CHICAGO (AP) - One of Chicago’s earliest African-American disc jockeys, Herb Kent, has died at age 88 after a seven-decade career.
The radio station where Kent worked, iHeartMedia’s V103 FM Chicago, said Sunday that Kent died Saturday evening. The company didn’t provide details in an online statement but said he hosted his final broadcast on Saturday morning.
Kent was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. He was known as “The Cool Gent.”
The Radio Hall of Fame says that Kent started in radio in the late 1940s, working at stations in the Chicago area. He also was active in the civil rights movement.
Kent’s online radio station biography says he helped launch careers of acts such as The Temptations and Smokey Robinson.
V103 said services are pending and Kent’s family had no comment.
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