Wichita radio community rallies as COVID-19 hospitalizations affect hosts, families

The Wichita radio community is rallying as COVID-19 has sent a host and family members to the hospital.

Greg Williams, also known as “The Hitman” as a radio host for KDGS-FM, is hospitalized with bilateral pneumonia due to COVID-19, according to a Facebook post from Power 93.5.

“The reality of the situation is this pandemic has affected ALL of us in some shape or form. ... I’m calling all Prayer Warriors, Universe praisers, Spiritual Healers and everything in between- we would appreciate your thoughts and prayers at this time,” the post read.

Williams’s health is improving and he may be able to go home early this week, Mike Kennedy said on Twitter. Kennedy is the play-by-play announcer for Wichita State University men’s basketball, baseball and volleyball.

At KFDI-FM 101.3, host JJ Hayes said his wife, Michelle, has been on a ventilator at the hospital, but her health is improving.

“Keep that love and that energy and that positivity coming,” he said Sunday in a Facebook video. “There is so much power in positivity, love, faith, kindness. That is all going to win every time.”

Last week, Hayes shared a letter from his wife to his radio show page.

“For the Covid deniers out there in our friend group let me tell you this. It. Is. Real,” the letter read. “I wish you could’ve spent the afternoon with me listening to the person next-door whose call light was constantly going off as she was coughing and crying and moaning. It was heartbreaking. I feel as if I was listening to her die.

“And for those of you who feel the need to fight the ‘but they didn’t die of Covid they died of something else.’ if I should die in this battle. Even though I have type 2 diabetes, a kidney transplant, CKD. Make no question that I died of ACOVID-19. Because none of those things brought me to the hospital.”

John Speer, a former KFDI and KEYN radio host known as “John Boy,” said he has COVID-19 and was being monitored at home. But his wife, Pattie Coon Speer, has been in the ICU with more serious health issues from the coronavirus.

“Her oxygen needs have continued to improve, she’s been up and down a little and she’s even singing some!” John Speer, now the mayor of Kechi, said in a public Facebook post on Friday. “Can’t you just hear the nurses talking at the nurses station about the critically ill patient on high levels of oxygen singing praise songs!”