WDKX posted the following tribute on the Radio Station website…. Being a family-owned business, we here think of WDKX as a family, and our listeners and advertisers as our extended family. It is with great sadness we announce the passing of WDKX patriarch: CEO and founder Andrew A.
Langston, Thursday, June 10th, 2010. He was born on May 12, 1927, and raised in Georgia, a period of very few opportunities for blacks in the deep south. Mr.
Langston’s parents, however, taught him to think positively… a trait that remained throughout his long life. He arrived in Rochester in July 1960 with his young family, his beloved wife Gloria and son Andre, with a dream of launching a career in broadcasting. After many successful years in clothing and insurance sales through the 1960s, Mr.
Langston formed the corporation “Monroe County Broadcasting” to pursue an FM frequency in 1968. It took 6 years, but his broadcasting dream became reality on April 6, 1974, with the sign-on of WDKX-FM.A great man with a personality that filled every room he entered, Mr. Langston was not without reverence for his heritage, naming WDKX, his most prized of all his accomplishments, after the black heroes: Frederick Douglass, Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcom X. In homage to their legacies, he devoted WDKX to the black community, indeed the whole Rochester community. Mr.
Langston will be sadly missed by all those who were touched by his generosity and kindness. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Andrew A. Langston Center for Educational Excellence, at Canand aigua National Bank and Trust, 2075 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, 14618.
A public memorial service will be held at 12 Noon on Thursday, June 17, 2010 at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church located at 351 Joseph Ave. in Rochester. In the meantime, we ask for respect for the privacy of the Langston family and the WDKX family during this time of sorrow, as well as thoughts and prayers for the family’s comfort and strength, and courage to face the days ahead.
Thank you.
