KMOX recently lost a member of its legacy. In 1973, Virginia Dawes became the first woman to be the general manager of a CBS-owned radio station in the U.S. She passed away on October 20 at age 97.
Virginia Dawes first joined KMOX in 1964 as Chief Accountant. She was later the Station Controller and then became the Assistant General Manager to Robert Hyland in 1966. Three years later she was appointed the Director of Administration, then Assistant to the General Manager of KMOX in 1970. In 1973, she became the Station Manager, a position she held until her retirement in the 1980s.
Virginia's niece Martha Korte and her great niece, Sarah Korte, joined KMOX to talk about Virginia's legacy. Martha said that at the time, she didn't know much about her aunt's trailblazing career.
"I lived with her three summers while I worked at the Muny, and I knew she had a name that was recognized. We'd go to a restaurant and she'd give her name, they say, 'Oh, over here'" she said. "And it was just neat to see that. But no, I had no idea. She did all the things that she did. She was extremely private, kept everything very low key, very low profile."
Sarah now works for KMOX as well, and said it's been a great experience to be following her great-aunt's legacy.
"Here I am so many years later. It's kind of neat to be with the station. And it was always something that she and I could talk about — talk about radio, talk about sales, talk about the business side of it, and kind of the entertainment side of it," she said. "So that's what was just so neat. Growing up with her just having that experience in that background."
Martha said that when Virginia was at KMOX working her way up, the company was mostly men. She said she's been going through some of Virginia's old files, and found some letters from people in the business.
"There must have been some type of meetings that they would have, like, middle of the morning coffee type meetings where they would all phone in and have conference calls. And she wasn't always conferenced in on them," Martha said. "So then when she was invited to one of the meetings in New York, with all the vice presidents and things and all the different station managers, she declined the offer because she wasn't included all along the way. And she didn't want to intimidate anyone if she went to the big meeting."
Sarah mentioned an article from 1973 where her great-aunt was interviewed about her rise in the company.
"She just gave credit to Bob Hyland, and about how he recognized a long time ago that women had brains and like challenges too. And I think that was instrumental, that it didn't matter that she was female, that she was the right one for the role," Sarah said. "And she always talked about how she would stay in a position until it wasn't fun anymore. And just that she was here for so long."
Sarah said so much of what Virginia loved about radio is still true of the business now, decades later.
"It's fast paced, it's quick, it's immediate, that it's and that still holds true today," she said. "It's companionship, it's information, it's entertainment. And that was something that she always I think that's what she loved about it."
Hear more from Martha and Sarah Korte as they look back on their aunt's historic career:
