Veteran Memphis radio icon Bobby O'Jay passed away at 68 years old recently.
Memphis Radio Icon Bobby O'Jay Cause of Death Mysterious?
O'Jay was a radio icon in Tennessee and was well revered on the local scene.
The 68-year-old disc jockey was one of the pioneer staffers of 1070 WDIA and a Tennessee Radio Hall of Famer.
WDIA's parent company iHeartRadio's Market President Kevin Klein, confirmed the tragic passing of the beloved icon.
Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that Klein confirmed O'Jay's death on Tuesday afternoon.
However, fellow Radio host Bev Johnson said that the radio icon passed away while he was on shift in the morning. When he was supposed to be opening the phone line at 9:00 a.m. last Tuesday, the radio station was only playing music. (via WREG Memphis)
However, the causes of his death remain a mystery as of this writing as it was still not revealed to the public. More information about his death shall be revealed in the coming days.
Bobby O'Jay Radio Career
Born in Batesville, Mississippi, in 1953, Bobby O'Jay knew that he was born to be behind the microphone from the get-go.
His cousin, Melvin Jones, a rising radio disc jockey at the time, who then became a radio executive, helped him achieve his dream.
O'Jay then kickstarted his career as a disc jockey in Montgomery, Alabama, and started working with the microphone and console in 1972.
"I've never done anything but radio. I've never had this job, and that job I've always had, just the radio job. I mean, God has truly blessed me to make a decent salary at all the radio stations I've worked even back in the 70′s," O'Jay said in a 2021 interview with Fox 13 Memphis.
His career took off in 1974 when he relocated to Memphis and started working for WLOK-AM 1340. Almost a decade after, he then joined the first African American station, WDIA. It was the first radio station in the United States directed entirely at Black audiences.
The famed radio DJ became one of the most beloved in Memphis. However, his career was riddled with an addiction to drugs and alcohol - which he later overcame.
It was only last July 2021 that Bobby O'Jay was inducted into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame. When Fox 13 spoke to him last year, O'Jay said that he had no plans of retiring his microphone soon.
O'Jay has become a foundation of Memphis Radio for his relevant work of almost four decades - he interviewed the likes of Muhammad Ali, Whitney Houston, Rufus Thomas, and The Temptations.
I’m very sorry to learn about the passing of Bobby O’Jay. I know for many Memphians, including my wife, the day was not complete unless they tuned in to hear what Bobby had to say. I always enjoyed being with Bobby on his show or otherwise. pic.twitter.com/DoZ0sl9QNg
— Jim Strickland (@JStrick901) May 3, 2022
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