THE LONGEST RUNNING RADIO PROGRAMME WITH THE SAME HOST

According to The Guinness Book of World Records, ‘the longest running radio programme with the same host ran for 70 years and 291 days. This was achieved by the programme Folksong Festival. The host was Oscar Brand. It was first broadcasted on 9 December 1945 and the final broadcast occurred on 24 September 2016.’

Oscar Brand, who was a Canadian folk singer and radio host, died on Friday, Sept. 30, 2016, at the age of 96 at his home in Great Neck, New York. He died from complications of pneumonia.

He showed up on the steps of the WNYC studios, guitar in hand, in December 1945. Brand began to host the show and play music for the station, work that was entirely volunteered at the time, Newsday wrote. “He was so beloved by everyone at the station,” his manager, Doug Yeager said. “I can’t imagine a weekend without Oscar,” he added. Some of the show’s landmark moments included Bob Dylan’s first solo New York radio show and one of the earliest performances of Arlo Guthrie playing “Alice’s Restaurant.” Other guests included Huddle Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly, Harry Belafonte, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez and Judy Collins.“Every folksinger who came to New York wanted to be on Oscar’s program,” folksinger Jean Ritchie told Newsday in 2005. In 1995 he received a Peabody Award for more than 50 years of service to folk performers and their music and messages to fans around the world.

As a performer, he released nearly 100 albums. He recorded hundreds of original songs in addition to traditional folk songs. He was very talented, and loved creating funny, comical songs as well. He also recorded albums for children, collections of patriotic tunes and songs of historical significance, like “Presidential Campaign Songs: 1789-1996.”

As a songwriter, he had success when Doris Day’s version of his song “A Guy Is a Guy” reached the top of the Billboard chart in 1952. He was also an author of books about folk music.

Brand helped co-found the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, and served as a board member of the Children’s Television Workshop during the 1960s, participating in the development of “Sesame Street.” He will be missed in the music community, but remembered for his accomplishment for the longest running radio show with the same host.