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Donnie McKethan, one of the last of a small fraternity of popular radio evangelists for the music of Frank Sinatra and his fellow mid-century creators of the American Songbook, died June 19 at his home in Washington. He was 86.

Mr. McKethan — who died after a heart attack, according to his wife, Geraldine — spent more than two decades on the air at WPFW (89.3 FM), spinning the standards and telling stories from the Songbook, the canon of familiar tunes that developed from Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, film musicals, and jazz and blues.

Even as jazz became a rarity on the radio over the past few decades, prominent radio voices such as Sid Mark in Philadelphia, Jonathan Schwartz in New York and Ted Grossman in Miami joined Mr. McKethan in keeping alive the torch songs, big band numbers, ballads and anthems of Sinatra, Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams and other stars from the middle decades of the 20th century.

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Blessed with an authoritative and mellifluous voice that was as gentle and elegant as many of the songs he featured, Mr. McKethan focused as much on the writers of the standards as on their performers. On his show, he often traced the origins of a song, delivering the backstories of how Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter or Lorenz Hart came to write a particular verse.

Unlike most of his fellow Sinatra show hosts on stations around the country, Mr. McKethan always was a volunteer; he was never paid by listener-supported WPFW, although his show elicited unusually high donations.

Katea Stitt, the station’s program director, called Mr. McKethan “a hopeless romantic” and “an excellent musicologist” and said “all of that went into his program.”

Although his show was broadcast for just two hours a week, on Sunday afternoons, Mr. McKethan’s preparation extended far beyond his airtime. “He spent all of Thursday and part of Friday selecting his music,” his wife said. “When he liked a piece of music, he studied it, looking up everyone who played on it.”

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Mr. McKethan once told the Georgetown Dish that he planned his shows by starting with one song and finding others that bore a relationship, musically or lyrically. Often, he’d play several versions of a tune in succession to show listeners how different singers interpreted the same notes in strikingly singular ways.

Mr. McKethan’s show continued, off the air, all week long at home in the District, as he played mostly “Francis Albert Sinatra,” as he called the singer, all day, on CDs and on satellite radio, his wife said.

Donnie Albert Wendell McKethan was born in Washington on Jan. 26, 1937. His father worked for the federal government, and his mother was a schoolteacher, his son said. Mr. McKethan graduated in 1954 from Dunbar High School.

He served in the Air Force before attending the University of California at Los Angeles, from which he graduated in 1965. He worked at the juvenile hall in Los Angeles as a counselor and then moved to IBM, where he was a recruiter in the personnel department in Los Angeles and later in New York.

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In 1984, he and his wife settled in the District. Mr. McKethan became a human resources manager at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Arlington, Va., and then for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in Washington.

Soon after the move to the District, he took courses at a broadcasting school and got a side gig as a DJ at a small station in Silver Spring, Md. When that station closed, he sent a sample tape to the director of WPFW, which featured jazz and political talk.

He got a program slot — at 3 a.m. But his elegant voice, deep knowledge of the music and evident popularity soon won him an evening time for a jazz show that he steered toward the standards. The prime Sunday afternoon slot followed quickly.

Mr. McKethan never played an instrument, his wife said, but picked up his fascination with music from his mother, who also passed down an appreciation for poetry.

His first marriage, to Claudette Joyce Williams, ended in divorce. In addition to Geraldine, his wife of 41 years, survivors include a son, Conrad McKethan, from his first marriage; a stepson, Dane DeSouza; two grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.

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