Mary McCoy has been operating in the radio marketplace since she was 12-years-old, and as quickly as shared the stage with a young Elvis Presley.
March 17, 2023Updated: March 17, 2023 11:21 a.m.
KSTAR Radio DJ Mary McCoy, 83, performs alongside her radio companion, Larry Galla, Wednesday, March 1, 2023, in Montgomery.
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With nearly 72 years on the airwaves, a Conroe lady now holds the Guinness Record title for becoming the “World’s Longest Serving Female Radio Presenter/DJ.” Expanding up, Mary McCoy, 85, dreamed of getting into the entertainment organization. She spent element of her childhood living in a tent with no getting electrical power or operating water but her life took a turn when she got her break in 1951 at the age of only 12. Quickly immediately after signing up to sing in a talent show at radio station KMCO, she told presenters that she wanted her quite individual show.
“They liked what they heard,” McCoy told Guinness. Just four months later, on April 20, 1951, McCoy’s dream came appropriate when KMCO gave her a 15-minute singing method. In August 1951, she was promoted to radio presenter/DJ and worked five days a week at the station. Seventy-1 years and 357 days later, McCoy has held onto that job—even as the radio station changed ownership and names from KIKR to KSTAR—presenting a two-hour nation classics show six days a week. “Radio has been my life for as extended as I can preserve in thoughts,” McCoy stated.
Neighborhood radio legend Mary McCoy went on the radio with KMCO AM station when she was a teenager.
Photo courtesy the McCoy household
McCoy was officially verified by Guinness on Feb. 15, 2023 following beating the prior record holder by added than three years. Even so, it is not the initial important recognition McCoy has received: She has also been inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame and is featured in a Legends Mural in Conroe.
In her interview with Guinness, McCoy recalled that in the course of her tenure she as quickly as shared a Shreveport stage with the king of rock ‘n’ roll himself, Elvis Presley, on the Louisiana Hayride Tour in 1955. Presley’s band even backed her up as she performed a quantity of numbers to the audience. “He was 1 of the nicest and most polite gentleman I’ve ever met,” McCoy recalled. “I am pleased to have had the pleasure of figuring out him personally. He was the greatest in my book.” McCoy now has a space of devoted to Elvis in her Conroe house.
An image of radio DJ Mary McCoy and Elvis Presley in the course of his 1955 quit by to Conroe hangs on the wall of the KSTAR Radio building along with other signed images to McCoy from nation music legends, Wednesday, March 1, 2023, in Montgomery.
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Earlier this week, McCoy even earned a shoutout from Ryan Seacrest on Reside with Kelly and Ryan for her new record. “I started when I was 15,” Seacrest stated about his individual radio profession on Wednesday’s telecast, adding that he is “on the way” to break McCoy’s record.
On March 3, McCoy took to Facebook to thank her fans for their assist in the course of her extended profession. “I want all of you to know it was you that produced all of this feasible,” she wrote. “Your faith in me has presented me the strength and courage to succeed. I have so very a handful of excellent memories. There is no spot in this globe I would rather be than appropriate appropriate right here in Conroe, Texas, a miracle city total of excellent folks!”