DeDe McGuire Earned Her Radio Hall of Fame Induction by Being Authentic on Air

Far be it from DeDe McGuire to ever be tardy. For over a decade, McGuire — the host of the DeDe in the Morning radio show — has abided by a strict schedule. She wakes up at 3:30 in the morning, lies in bed for 30 minutes while watching the news, then gets showered and ready to head to the studio. Each morning, she arrives at the K104 studio at 4:45 a.m., ready to deliver the news, the laughs and tea from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.

It’s this type of commitment and punctuality that has earned her a spot in the Radio Hall of Fame for 2025, into which she will be inducted in a ceremony taking place in Chicago on Thursday. It’s also why she apologized profusely for being two minutes late to our Zoom chat.

At the time of our conversation, McGuire was in the middle of fittings and photoshoots ahead of the ceremony. But her entire life has prepared her for her big moment.

McGuire moved around a lot as a child. “Most people didn’t know this, but my mother was a singer,” McGuire says. “When we were growing up in Seattle, she remarried and we moved to Germany for three years. My mother had a friend who was on the radio there in Seattle, and he would call her to do all the different voices. He would ask her to do this voice or that voice. My mother was very fun, creative and talented, and we would watch her do all these different voices on the radio with this guy.”

McGuire’s mother was the reason she fell in love with radio. “When you have a mother who is a singer, and you watch her perform, all I knew was that I wanted to perform too,” she says. “Growing up, I did a lot of singing, I did a lot of plays, I was in a lot of musicals and I was in speech and drama in high school. So it really was a natural fit for me to get in front of the mic.”

By the time she was in college, she enrolled at Texas Woman’s University to study and become a news anchor. Unfortunately, she had to leave the university due to issues with her financial aid. “They were like, ‘Get your finances in order, girl. And then you come back and get an education.’”

She moved back to Killeen Fort Hood, where she studied telecommunications at a community college in the area. It was where she worked at KOOV radio, which was a country station at the time. One holiday season, the station was hosting a silent auction. In a cinematic series of events, this Christmas would change everything for McGuire. 

“The afternoon guy calls me in there, and he says, ‘Hey, why don’t you come in, DeDe, I need you to come in here and help me describe these toys that we’re selling,’” she recalls. “So, I go in there with the afternoon guy, and we’re chatting back and forth. We have a nice little banter. I get done, and I go back to the receptionist desk. The next day, the owner comes in and he says, ‘My wife heard you yesterday on the radio, and she says I should train you to be on the air.’ And I go, ‘Okay, I would love to.’ And that’s where it started. I would spend my lunchtime hours going into the production room, learning how to be a DJ.”

Since 2011, McGuire has been a fixture for Dallas morning commuters. The show has undergone many name changes, including the Crazy Ass Morning Show, the Buck Wilde Morning Show, the K104 Morning Show, and now DeDe in the Morning. 

When fans tune into DeDe in the Morning, they know they’re in for some laughs, as she and her morning crew — composed of herself, JJ from the Sip, Kita Rose and J Kruz — share their takes on the latest celebrity gossip, weigh in on current news, and, perhaps the most entertaining part of the show, offering advice to callers. 

DeDe McGuire on Just Being Herself

While DeDe and her commentators maintain a good sense of humor, fans know that she’s always going to keep it real.

“One of the things that has happened in radio, and certainly because of things like social media and podcasting, is that they’ve really urged us all to be transparent. And not only transparent, but also authentic. What you’re really getting on the air is authentically me,” she says.

“Every now and then, my mom would go, ‘Stop being so authentically you. The authentic you is silly and opinionated at the same time.’ But they’ve stressed us to just be ourselves,” she continues. “And I think that’s the greatest thing about doing morning radio, and that’s the difference between doing mornings in comparison to middays, afternoons, or nights. We’re riding to work with people, and they want real people, and that’s what you’re getting. There’s no pretense. So I try my best to create an atmosphere in the studio that is more like we’re sitting around the breakfast table just talking, eating our cereal with a cup of coffee. And that’s the vibe we have in the studio.”

Over the years, McGuire has received some outrageous phone calls — some from scorned daters after getting ghosted, some from people who have caught their partners in affairs. But one that takes the cake came from a woman whose husband worked in a morgue.

“She couldn’t understand why he always wanted her to get in a bath of cold water and wanted to have sex with her,” McGuire says. “She said something like ‘He wanted to have sex with her after she took a cold, cold bath,’ and everybody kept going, ‘What is he doing to those bodies over there?’ because he liked his woman to take cold baths before they got down and got busy.”

Such outrageous stories bring laughs and smiles to listeners’ faces, which McGuire says is the most meaningful part of her job.

“I love when [listeners] tell us ‘you guys make my day’ or ‘I was going through something, I lost my mom or my brother, but I listen to you guys, and every day you’ve lifted my spirits,’” McGuire says. “Those are the best. That’s when you realize you’re doing what you what you sought to do, which was to bring happiness and joy to people. I always say that we want to inform, entertain and educate. And if we can do that, we’re doing our job.”

Today, DeDe in the Morning broadcasts in 85 cities. Her goal is to be syndicated in over 100 in the future. But don’t expect her to sign a deal with a satellite platform, as she is very intentional about the cities in which she broadcasts.

DeDe McGuire on Being Part of the 2025 Radio Hall of Fame Induction Class

For now, McGuire is basking in her big moment and feeling optimistic about what’s to come next.

“I didn’t get into radio to win awards. I got into radio because I loved it,” McGuire says. “It was fun and easy for me, and it just felt like a natural fit. A friend of mine reminded me of something, because she was there with me from the beginning, at my first job, when I was walking around in my busted red punk shoes that were all torn up. She said, ‘What would that girl who started in radio at the age of 19 say to you today? Would she believe that you would be in the Hall of Fame?’ And I said, ‘No, she wouldn’t.’ That girl stayed up late at night and traveled from one city to the next to try to pursue this career. It’s a blessing. It’s unbelievable. It’s unreal. But I’m going to take it and run with it and just say ‘Thank you, God.’ I’m blessed.”