CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Luther Masingill, a veteran broadcaster who worked for the same Chattanooga station for more than 70 years, died Monday. He was 92.

WDEF-TV anchor Joe Legge told The Associated Press that Masingill died around 6 a.m. after a short illness.

The Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame, which inducted Masingill two years ago, said in an email that he died in his sleep with his family by his side.

“Luther is an icon in our business,” the email said. “He only worked at one station, a feat in and of itself.”

According to the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame, Masingill, who was also a member of the National Radio Hall of Fame, is recognized as the only talent in America who was on the air when Pearl Harbor was bombed and during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He became beloved by using the power of radio to help people find lost dogs.

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Masingill, known to generations of Chattanooga listeners as simply “Luther,” began work at WDEF radio at age 18. A man who was about to start a new station heard him speak and asked him to audition. That man was Joe Engel and his new project was WDEF.

“They handed me some copy, I did a few commercials,” Luther told The AP in a 2012 interview.

Luther thought he was auditioning to answer the telephone. He was delighted when he was offered a part-time “cub announcer” position for a princely $15 per week.

“To me, yeah I thought I was rich,” he said.

Masingill has also been on WDEF-TV since its inception in 1954, reaching viewers in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.

His on-air partner for the last 15 years, James Howard, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that Masingill taught him the key in radio is “to be real and to love my community and to answer that phone.”

“Don’t let it ring more than twice because on the other end is somebody you can help,” he recalled Masingill saying.

Longtime radio personality Tommy Jett, who started his broadcast career in Chattanooga in 1961, said Masingill had everything it took.

“To have the fortitude to be on the air for this long you have to have a love of people … and present yourself as a caring person, and Luther was that,” he said.


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