SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio lost a radio legend who spent half a century on the air. Bruce Hathaway died Saturday at the age of 78 following a heart attack just one day earlier.
Before he was Hathaway’s colleague, KONO programming director Roger Allen was just a child in awe of Hathaway.
“It was just somebody that all of us in the age group listened to. He was kind of like a larger-than-life figure,” Allen said.
Allen said he met Hathaway once as a teenager and years later they wound up working together. He said what people heard on air was no act.
“Whether you met Bruce in person, or you met him through the radio, it was the same person,” Allen said.
Allen said Hathaway’s career almost never happened. While waiting for the results of a law enforcement test, he was offered a part-time stint as a DJ in South Texas. Part-time turned into half a century.
Allen said Hathaway owed part of his longevity to keeping up with trends in music, styles and the news.
“If you went to his house, there was a newspaper. He had read it in the morning with a cup of coffee from front to back,” Allen said.
Hathaway became a San Antonio tradition.
“He would be over for a party or a holiday dinner and he would just captivate a room,” Allen said. "I think his legacy is that he truly entertained San Antonians for multiple generations."