Mike Murphy, who retired from KCMO-AM Kansas City in 2004 has died. He was known for starting the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which will take place again next week.
According to the Kansas City Star and KMBC-TV, the parade was originally just a publicity stunt in 1974. Murphy and a few others marched around the block where an Irish pub was located after he’d declared on the air that Kansas City needed a St. Patrick’s Day parade. From that small beginning was born what is today the city’s largest annual parade.
Murphy had also worked on air at KMBZ and KFIX in Kansas City. Neither his age nor the cause of his death were immediately disclosed, although friends told the news outlets that he had been ill for some time.
