Alumna honored as first female DJ in Texas Country Music Hall of Fame

<div class="newscaption">Jennifer Herron celebrates the Hall of Fame honor with her mother, Janet Marburger Herron.</a></div>

Texas State alumna Jennifer Herron (B.A. ’93) recently became the first female disc jockey to be inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame.  

Herron, a Nashville-based radio and TV personality, is currently the host of Cheyenne Country, Studio 23 Nashville and the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree.  A native of La Vernia, Herron earned her degree in mass communication and electronic media. Before moving to Tennessee in 1998, she worked for radio stations in South Texas including  KKYX, Y-100, KBUC, KTSA, WOAI  and KENS.   

 “I thought they (Texas State) had such a great program. When I met other people in broadcasting after I graduated, I realized what a great program it was,” she says. Herron says the Texas State program offered both on-air experience and ability to work with station equipment.          

As a freshman transfer, Herron began at Texas State as an accounting major. It was a professor who suggested she should use her writing skills in mass communications. “I took a risk,” she says, “and great things have happened.”  

Herron says there are plenty of people at Texas State she credits with helping guide her. She was the recipient of the Gloria Campos Endowed Scholarship and recalls advice that broadcast lecturer Larry Carlson offered. “It helped me a lot in my writing, I would expand on the way I would say things,” she says.    

In addition to her TV and radio work, Herron started a PR firm in 2005 where she represents country music artists such as Rex Allen Jr., Ronnie McDowell and her husband, singer/songwriter Bobby Marquez. She currently produces the weekly Crook and Chase Countdown on iHeart Radio. She also serves as emcee for shows in and around Nashville.

The Texas Country Music Hall of Fame  & Tex Ritter Museum is in Carthage in East Texas. The ceremony, held August 11, was part of a four-day festival.  Herron says she was initially surprised about her nomination, especially the part about being the first woman. “I was shocked. I don’t know if I deserved this  honor. There are a lot of women before me who deserve this.” 

Herron says she is always surprised by the power of radio. She tells a story about being on vacation in the Australian Outback when her husband pointed out that their Aboriginal guide was sporting a hat with the logo of the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jubilee. It turns out, the man was a country music fan and he recognized Herron’s voice from the WSM radio show, which is broadcast on the web.

“I love what I do,” Herron says. “But Texas is still my home and who I am.”