R.I.P.: D/FW Radio Personality Peggy Sears

Peggy Sears

Peggy Sears Newman, a Dallas radio personality for a quarter-century, died from complications of a stroke Sunday, July 26, 2015.

She was 61-years-of-age, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Longtime Dallas listeners will remember her as Peggy Sears on radio stations KBOX, KVIL and KLUV.

Newman loved the excitement of radio.

“She liked all the extroverted people,” he said. “She was an entertainment type of personality.”

She received a bachelor’s degree in radio and television from the University of Mississippi.  Newman was Miss Teenage Dallas in 1970 and was a member of The Californians, a San Diego singing group that opened and closed Carol Burnett’s 1971 summer replacement television show, The CBS Newcomers.

In 1976, Newman broke into radio by winning a KBOX-AM talent search for a morning show co-host for Allan Peck. Newman’s father, Dr. A.D. “Ziggy” Sears, a Dallas radiologist and country and Western music fan, urged her to enter.

“I couldn’t believe it when I got the job,” she said in 1997. “All I could think about was how really awful the other finalists must have been.”

In 1981, Newman took a one-year pregnancy hiatus from radio. She resumed her career, working briefly for a country station, before joining KVIL part time. She replaced Judy Jordan as KVIL’s afternoon announcer. She later joined the drive-time crew as news director. She also sang solos on some of the KVIL Christmas albums.

In 2000, Newman and many of the KVIL morning team followed their star, Ron Chapman, to KLUV-FM. She retired in 2002.

Click Here for An Appreciation by Ken Foote.