Local radio legend Cousin Carl dies

Billy R. Anderson, known as Cousin Carl to listeners of family-owned Pure Country 106.1 KWKZ-FM, died Friday morning at the age of 80.

Arrangements are pending at Ford & Sons in Cape Girardeau.

Licensed to the city of Charleston, Missouri, 50,000-watt KWKZ went on the air in 1993 at studios in the former First National Bank building on Broadway Street in Cape, moving in 1997 to the station's current location at 753 Enterprise Drive.

Anderson, according to a radio station biography, grew up on a farm in Southeast Oklahoma and got his first paying job in Dequeen, Arkansas, as an announcer while a senior in high school.

Anderson received an Addy (American Advertising) Award in 2010.