The gift of gab was never something Joel “JB” Baker took for granted. But when his body began to rob him of his voice, the radio disc jockey’s life changed drastically.

Baker was working for KXDD, a country music station in Yakima, Wash., before oral cancer surgery cost him his job and his ability to speak. Since he was a little boy, being a radio DJ was Baker’s dream, but that may have been cut short by disease.

He is still in a Seattle hospital recovering from a Jan. 3 procedure that removed his tongue and replaced it with a muscle graft from his left thigh to help avoid suffocation.

The 47-year-old Flathead High School graduate has been surrounded by loved ones, including his wife, Kelly.

“We’re all alive, so we’ve got that going,” she said. “It was a nine-and-a-half-hour surgery. It was a long one. We can’t say [the cancer] is all gone, but the doctors think they got it all.”

In 2003, Baker’s dentist noticed a strange spot on his tongue and sent him to get it checked out. That was his first bout with oral cancer, an unusual occurrence for a man who never smoked or chewed tobacco and drank only occasionally. A little over 18 months ago, the first surgery removed half his tongue with the cancer that was on it.

Three days later in November, Kelly gave birth to their daughter, Lily. She was born three weeks early and diagnosed with Down Syndrome. The two love their special needs daughter, but Kelly admits it was a lot to take in such a short time period.

Joel was undergoing radiation treatment and eating through a tube; Lily was in neonatal intensive care. The holidays were difficult for the family that year.

Growing up in Kalispell, Baker had vocal issues as a child that he eventually overcame. 

His mother, Helen Baker of Kalispell, said he didn’t even speak until he was in second grade, instead letting his sister communicate for him or just making noises rather than speaking.

“After kindergarten, the teacher said he’d need a speech therapist. Same in first grade,” she said. “It took a while, but eventually we got a note back saying he wouldn’t shut up in class. It was like that on every report card through sixth grade.”

Joel Baker, known as “JB” on his radio show, had found his calling. 

His father, Neal, said that his son would pick up whatever was laying around the house and speak into it like a microphone, narrating whatever was on television. 

After graduating from Flathead High, Baker got a job at KJJR, a Flathead Valley talk radio station. He worked at various stations around the state before going to broadcasting school in Seattle.

“That’s the only job he’s ever loved,” Helen Baker said of her son. “We tried to Skype him the other night. He wrote on his writing board to tell us that he loves us.”

From school he moved in 1999 to Yakima, where Kelly’s family lives. The support system from the family has made the experience a little easier. KXDD has updated fans on its Facebook page with Baker’s condition several times, leading to a massive outpouring of support for the disc jockey.

The couple’s other child, Riley, is concerned his dad might not be able to talk at all. 

Helen said her 7-year old grandson had benefited personally from his dad’s job on an afternoon country radio show.

“Taylor Swift has been Riley’s girlfriend since he was four years old,” she said. “He probably knows the words to every one of her songs. Joel got backstage passes to one of her shows and they all got a picture together.”

He got to meet George Strait and Brad Paisley as well. 

Baker became so much of an icon among Yakima residents that when Neal went to visit, he was getting a drink in a bar and a random trucker told him he knew his son.

“He said he was the best on the radio,” the eldest Baker said. “We knew each other by my son.”

After the surgery, Kelly and her father spent several exhausting days in the intensive care unit looking after Joel.

“He’s started mouthing words, and he always asks me, ‘Have you eaten?’ ‘How did you sleep?’” she said. “He was adamant the hospital got a cot up there so I could sleep.”

When not mouthing words, Baker uses his whiteboard (including pens with magnets on them, courtesy of friends from Yakima) to communicate with friends and family.

For a man who made his living off of his ability to talk, it is frustrating for Baker not to be able to communicate easily. His wife said he can get down sometimes, but has been reading his Bible and thinking of his kids more often.

“It’s never going to be normal again. It’s a new normal,” Kelly said. “Everything will be all right. We’ll be all right.”

A fundraiser to help the Kalispell native beat cancer can be found at https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/cxq3/baker-s-beat-cancer-fund. The effort has raised more than $8,000 already through more than 100 donations.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.