Ed Wallace, Fort Worth car columnist and radio host, dies at 72
Ed Wallace, who regaled radio listeners, TV viewers and newspaper readers with stories and advice about cars, died Sunday at his Fort Worth home.
He was 72.
“Ed was the most intelligent man I ever knew,” said his wife, Judi Smith. “There was a challenge of lifting me up to be a better person.”
Smith described her husband as a “voracious reader” who was curious about everything.
Wallace wrote almost 1,000 columns for the Star-Telegram about the auto industry and on topics such as the Middle East. He wrote his final column for the Star-Telegram on Feb. 12, 2021.
He also hosted a five-hour radio show on KLIF every Saturday called “Wheels with Ed Wallace,” and he was the car and truck critic for the Fox 4 morning show, “Good Day” until he retired in 2022.
Wallace was born in Riverside, California, on May 4, 1953.
Smith said Wallace was a “military brat” whose father was an Air Force pilot.
His parents wanted to retire in Fort Worth, she said.
Wallace graduated from Arlington Heights High School but never went to college.
“He was too smart for college,” Smith said.
Smith said her husband sold cars, had a stint on the “Dating Game” and played in a rock band called Santa Fe before his journalism career.
Smith said her husband wanted to impart his knowledge to others.
Smith said she and Wallace first met when she needed a new car and went to Vandergriff Acura where he worked in 1993. They went to dinner, but she lived in east Dallas and Wallace was in west Fort Worth, she said.
Then when Smith was working at Fox 4, she needed a date to a company Christmas party. She asked Wallace. In January 1999, she said, “Why don’t we get married.” Wallace replied, “When?”
They married six months later, Smith said.
Wallace was known for his generosity, and didn’t hesitate to give someone a $1,000 check if they needed the money.
Wallace also took time during his weekly radio shows to highlight worthy causes.
Mike Walker, who knew Wallace from high school, said that years later, Wallace interviewed his two sons for their Eagle Scout projects.
Walker said his sons organized book drives for a program called United Through Reading which is part of the USO. Active duty soldiers can record themselves reading bedtime stories and other children’s books.
The videos of the soldiers reading, and the books were sent to their sons, daughters, younger siblings along with nieces and nephews.
Wallace also donated to the book drive, Walker said.
Walker described how Wallace’s listeners also donated. A family was driving from Oklahoma to Austin when they heard about the book drives while listening to Wallace on the radio. They stopped at the book store where the book drive was taking place and donated, Walker said.
“Ed was just a good guy all around,” Walker said.
“Ed was a kind and generous man, but he also wanted to make people think,” Smith said. “He did a tremendous amount of research about what he wrote. He wanted to see both sides of the story.”
Wallace is a recipient of the Gerald R. Loeb Award for business journalism, bestowed by the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.
This story was originally published December 31, 2025 at 5:00 AM.