He had interviewed the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Ella Fitzgerald and Sinatra, in addition to making Hong Kong swing to the rhythm of all Western musical trends since the middle of the 20th century.
Hong Kong radio host Reinaldo Maria Cordeiro, known as Uncle Ray, died Friday at the age of 98 after more than seven decades of career.
Guinness World Records hailed him in 2000 as the longest-serving DJ in the world.
Reinaldo Maria Cordeiro was
"a prominent figure in Hong Kong's popular culture"
who made
"a considerable contribution to the music scene" in
Hong Kong, the city's culture minister, Kevin Yeung, said on Saturday.
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The lifelong host had launched the careers of many local musicians and introduced pop music trends to generations of Hong Kong fans during his radio shows.
Reinaldo Maria Cordeiro died surrounded by his family and friends, who sang
You'll Never Walk Alone
as a farewell, said a committee organizing his funeral.
He had been hospitalized last year after a heart attack.
Sharing “good music”
Born in Hong Kong in 1924, Cordeiro was the fifth of six children in a family of Portuguese immigrants.
After working as a prison guard and bank clerk, he turned to music, hosting his first show “Progressive Jazz” on Radio Rediffusion in 1949.
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More than ten years later, the DJ had risen to prominence in the 1960s by hosting shows for Hong Kong's public network, RTHK, which were a big hit with teenagers.
His late-night show "All the Way With Ray," launched in 1970, became the station's longest-running radio show.
Upon his retirement in 2021, he told RTHK:
“I had the best in life and I had everything I wanted to be, everything I wanted to do”
.
In his autobiography, he wrote,
“sharing good music with my fans puts me in my element”
.
"I refuse to imagine a world without music
," he added.