Agnes Simpson, longtime owner of Dothan's WOOF radio station, dead at 87

DOTHAN, Al.
 Agnes Simpson, longtime owner of Alabama's WOOF radio stations in Dothan and the first woman to be named Alabama Broadcaster of the Year, has died. She was 87.

Agnes Simpson

Simpson died Monday at her residence, officials with the Sunset Memorial Park Funeral Home and Crematory said Tuesday.
"In the radio business, she and I are old school," said longtime General Sales Manager Hal Edwards. "Not just because we were old but because we still cling to the ideal of serving our listeners. We always agreed that at WOOF Radio, our job was 'To serve the public interest and our business is the promotion of legal commercial enterprise' and we did that."
Simpson was born in Prescott, Ariz. and attended the University of Alabama, where she met her future husband, R.A. Dowling. She served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and moved to Dothan after the war.
She and her husband got a license to operate an AM radio station in 1947 and launched WOOF. After her husband died, Simpson obtained a license for one of Alabama's first FM stations, which launched in 1964.
Simpson sold commercials and also did news broadcasts on both stations. She won awards for her broadcasting, including the Silver Medal Award from the Dothan Advertising Federation and Alabama Broadcaster of the Year.
Simpson served as the president of WOOF until recently when she took ill.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity.