Herb Kent

Herbert Rogers Kent (October 5, 1928 – October 22, 2016) was "the longest-running DJ in the history of radio", a radio personality in Chicago, Illinois, for more than seven decades. As a high school student, Kent began hosting a classical music program for Chicago’s WBEZ. Over the years he “has served as an inspiration to a number of aspiring African-American broadcasters.” He was known as the "cool gent", a phrase that he coined to rhyme with his name.

Early years Kent was born Herbert Rogers Kent in Cook County Hospital in Chicago. An only child, he grew up in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago. and Northwestern University. He told a reporter in 2009 that as early as age 6 he "had a love affair with radio", as he enjoyed listening to a blues station at that age.

Kent began working in radio in 1944 when he was 16 years old and still in high school, hosting a classical music program on WBEZ in Chicago.

By the late 1940s, he was working at two stations—acting in old-time radio dramas on WMAQ in Chicago and hosting a record program on WGRY in Gary, Indiana.

In the 1950s, Kent became known as "The King of the Dusties" for his development of the oldies format that he called "dusty records", a term he coined while working at WBEE radio in Harvey, Illinois.

In March 1963, Kent headed the disc jockey lineup at WVON, a newly launched Chicago station that resulted from the purchase of WHFC and a change in format to "uncompromising soul-style rhythm and blues." Kent, who was one of two disc jockeys retained from the WHFC staff, had the 7:30-11 p.m. program. Robert Pruter, in his book, Chicago Soul, noted that Kent had a distinct on-air style: "Unlike many other deejays of the day, black or white, he never shouted or screamed or used an artificial patter. He always talked in a conversational, ultra-cool style." Gary Deeb, radio-TV critic for the Chicago Tribune, noted that Kent's popularity as a night-time disc jockey attracted an audience of young people who also listened to the station at other times.

In 1978, Kent returned to Chicago radio with a 5-6 p.m. weekday program on WXFM. On that station he introduced his Stay Up and Punk Out show, where he would play new wave artists that black audiences were dancing to in clubs, like Devo and the B-52s. This show is considered influential on Chicago's House music scene. In the 1990s, he was heard on FM station WVAZ in Chicago. By October 1999, he had returned to WVON, but on the station's FM side.

In the mid-1960s, Kent owned the Times Square Club, a rhythm-and-blues venue that leased space in the Packinghouse Workers' Hall on South Wabash in Chicago.

Other professional activities Kent was the host of Steppin' at Club 7, a dance program on WLS-TV in Chicago in the mid-1990s. at Chicago State University.

Death On October 22, 2016, Kent died at age 88. He had done his final radio broadcast that morning. Robbin Kent said that she and her son (Herb Kent's only grandchild) received nothing from the will.

Recognition In 1995, Kent was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. In 2009, Kent was recognized by Guinness World Records for the "Longest career as a radio presenter/DJ (male)". A Guinness representative officially recognized him at a ceremony in Chicago. In 2015, Kent received the Chicago Crusader's Crusading Pioneer Award.