‘Your heart’s done,’ doctors tell morning radio legend Hal Jay as he awaits transplant

Hal Jay, the long-time WBAP 820-AM Morning News co-host, told listeners last week that he needs a new heart.

The Hall of Fame radio personality has been off the air since Jan. 10 when he collapsed at home from an irregular heart rhythm. Jay said doctors told him “your heart’s done” after he suffered another incident at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas a few days later.

“I think I’m doing OK,” he told listeners from his hospital bed on Jan. 16, and joked that when the doctors asked him if he was allergic to anything, he said “hospital bills.”

Jay said he is on level two of the heart transplant list.

“It’s going to change for the better,” he said of life after a transplant. “I’ll be able to function. I know two or three people that have had heart transplants and they live life to the fullest everyday. They drive and do everything, which I can’t do anymore.”

Jay said he hopes to continue giving on-air updates about his condition.

“I’d love to document this and tell the whole world about it and talk about organ donation,” he said. “It’s a whole different mindset.”

Shortly before finishing the call, Jay thanked all the well-wishers for their prayers.

“God is good,” he said. “He’s working and it’s just wonderful being able to say that.”

According to Jay’s online bio, the Fort Worth native started his broadcast career as a teenager in Liberal, Kansas. He worked at stations in Fort Worth and Memphis before joining WBAP in 1981.

His laugh has been called “the most recognizable laugh in the Metroplex,” according to his bio.

Jay and coworker Dick Siegel, the traffic reporter at WBAP from 1981 to 2003, had a comic strip in the Star-Telegram called The Adventures of Hal ‘n Dick.

He has been married to his wife Ann since 1973.