Posted by RadioActive  July 29, 2025 7:27 am | #1 |
Her name is Mary McCoy and she holds the all time record for being on air. in 2025, the 85-year-old country DJ celebrated an incredible 74 years as a radio personality. And she's not done yet. In an era where most on-air radio jobs don't last more than a few decades - if you're lucky - that's an incredible record.
McCoy started in the biz at age 12 and has never been off the air since, even doing her show from a hospital bed when she had to undergo spinal surgery.
"When she made her first appearance, at age 12 on KCMO Conroe, Texas, it wasn’t as a DJ. She sang live, and she was so disheartened by her own performance that she cried when it aired. But a local business, the Brown Sinclair Service Station, came on board as a sponsor and she ended up with a 15-minute regular time slot...
"Her routine started with a recitation of the local birthdays, and she gave away a birthday cake on a daily basis."
McCoy was honoured by the Country Radio Hall of Fame on July 21st and she claims she's far from done.
The second longest serving DJ can never beat her record. His name was Herbert Rogers Kent, who worked all over Chicago radio for 72 years until he died in 2016.
Country Radio Hall Inducts a DJ Who’s Spent 70-Plus Years On Air
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Posted by DX July 29, 2025 10:58 am | #2 |
RadioActive wrote:
Her name is Mary McCoy and she holds the all time record for being on air. in 2025, the 85-year-old country DJ celebrated an incredible 74 years as a radio personality. And she's not done yet. In an era where most on-air radio jobs don't last more than a few decades - if you're lucky - that's an incredible record.
McCoy started in the biz at age 12 and has never been off the air since, even doing her show from a hospital bed when she had to undergo spinal surgery.
"When she made her first appearance, at age 12 on KCMO Conroe, Texas, it wasn’t as a DJ. She sang live, and she was so disheartened by her own performance that she cried when it aired. But a local business, the Brown Sinclair Service Station, came on board as a sponsor and she ended up with a 15-minute regular time slot...
"Her routine started with a recitation of the local birthdays, and she gave away a birthday cake on a daily basis."
McCoy was honoured by the Country Radio Hall of Fame on July 21st and she claims she's far from done.
The second longest serving DJ can never beat her record. His name was Herbert Rogers Kent, who worked all over Chicago radio for 72 years until he died in 2016.
Country Radio Hall Inducts a DJ Who’s Spent 70-Plus Years On Air
We do have a Canadian who could potentially top this record, albeit on the TV side.
Wyatt Sharpe started his Wyatt Sharpe Show online political news interview show at the age of 11 around the time of the pandemic.
Now 15 and a student at Port Hope's Trinity College School, at the start of the year he also took on an on-air show, Forum Focus, on the obscure Canadian cable news channel News Forum.
On top of that he's a Canadian correspondent for an Australian broadcaster and has been called upon as a commentator by news channels around the world.
So we only have to wait another 70 years or so to see if he could break the Mary McCoy record and become the Real McCoy, so to speak.
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Posted by Dale Patterson July 29, 2025 1:18 pm | #3 |
Congratulations to Ms. McCoy.
Hal Jackson spent 73 years on the air in New York radio, from 1939 to his passing in 2012.
He was the first African-American inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.
https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/hal-jackson-39
"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
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Posted by RadioActive July 29, 2025 2:06 pm | #4 |
Perhaps the most amazing part of her story is that she seems to hold the record in an industry that was once almost entirely male dominated. And she's still there!
The only truly long running female personality on radio I can think of here may be Betty Kennedy, who was on CFRB for 27 years beginning in 1959.
If Ms. McCoy's health holds out, who knows how long she can keep going?
