Picture a five-year-old girl removing the hood off of her mother’s hair dryer, (think 1960’s), and pretending that the dryer’s base was an adjustable microphone. That’s Sherry St. John, a 2016 ABA Hall of Fame inductee who’s been behind a mic pretty much ever since. From the minute she first stepped into a radio station at the tender age of 18 her career skyrocketed, giving her the opportunity to become a groundbreaking female broadcaster not only in Alabama, but from coast to coast.

“One of my fondest childhood memories is walking up our rural road to my cousin’s house and listening to the radio with her,” says St. John. “We would call the request line, and when our request played we would scream and giggle and dance like crazy. I thought that radio was the most magical thing in the world!”

The series of events that led to St. John’s first real radio job do have a fairy-god-mother-like quality. While attending the University of North Alabama, as a broadcast major, of course, one break led to another and the next thing you know, WLAY in Muscle Shoals offers her a midday shift … as long as it included secretarial work, as well. Much to her parents’ chagrin, she took the job doing office work before and after her 10-2 shift.

Timing couldn’t have been better. Here she was right in the middle of the Muscle Shoals recording studio phenomenon. Rick Hall of FAME and Jimmy Johnson from Muscle Shoals Sound frequented the station giving St. John acetates to play so they could hear how their mix sounded over the air.

“I remember playing new songs never heard before by Dobie Gray, the Sanford Townsend Band and Bob Seger,” says St. John. “Things happened very fast that first year in radio. The female rock disc jockey concept was working!”

St. John was obviously doing something right; the legendary Sam Phillips came calling with an offer to do middays on a new FM station, WQLT. She was the first disc jockey to play cuts like “Sharing the Night Together” and “Angel in Your Arms” and did on-air interviews with the likes of Paul Simon, Glenn Frey and Peter Noone. When Elvis Presley died, St. John was the first announcer in the country to break the news after getting a phone call from Phillips who was in Memphis.

In 1978, John Long of WHBQ Memphis caught St. John’s show while on a road trip through the area and offered her a shift right between high-powered radio personalities Rick Dees and Bob Landry. A couple of years later, St. John joined Long at KULF/KKBQ in Houston, the third largest radio market in the country at the time. The magic was still working.

Due to family reasons, St. John moved back to Alabama and WLAY in 1982, but the move brought further fortuitous career benefits. Sam Phillips decided to put a brand new country station on the air and that’s when St. John moved to WXFL KIX96 where she’s been for over ten years.

Even as St. John’s career pegs the meter, she manages to remain dedicated to her community especially through her involvement with local animal shelters. She lobbies with PAWS and other rescue organizations to make meaningful changes in animal abuse laws in Alabama.

“I’ve been a broadcaster for forty years and I can’t imagine retiring from this industry that I love,” smiles St. John. “Being able to talk for a living and use my voice to entertain and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves … I consider that an amazing gift from God.”