Longtime Pee Dee radio announcer Brockway dies of cancer

The Pee Dee lost one of its most beloved and recognizable voices this week.

Longtime radio announcer Tom Brockway died Thursday after a long battle with cancer.

A native of Oneida, N.Y., Brockway began his career in radio while in the Air Force. After completing his time in the service, he continued in radio and eventually landed on the airwaves in South Carolina.

Brockway worked for WYAV 104.1 in Myrtle Beach, but made a huge splash in the Pee Dee in the mid-1980s with Tim Gore on the Breakfast Flakes, 103X’s legendary morning show. Through the years, he also hosted shows on Sunny 105.5 and Eagle 92.9.

Local radio personality Dan E. Lockemy got to know Brockway in 1990 when Lockemy joined WJMX. Lockemy said Brockway was the one who convinced him that his  “At The Beach” show would work on a pop/Top 40 station.

“Tom loved hit music, but he also loved blues and R&B and beach music,” Lockemy said.

“Tom was a true professional. He was not a DJ. He was a professional radio announcer and personality,” he said. “He was fun and energetic and exciting. When he did the morning show, lots of us used to come to work early just to be in the studio to listen to him and laugh with him.”

Occasionally, Lockemy said, Brockway would fill in as host of “At the Beach.” When he did, he called himself “Tom E. Brockemy.”

“He was a lot of fun. He just had a great sense of humor,” Lockemy said. “Tom had the ability to connect with the public one-on-one,” Lockemy said. “People loved him. It didn’t matter whether they were young or old. He had no true demographic. That was the magic of Tom Brockway.“

It was that fun sense of humor and connection with people radio personality “Cactus” Jack Stanton said he’ll remember most about Brockway.

“We both had a silly sense of humor, so we were always cutting up together,” Stanton said. “Tom was a very colorful guy. He was always smiling and joking around. And if you got him talking about music, he’d start playing the air drums and talking about songs. He was just a fun guy.”

Brockway’s love of music didn’t stop with spinning tunes on the radio. He also played drums in a band called “Blind, Crippled and Crazy,” and he shared his talent and love of music with his son, Geoffrey.

“If my dad gave me anything, it was curly hair and some talent to play music,” Geoffrey Brockway said, adding that his dad taught him to play drums when he was just 13.

“He sat me down and said, ‘Alright, I’m going to teach you how to play this song.’ It was a ZZ Top song. I’m pretty sure it was ‘Sharp Dressed Man.’ ZZ Top was one of his favorite bands,” he said. “He was always pumped up and ready to have fun, especially when it came to music, and I’m the same way.”

The radio station and the entire community will not be the same without Brockway, Qantum Communications General Manager Craig Dalla Riva.

“Tom was a fantastic guy,” Dalla Riva said. “He was always willing to do whatever he could to make this community a better place. He was a big part of this radio station and a big part of the Pee Dee. He truly was one-of-a-kind.”

Brockway is survived by his wife, Cher, and three children: Tommy, Jennifer and Geoffrey.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at Stoudenmire-Dowling Funeral Home in Florence.