R.I.P.: Joe Hoppel, Longtime WCMS VA Personality

Joe Hoppel, beloved Hampton Roads radio personality and icon of country music radio, dies at 89

The Viriginian-Pilot reports Joe Hoppel Sr., fresh out of a New York broadcasting school, boarded a southbound bus in 1954, heading for his first professional job at a radio station in Portsmouth. The 20-year-old native Pennsylvanian didn’t know a lick about country music.

Over the next 50 years, though, he would become a local icon of country music radio, speaking through and playing songs on Hampton Roads’ airwaves. Joseph Michael “Joe” Hoppel Sr., 89, of Virginia Beach, died Tuesday. The radio personality worked at WCMS, 94.5 FM, for 49 years. For 47 of those, he hosted the station’s morning show, through which he built a multigenerational fanbase as part of many listeners’ commutes.

The Hoppel Headlock

“Mine and my sisters’ emails and Facebooks have been flooded with comments and messages from people who remember him,” said son Michael Hoppel, 66, of Moyock. “He touched so many people. It’s been amazing to hear from them.

Hoppel was named one of America’s top country music radio personalities five times and one time named the Music Director of the Year by the Country Music Association. He was twice honored as the Virginia Country Music Association’s Radio Personality of the Year. He was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey DJ Hall of Fame in 2002.

Born on July 17, 1934, Hoppel grew up in Nicktown, Pennsylvania, knowing he wanted a future in broadcasting. After high school, he enrolled at the Radio City Broadcasting School in New York City. His ease of oration and sonorous voice impressed instructors. When representatives of Portsmouth’s WLOW called about talent, teachers put Hoppel on the phone with them. The interview lasted only five minutes before he was hired.

He started in 1954 but was hired away by a competing station, WCMS, the following year. The career move was a bit risky. WCMS was less than a year old and it only played country music.

But more and more people started listening to WCMS and it didn’t take long for Hoppel to love country music.

“At the time, I didn’t know country music and didn’t like country music,” he told The Pilot in 1995. “But I started getting calls from listeners who knew all about the artists and where they lived. I decided there must be something to it.”

He met Elvis. Johnny Cash once put him in a headlock. Another time, Willie Nelson did too. And Kenny Rogers. It became a running gag that Hoppel loved. Someone was always there to snap a picture. The collection featured prominently in his 2010 book, “People I’ve Met, Things I’ve Done: 50 Years in Country Music Radio.”