Mary Mason, Philly radio legend and prominent civic and political voice in the city, has died at 94
Ms. Mason was on the air since the late 1950s, but she became an influential force after her talk show was launched in the 1970s.
Mary Mason, 94, a Philadelphia radio legend and prominent civic and political voice in the city, died Thursday, July 25, at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.
Thera Martin, a former broadcasting colleague and longtime friend, said Ms. Mason had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease more than a decade ago and most recently was living at a nursing home in West Philadelphia. Her cause of death was not immediately available.
“Mary Mason allowed a number of Black women to stand on her shoulders in broadcasting,” Martin said in a phone interview. “And men, too. She made a difference.”
Martin was Ms. Mason’s program director when they both worked at WHAT-AM, but “I still stood on her shoulders,” Martin said.
U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, a Philadelphia Democrat, said on social media that he was sad to hear of Ms. Mason’s death and called her “a pioneer for African American women in Philadelphia radio.”
Evans added: “It’s impossible to overstate her impact and influence! May she rest in power.”
State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Philadelphia and Delaware County, also mourned Mason’s death in a social media post.
“Her profound impact during the civil rights movement was felt both civically and politically. Her legacy will continue to inspire and resonate with many,” Williams said.
Ms. Mason led radio telethons for the Rev. Leon Sullivan from the 1970s to the ‘90s, and urged her listeners to elect Wilson Goode, who became the city’s first Black mayor in 1984.
A 1991 Inquirer profile of Ms. Mason captured her essence, describing how the late T. Milton Street, a feisty personality in his own right, responded to Ms. Mason during a phone call to her show.
“It’s the Queen Mother of Talk Radio — ‘I birthed Black radio in this town,’ she says — scolding the in-your-face brother of Philadelphia politics. And T. Milton Street does what most callers to Mornings with Mary do. He backs down. The man with mega-chutzpah, who told Traffic Court to stick it, knows you don’t play around with Mother Mary.”
In another Inquirer profile four years later — 1991 and 1995 were city mayoral election years — Ms. Mason said: “I’d like to think I make elected officials. Why be one? If you can recommend 17 people for the job of [City] Council, why would you want to be one of them.”
Born Beatrice Elmore, Ms. Mason grew up at 22nd and Catharine Streets in South Philadelphia. She got her first radio job in the late 1950s at WHAT spinning gospel records. She said her first paycheck at the station was for $7.28.
In 1970, Ms. Mason finally shifted from playing music to hosting talk radio at WHAT.
In the mid-1980s, she took a job at WWDB-AM, then moved to WCAU-AM, before returning to WHAT in 1990.
Ms. Mason landed high-profile interviews throughout her career with such figures as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, and Oprah Winfrey. She interviewed President Bill Clinton live on air during a visit to Philadelphia in 1993.
“Mary Mason is a Philadelphia radio legend,” said Vincent Thompson, current director of communications for City Council and Council President Kenyatta Johnson, who worked with Ms. Mason as a producer at WCAU and an intern at WHAT.
He said Black talk radio was almost nonexistent across the country before Ms. Mason. She was a fervent advocate for Philly’s Black community and the rest of the city, and held major influence and respect because of it. Thompson said that anyone in public office or aspiring to it knew they had to come talk to Ms. Mason on her show.
He recalled that, once while he was working with her, a radio caller made a complaint about then-Mayor Goode. Ms. Mason called Goode herself, and successfully persuaded him to come on air to answer for the complaint.
“She was very much a stickler on making sure that she presented the audience ... with the best information that [she] could,” he said.
“She leaves a hell of a legacy in this town.”
Her career was winding down when in 2010 she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
In November 2016, the Philadelphia Tribune reported that her health had declined substantially and her life savings had disappeared.
In May 2018, Ms. Mason’s sole grandchild, Calvin Steven Turner IV — her only surviving immediate family member — pleaded guilty to two counts of felony theft related to his looting of her life savings.
Funerals arrangements were pending.