Billy Parker, the influential Oklahoma country music broadcaster known as the "Voice of Oklahoma," would have turned 89 today; he died on 19 January 2026 at the age of 88 in Tulsa. Born in Tuskegee, Oklahoma, on 19 July 1937, he became a defining figure in country radio during a career spanning four decades, blending broadcasting with a recording career that saw more than 20 singles reach the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.

Parker began performing professionally at 14 and joined Red Foley's Ozark Jubilee at 19, later touring for three years with Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours before settling in Tulsa in 1971. There he joined radio station KVOO, hosting nightly country programming and creating one of America's first all-night trucker radio shows, and won multiple Disc Jockey of the Year awards from the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music before his 1992 induction into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame. He released nine albums, with his biggest hit, "(Who's Gonna Sing) The Last Country Song," reaching number 41 in 1982, and retired from KVOO in 2015 after a career he said he valued more for its listeners than its ratings.