(Editor’s Note: It’s WKMS’ 50th year of broadcasting, and the station is celebrating with 50 stories. This week’s story comes from WKMS alumna Jincy Canterbury-Hayes.)
Jincy Canterbury-Hayes was from Hopkinsville and attended Murray State in the mid-1970’s. She wasn’t quite sure about her major, until she walked into the WKMS studios for the first time during a tour.
“I could push all the buttons, and I was so excited. So I knew that was me.”
Canterbury-Hayes started working at WKMS in the spring of 1975. She was also in band.
“It was neat because we played classical music during the hours that I worked,” said Canterbury-Hayes. “And I knew how to pronounce a lot of the names, which I remember hearing one of the guys one time said, ‘and that was choppin.’ … and I was like no it isn’t it is pronounced “show-pan.”
Canterbury-Hayes also recalls times when she felt a sense of duty from her time with WKMS.
“There was some bad weather one time and I think we were in a tornado watch,” said Canterbury-Hayes. “We flipped off all the other music and we were just doing weather reports. I felt so needed, people would call the station and go, ‘Do you have anything else? Do you have anything else?’
“But I remembered feeling like I was really providing service to the community.”
Canterbury-Hayes didn’t spend a career in radio. And she didn’t because she wanted to be paid the same as a man.
“I did an internship down in Nashville, and they hired a guy to help me and paid him more than they were paying me,” said Canterbury-Hayes. “And I was promised a raise one place in six months. And at eight months, I asked about it, and it was like, well, we had to get so-and-so a raise, you know, he’s married, got family. It was like, where can I make enough money that I feel like I’m making the same as the guys?”
That place was the United States Marines Corps. She was one of a small number of women allowed in the Marines in 1978. And as she told the Kentucky New Era in 2017, only 2 percent were officers. It took her a few tries to complete Officer Candidate School; she even broke her leg during one training exercise.
Now, after more than 40 years, Canterbury-Hayes says her experience at WKMS went with her everywhere.
“Every duty station that I’ve had, except for one, I always went and volunteered at one of the radio stations,” said Canterbury-Hayes. “But I needed to keep my fingers in it because I really loved it. And I think that Murray gave me the love for that by helping me to be successful doing what I loved. And you can’t ask for much better than that.”
Listen to Canterbury-Hayes’ interview here. To read more stories in the series, go here. You can share your WKMS memories here or call the station and/or leave a message at 270-809-2070.
(This story first ran on WKMS, the public radio station at Murray State University.)
