrest Gregg. As Gregg, he complained to the commissioner about the length of a "Monday Night Football" game. "Good Morning America" flew him to New York to talk about that little prank on TV and Gregg got a good laugh out of it.

A native Cincinnatian, Mr. Bunce grew up in Sayler Park practicing his DJ voice and playing drums on a tape recorder. He told The Enquirer in 1976 that he was a shy boy who wanted to be somebody else.

That's why radio was so attractive to him. As a sophomore at Western Hills High School, he operated a 5-watt AM station from his basement with less than $100 worth of equipment and no license, he said. After graduation in 1961, he took a correspondence course in electronics for a year and became an electronics technician at Avco Corp. in Evendale.

That didn't last long. He enrolled at the UC College-Conservatory of Music, where he maintained a 4.0 grade-point average. During college, he worked for WCNW, WAEF and WNOP radio stations. His first full-time job after graduation was at WJBI. Two years later, he went to WUBE.

Mr. Bunce was a top-rated morning DJ at country station KENR in Houston for two years before returning to Cincinnati. After he lost his contract at WKRC in 1991, he became a salesman at Radio Shack in Delhi Township.

"He was part of a wonderful time in broadcasting in this town," Rhodes said. "Part of the reason it was so good was because of the stuff that he did. He put everything he had into" it.