GAINESVILLE, FL (352today.com) – A beloved morning show host has died following a head-on collision on State Road 121.
Heather Jennings, radio host for stations such as WPLL I Am Country 106.9 FM and Nature Coast Country: Z 103.3 FM, has died following an early-morning car crash on Tuesday.
According to a release by the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), a sedan driven by a 30-year-old Gainesville woman was headed south on State Road 121 (Williston Road.) The vehicle crossed the center line and entered the path of a sedan headed north driven by a 57-year-old Crystal River woman, later identified as Jennings. The two vehicles then collided.
Both Jennings and the Gainesville woman were taken to UF Shands Health Hospital, where they were both pronounced dead.
Jennings had accepted the role of morning host of I Am Country 106.9 FM just this past November and was on her way to work at the time.
An outpouring of sentiment has followed Jennings’ death, with 352today Editor-In-Chief Kathy Dugan sharing a few words of her own.
“I first met Heather when we worked together at WTRS in Ocala in the early 1990s,” said Dugan. “But that wasn’t the first time I’d heard her voice. Back in high school, when WTRS was still based in Dunnellon, my mom would listen to Dixie Rose every day. Years later, I discovered that Heather was the voice behind Dixie Rose.”
Dugan shares that Jennings sang along to every song even back then and that she, indeed, had a lovely singing voice.
“My heart goes out to Heather’s family, friends, and coworkers who have lost a joyful soul,” she adds.
Lewis Stokes, production director and midday host at 93.7 K-Country, recalls working with Heather Jennings in the mid-90s under the late Bill Kramer, who served as program director then.
“She was a weekend announcer for a few years,” Stokes shares. “She hosted a Sunday morning show called the K-Country Countdown before we had the syndicated Country Top 40 show. I was stunned to hear of her death.”
MARC Media, owner and operator of I Am Country 106.9 FM, provided a heartfelt statement on Jennings’ death:
An hour before sunrise (on Tuesday), I Am Country morning DJ Heather Jennings was driving to work on the country roads of Alachua County when her sedan was met head-on by another vehicle. She did not survive. We knew something was very wrong at 6 a.m. when patriotic Heather wasn’t standing at her mic, hand over her heart, proudly leading her audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. It was time to begin her signature broadcast, “The Heather Jennings Morning Show,” but instead, her booth was silent. Then we got the dreaded phone call confirming that it was indeed Heather in that double-fatality crash. It’s a phone call we’ll never forget. We’re still grappling with the reality of that news, fervently praying for her two daughters, Dixie and Jacy, whom she loved beyond measure. It was barely a month ago when we welcomed her cheerful, creative personality to the MARC Radio airwaves. Our November 5th company press release, accompanied by a beautiful picture of her in our studio, reflected Heather’s enthusiasm for her first day at the station. It read in part: You may recognize her as that woman on the Harley cruising down the back roads of Alachua County singing out loud to her favorite musical artists. “Country music is hands-down the soundtrack of my life, and I’ll help you make it yours, too,” said Heather. We are having a hard time realizing that the halls of our radio station will no longer reverberate with Heather’s voice singing along, word-for-word, with every song we air. She sang with enthusiasm and, yes, always on key. We lost Heather this morning. Before we shared our grief with you, we wanted to be certain that Heather’s family and closest friends had been informed first. Now, we’re struggling to find the words to write about this friend we cherished. Not very many people can make the kind of impression that Heather Jennings did in just one short month. But as a professional broadcaster, she quickly made her mark. We join her family, her friends, and her listeners all over Gainesville in the incomprehensible loss of her young life and her distinctive on-air presence. There was a void on our airwaves this morning. And it will be there again tomorrow and forever after. But we are a company built on faith. Today, the airwaves of heaven got even sweeter. We’ll miss you, Heather.