Always offering a ‘Good morning!’ Ty Boyd, Carolinas radio legend, dies at age 88.
His was the voice of the Carolinas, offering a happy “Good morning!” for more than a decade to all whose clock radio was set to WBT.
Ty Boyd, whose name still warms the hearts of the more senior among us, died Monday morning after a period of declining health. He was 88.
Though illness and heartbreak struck Boyd late in life, he never lost the spirit that made him a legend of radio and then TV in the 1960s and 70s.
“Ty saw something wonderful in every other person,” said Jim Heavner, his friend and radio mate 60 years ago at WCHL in Chapel Hill. “He had such a positive world view. Combine that with a need to touch people, and be in touch…” The sunny disposition Boyd exuded on the air? “It was real,” Heavner said.
Robert Burwell “Ty” Boyd Sr. was born on July 27, 1931, in the eastern N.C. town of Erwin. His father, Jerman, worked in textiles, and his mother, Adabelle, taught fourth grade. Ty was an outgoing little fellow. A cherished family photo shows him running a Coke stand at age nine, endearing himself to thirsty customers. When he was a kid, the family moved to Statesville, where he landed his first radio job at the hometown station, WSIC. At 15, he was off and talking.
While a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, he was hired as the morning man at WCHL Radio. He also worked at WTVD in Durham, where his duties included hosting Tar Heel football coach “Big Jim” Tatum’s TV show.
The break of a lifetime came in 1961: Jim Babb, who ran WBT (the 50,000-watt king of radio stations at the time), hired him to succeed Charlotte broadcasting pioneer Grady Cole after 32 years as morning man. Boyd was 29.
In the age before shock jocks, Babb got what he wanted. Listeners could hear Boyd’s optimism as he chatted with listeners, gave the weather and hawked his sponsors’ wares. “Edgy never made me happy,” he said once. About all he couldn’t do was choose music. He left it to jazz legend Loonis McGlohon to spin the likes of Sinatra and Ellington.
From 1961 to 1973, Boyd was No. 1 in 60 consecutive ratings periods, unheard of then and especially now, when DJs come and go. Such was his brand – The Happy Neighbor – that during an on-air roast on his last morning on the air, DJ Don Russell said, “Somebody asked Boyd to bring a six-pack and he showed up with a carton of milk and five glasses.”
Boyd moved to WBTV, where he hosted the midday show until 1978. He was part of that fellowship of Charlotte radio and TV personalities who became our on-air family: Doug Mayes, Betty Feezor, Jim Patterson, Clyde McLean, “Hello” Henry Boggan.
His name and persona still resonate.
N.C. Broadcasters Hall of Fame inductee
John Hancock, the longtime WBT talk show host, recalls struggling in his early days here on the air. One Saturday morning in 1991, roaming the aisles of the farmers’ market by himself, he heard from behind, “John! John!” Hancock picks it up from there:
“I turned, and there stood Ty and Pat Boyd. I knew of his reputation as a WBT legend, but he introduced himself anyway. He welcomed me to Charlotte, and told me to hang in there. He said he and (executive) Charlie Crutchfield had decided I was just what WBT needed and to not get discouraged. I’ll never forget that encounter. To this day, I believe it gave me the confidence to succeed. That was Ty Boyd. The power of positive thinking, and the ability to always leave those he encountered feeling better about themselves.”
In 1978, Boyd left WBTV to focus on motivational speaking. In 1980, he started an executive coaching company that bears his name, helping executives around the world communicate with passion. He wrote several books on how to succeed in business.
Molly Hunt, their youngest child, runs Ty Boyd Executive Communications & Coaching. She remembers crinkling her nose and saying “Oh Daddy!” when he’d awaken the kids each morning by singing, “Good morning to you, good morning to you, we’re all in our places with sunshiney faces…”
Pat Boyd was Ty’s partner every step of the journey, including the family business. They met in 1959 when she attended a dance party in Durham. Want to guess who was emceeing? They were married 59 years, spending nearly all of it in the home they built in south Charlotte. “Best wife ever,” Boyd would say.
Boyd is survived by his wife, five children and 13 grandchildren. In 2017, they lost the oldest of their six children, Anne Boyd-Moore, to thyroid cancer. The year before, Ty Boyd suffered a stroke. He regained much of his mobility and speech, though, and in typical Boyd fashion, he said he’d have been fine with life if he hadn’t.
Boyd was the unofficial mayor of The Ivey, a memory wellness day center whose clients include some with dementia. He’d chat up guests, tell a story or two, keep folks entertained. Staff wished they could have bottled his laugh.
There were public achievements: He was inducted into the N.C. Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1991, and received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, one of North Carolina’s most prestigious honors, in 2018. During its 80th anniversary celebration, WBT-AM named its main studio for him.
And there are family stories already part of the legend of Ty Boyd: On occasion, when Boyd was out of town, some of the kids would sneak into bed with their mom. Son Robert recalls meeting dad at the airport one day upon his return. Running into his arms, Robert exclaimed for many to hear, “Daddy, daddy, daddy, no one slept with mother while you were gone.”
Every time the story was told, Boyd would laugh.
Service and visitation
Ty Boyd’s family is planning a private ceremony and plans to hold a public celebration of his life in July, around his birthday.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 1:15 PM.