by Howard Campbell
NEW YORK – Gil Bailey, a champion of West Indian radio in New York, died there April 13 at age 84. He succumbed to cardiac arrest due to complications from the coronavirus, his daughter Jacqueline Bailey-Faulks, said.
She disclosed that her father was diagnosed with the disease on April 7 at Long island Jewish Hospital where he died.
At the time of his death, Bailey hosted The Gil Bailey Show on YouTube. It debuted in July last year.
The four-hour program was similar to his previous shows of the same name. Bailey played reggae, calypso, soca and gospel music, which was a winning combination with West Indian listeners in the tri-state (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) area.
“It’s very exciting…We’ve been getting calls from all over from people saying ‘dis is what wi want to hear’. Some of the people are also seeing me in action for the first time,” Bailey said of his new format.
Gil Bailey was originally from St. Thomas, a rural parish in eastern Jamaica. He migrated to the United States in the late 1960s and launched his broadcasting career in 1969 on WHBI.
During the 1970s, he and his wife Pat co-hosted The Gil Bailey Show at WPAT and WNWK, helping to expose West Indian culture when mainstream radio stations in the United States shunned that region’s culture.
Along with fellow Jamaicans Tony Cobb, Jeff Barnes and Ken Williams, Bailey gave reggae a consistent presence, especially in New York City which had a massive Jamaican community.
“The highs of my career was someone like me with no college education masterfully being on radio for more than 45 years and providing radio excellence so that many with college education could follow, and I was able to make a comfortable living for my wife and family,” said Bailey in a 2018 interview.
In August last year, organizers of the Merritone Family Fun Day recognized his 50-year career by presenting him with a Golden Mic award at Heckscher Park in Long Island, New York.
Pat Bailey, who died in 2016, Barnes, Cobb, and Williams were also honored by promoters of the annual event.
Bailey-Faulks, the eldest of Bailey’s three children, described her father as “stern, but very easy to talk to.”
He is survived by two daughters (a daughter pre-deceased him), six grandchildren and one great grandchild.
