R.I.P.: Gene Shay, The Father Of FM Rock Radio In Philly

Gene Shay 1935-2020

Gene Shay, 85, the affable and influential deejay who was a much-loved mainstay on Philadelphia radio and the face of the Philadelphia Folk Festival for more than 50 years, died Friday night of the coronavirus.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Shay’s impact on the Philadelphia music scene was immense. He began hosting a Sunday night folk-music show on WHAT-FM in 1962, the same year he cofounded the Philadelphia Folk Fest. He was the host at the event, always ready with a corny joke, until 2015.

“He’s one of our forefathers,” said Lisa Schwartz, festival and program director for the Folk Festival and its presenting organization, the Philadelphia Folksong Society. “His mellifluous voice and that mischievous grin and a twinkle in his eye are as synonymous with the Folk Festival as the iconic smiley banjo logo that he helped design.”

“His 50 years in radio were celebrated concurrently with the 50 years of the Folk Festival," Schwartz said. “Gene is part of the Philadelphia Folk Festival’s DNA, and vice versa. You hear his voice, and whether it’s on the radio or behind the mic on the main stage, it’s like, ‘Welcome home.’ He’s been a lighthouse.”

Shay helped shape the course of history of Philadelphia music over half a century.

Legendary Philly DJ Ed Sciaky, who was Shay’s assistant in the 1960s, called him “the father of FM rock radio in Philadelphia.”

“I always tell people he’s the reason I’m doing what I’m doing,” said David Dye, the former host of World Cafe. The nationally syndicated show on WXPN-FM (88.5) was named by Shay when it was founded in 1991 as part of his side gig as an advertising copywriter.

When Shay retired from the XPN iteration of his Folk Show in 2015 after hosting it for 20 years at the University of Pennsylvania station, Dye said: “He had a great, non-announcer announcer’s voice. And he also had complete command of the subject matter. His interviews were always really casual, informed, and interesting.”

"Without Gene Shay, I would never have had the career I did,” said Michael Tearson, who was at WMMR with Mr. Shay in the 1970s. “He was one of the most universally liked and loved people I have ever known.” At the Folk Festival, “his terrible jokes became an institution.”

He held down The Folk Show at WHAT for six years, then moved around the FM dial to WDAS, WMMR, WIOQ, and WHYY in the following decades. He was on WXPN from 1995 to 2015, when he stepped down and the show was taken over by its current host, Shay protégé Ian Zolitor.

To remember all the stations where he worked — “I had a show on WXTU in there somewhere” — Mr. Shay would consult the career timeline on the box for the Gene Shay Bobblehead presented to him in 2002 to celebrate 40 years in Philadelphia radio.