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Great Friend to REGGAE Music, it's Artists and Fans: Clint
O'Neil
Clint O’Neil, who brought reggae music to overnight radio listeners for 20 years on WLRN 91.3 FM, died on Sunday, October 10, 2004 at the age of 60 in his Miami waterfront apartment.
“Clint brought his special love of Caribbean music to countless listeners for two decades,” said WLRN General Manager John LaBonia. “We are grateful for his years of faithful service, and extend our deepest condolences to his family.”
Clint O'Neil, South Florida's Godfather of Reggae,
was the host of WLRN 91.3 FM's Sounds of the Caribbean on Tuesday through Friday mornings from 1 am - 5 am and Saturday mornings from 1 am -7 am. In the 20 years that Clint
hosted his show, he almost single-handedly popularized reggae music in South Florida and
emerged as a prominent figure in South Florida's Caribbean-American community to boot. But his popularity
was not just a local phenomenon. Every day, listeners from as far away as the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba and even Africa write and call Clint with their greetings and song requests.
Clint's longstanding ties to American reggae fans began in the '70's when he worked as a DJ at a circuit of reggae nightclubs stretching from Toronto to Washington D.C. After he moved to Miami in 1978, it was Bob Marley himself who encouraged Clint to pursue a radio broadcasting career playing reggae music. Clint began Sounds of the Caribbean as a two-hour show on Saturdays and Sundays in 1979, but its popularity grew so rapidly that he was quickly broadcasting a six-hour show six nights a week, the biggest on-air presence of any local DJ. Clint's support of local groups is well-known, and in recent years he has extended the range of his show to include the calypso and dance hall music of South Florida's most talented young Caribbean-American musicians. The inimitable blend of reggae knowledge, experience and feeling that Clint O'Neil
brought to Sounds of the Caribbean made it one of the most unique programs on South Florida's air waves.
South Florida FM Radio Personality for 1997, New Times.
Clint will be missed. Jah Blessings to Clint O's Spirit on its continuing Journey.
