In Memory Of KVIL's Peggy Sears
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Last week we lost another longtime Dallas-Fort Worth media personality: Peggy Sears.
Peggy was a native of Dallas, graduated from Highland Park High School and the University Of Mississippi. Concurrently with her time at these two schools, she landed a role on a TV show called The CBS Newcomers. Hosted by Dave Garroway (a former host of NBC's The Today Show), featured young performers who had been discovered either in nightclubs or theatres. The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network And Cable TV Shows lists Peggy as one of the regulars. The show aired Mondays at 9pm on CBS from July-September 1971. Peggy was cast to sing and play her guitar. During this time she also was crowned Miss Teenage Dallas.
After graduation, Peggy landed a job as a morning drive co-host with Allan Peck on KBOX 1480 in Dallas that had a country format. As she perfected her skills, the dean of Dallas radio, Ron Chapman, hired her at KVIL-AM/FM as News Director alongside his other show members: Suzy Humphries, Len Mailoux, Andy McCollum, and Larry Dixon. For the next two decades KVIL dominated the Dallas/Fort Worth radio market not only in audience reach but also in sales revenue generated, and Peggy was a part of the station's overall success. Chapman was the undisputed genius of knowing how to put together a group of radio personalities that created what he called "magic". Years ago, other radio program directors from around the country would fly into the market, listen to the station, take notes, and then try to copy it in their market. It rarely worked. Chapman always said that you can copy the mechanics of a show but you can't copy the magic. Peggy also worked with the late Bob Morrison who I just wrote a blog about recently when he passed away in June this year.
In later years, Peggy was honored by her peers as an inductee in the Texas Radio Hall Of Fame. Only a handful of radio people are bestowed this honor and she earned it!
I only met Peggy once. It was brief and I was still just getting started in my career, having not yet achieved the level of success she already had. I feel a bit lost that I didn't get to know her better because I missed out knowing not only a successful radio personality but a fine person as well. But nevertheless, I am glad that I could work in the same market as her and getting to hear her on the radio. As radio is a medium of the mind and very personal one on one, I always felt Peggy was talking to me in a way that was relevant and friendly. That to me was someone who mastered the art of a radio personality.
Peggy passed away on July 26, 2015 at age 62. Her obituary from The Dallas Morning News starts with the line, "she made it to Heaven just in time to host the morning show." No doubt about that!
Thank you Peggy for everything.
See you next time.
