R.I.P.: Longtime Texas Broadcaster Bill McReynolds

Bill McReynolds

Bill McReynolds, a Texas radio legend who work as the Farm and Ranch Director at Newsradio WOAI 1200 AM for fifty years, greeting people across the southern half of the state and beyond with his trademark greeting, "Howdy, friends!" has died of natural causes at the age of 93.

McReynolds was a broadcasting fixture in the state.  He did the Farm and Ranch program at 5AM daily and also an hour long agricultural program in the middle of the day right up until his retirement in 1997 at the age of 76.

According to WOAI, he was also very active in community and agricultural affairs, and in groups like the Future Farmers of America.

McReynolds was born on a farm in Seymour Texas, which is near Abilene, and used to joke that he remembered the hottest temperature ever recorded in Texas, a 121 degree reading that was recorded in Seymour in 1936.

He attended the University of Florida and was a veteran of World War Two and worked in news and sports, but found his true love in farm and ranch reporting.