Vale Dot Dawson

Radio veteran Dot Dawson has passed away aged 104. Dot began her radio career at 3KZ, and, after marrying country music legend Smoky Dawson, the pair had many successful radio programs over the decades, from the Smoky Dawson syndicated radio show in the 1940s, to jointly hosting 20 years of country music programming on community radio station FM 99.3 in recent years.

 

Smokey & Dot met in 1939. They had no children and lived on the North Shore of Sydney. Smokey passed away in 2008, aged 94.

 

Born Florence Cheers in Echuca Victoria in 1906, Dot Dawson had a very successful career in broadcasting in the 30’s and 40’s as a 3KZ childrens’ session announcer. She met Smokey at an amateur radio station in Melbourne and they courted for 9 years.  

When Smoky returned from the war in 1944 they finally married. After the war they both travelled to the United States to record, and play at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.

Smokey Dawson’s radio show, which began in 1952 when they returned from the USA, made he and Dot household names in the golden days of radio. Movies and a TV show followed.  At its peak the radio show, sponsored by Kellogs, was broadcast on 69 stations across the country.

Dot also had her own syndicated radio shows for children at that time.

For thirty years their Ranch, on 26 acres at Ingleside became a popular second home for many local children, where parents could drop them off and Smokey and Dot would teach them some of the good values of life.

Their Country Music Showcase commenced on FM 99.3 when the station started broadcasting in May 1983 and continued without interruption until Smoky died, with over 1,200 programs aired.

 

RIP Dot Dawson.