Cape native wins CMA DJ award

The wild ride began like this: "How you guys doing? It's Taylor Swift."

The on-air telephone call from the famous country music singer set off a crazy few weeks for Scott Cox, a Cape Girardeau native and longtime radio disc jockey.

It culminated with Cox standing on the stage last week at the Country Music Association Awards in Nashville, Tenn., accepting a top award in country music radio.

"It's indescribable that I was in the same room on the show I had been watching since I was a kid," Cox said. "It's just been amazing."

Swift made that surprise call in October to the Columbia, Mo., radio station where Cox has worked since 2000. She told Cox and his radio partner, Carissa Loethen, that they had won the CMA's Personality of the Year Award for small-market DJs.

"Carissa just screamed," Cox said. "It was pretty surprising."

Perhaps surprising to Cox, whose radio career began on Cape Girardeau radio stations before he even graduated high school. But not to those who grew up with him or had him as a student with an early passion for the medium.

"He had a good ear for radio," said Bruce Mims, who had Cox in a radio class at Southeast Missouri State University. "I think it's a good safe thing to say that he had it. This award proves that -- there is no larger award."

Cox, 44, is the son of Robert and Betty Cox. Robert, who died in 2007, was a well-respected professor at Southeast, and Betty still lives in Cape Girardeau.

Betty Cox said she was proud when she heard that her son was getting a CMA award. She recalled her son telling her when he was 7 or 8 years old that he wanted to grow up to be the next Brent Musburger, the famous sportscaster.

"I was really happy for him, because he's put in a lot of time and effort in being the best that he can be," she said. "It's what he's always wanted to do since high school."

Cox's radio career began here, when he worked for a Withers Broadcasting station KGMO. Karie Hollerbach, who has been friends with Cox since the seventh grade, said the award is a long time coming.

She credited his popularity -- his shows have had strong ratings -- to Cox's personality. He's also clever, has a good sense of humor and tends to be self-effacing, she said.

"He offers up insights that everyday people can relate to," Hollerbach said. "And yet he's not afraid to poke fun at himself. He's just one of the guys."

After graduating from Central High School and then Southeast Missouri State University, Cox took a job with the Zimmer Radio Group, which took him to stations in Poplar Bluff and then Carbondale, Ill.

Then, in 2000, the company moved him to Columbia, where he's been ever since. It's a job that he loves.

"I'm a believer that God gifts us all to do certain things," Cox said. "I don't understand it. But I seem to have the gift to do this job. I seem to be pretty good at it, if that doesn't sound too arrogant."

Still, he said he's proud to still be a "Cape boy." And he's trying not to get too bigheaded about the award, he said.

He recalls that he had to wait a year after applying for his first radio gig before getting a response. He needed to work, so he applied at Taco Bell. The next day, the radio station called and offered him a job.

"I've had 20-plus years in radio," Cox said, chuckling. "I could have been working at Taco Bell for 20 years. It was close."

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642