SAN ANTONIO — A rich, South Texas baritone rumbles over the airways across San Antonio every day.
It’s a familiar voice, like a favorite pair of jeans, connecting with KKYX listeners for the last 43 years. But now, that voice of "The Cousin" Jerry King, is about to retire.
"I use the word retire,” he says on-air during a commercial break. “But it's not that I'm gonna disappear into the concrete or anything like that. But I’m gonna be out and about, going to various events. But not gonna have to get up at four in the morning! That's the difference!"
Jerry King made a difference from the beginning. He won a radio talent contest in high school, and that work seemed a lot better than working for his dad.
"I worked with my dad, who was a contractor over the summer months,” he laughs. “And said, ‘No no no, can’t do this! I want AC in the summer and heat in the winter!’”
Jerry later played country tunes at radio stations Temple, then Alice, then back to San Antonio. four jobs and 53 years in all. He spins classic county tunes from the 80’s and 90’s.
The highlight of King’s career came when a kid from San Marcos, a member of the Ace in the Hole Gang wanted Jerry to play his new song.
"I was fortunate enough to be the first one to play George Strait on the radio, with a song called 'Unwound,'” King said. “That was his first major label record. It was May 4, 1981."
King says that he remembers the day well and laughs about the country mega-star’s early enthusiasm.
"Here's George Strait, and he said, ‘Hold it! I want to run out to the car real quick so that I can hear it on the radio!’ Haha!"
That young recording artist succeeded, and so did his Texas sound.
"There was an old saying in the industry itself that if you got a hit in Texas, you had a hit across the nation,” King recalled.
From studio dials to the digital age, King has seen his industry evolve, but cultivating listeners, he says, remains the key.
“There's a kinship to the audience,” he described. “There's an absolute one-on-one kinship with the people that listen to ya, and you try to develop it over the years.”
"He's everybody's cousin,” said Jerry King fan Rich Summers. “Everybody knows Jerry King. If you've ever seen him out in public, he hugs every woman in the building!"
His popularity impressed his peers, and the entire industry. In 2004, they elected Jerry into the Country Radio Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
“It was an incredible night,” he said. “Alabama was sitting next to us.”
He has just a few more mornings at the mic. King retires after his shift on Friday.
As he plays the 1989 Travis Tritt hit about a “country club,” Jerry adds, "Well I guess with this retirement thing, I’ll have to become a member of a country club! But I've done it many times before!”
Jerry King's a member of an exclusive country music club. And he’s another one of the people who make San Antonio great.