HONG KONG: A beloved Hong Kong radio host dubbed the “world´s most durable DJ” by Guinness World Records has died aged 98 after more than seven decades on the air.
Reinaldo Maria Cordeiro, known to fans as “Uncle Ray”, was hailed as an industry powerhouse who jump-started the careers of numerous local musicians and introduced pop trends to generations of Hong Kong fans on his long-running radio shows.
He interviewed scores of pop icons over the years including the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.
Cordeiro died on Friday in Hong Kong surrounded by family and friends, who sang “You´ll Never Walk Alone” as a farewell, a committee organising his funeral said.
The veteran DJ was “a prominent figure in Hong Kong popular culture” who made “considerable contributions to the Hong Kong music scene”, the city´s culture minister Kevin Yeung said Saturday.
Born in Hong Kong in 1924, Cordeiro was the fifth of six children in a family descended from Portuguese immigrants.