Detroit sports personality Jamie Samuelsen says he’s battling colon cancer

DETROIT – Longtime Detroit sports writer and radio host Jamie Samuelsen revealed on Monday that he’s been fighting colon cancer.

Samuelsen announced the news on his radio show, the “Jamie & Stoney Show,” on 97.1 The Ticket. He said he was first diagnosed in 2019, but had kept the news private.

“Each morning since my diagnosis, I got up, turned on the radio mic and got to talk sports,” Samuelsen said. “I needed the escape from cancer, just like so many of our listeners who face hardships, grief and illness, too -- they turned to us in the morning for some levity in this crazy world. So I wanted to continue to have fun and not let cancer get in the way of doing what I loved.

Connecting with listeners, laughing, teasing Stoney, all of it — it helped me be normal, while continuing to fight this disease.”

Samuelsen said, despite his ongoing battle, he will continue working -- and continue fighting.

“It’s a battle. It goes on,” he said. “I don’t want to make it sound like this is any sort of goodbye, because it’s not.” Samuelsen also urged anyone over the age of 50 to get a colonoscopy.

Samuelsen has been a Detroit sports media staple since 1994, when he first joined WDFN.