Gene Shay, hailed as “the dean of American folk DJs” by the Philadelphia Daily News, was named Folk DJ of the year during the 2nd Annual Folk Alliance Awards Show in Memphis, Tenn. on Feb. 21. The awards, presented on the opening night of the just-concluded 19th Annual North American Folk Music & Dance Alliance Alliance International Business Conference, recognize merit and achievement in the folk music field.

Shay, who has hosted and produced weekly folk radio shows in Philadelphia for more than four decades, can currently be heard each Sunday on WXPN (88.5 FM) and, as of yesterday (Feb.24), on the FolkAlley.com stream each Saturday from 5-7 p.m. ET, with an encore broadcast Wednesday evenings at the same time.

A co-founder of the annual Philadelphia Folk Festival, Shay has served as a festival emcee since its inception. He has interviewed numerous folk luminaries since the 1960s, brought Bob Dylan to Philly for his debut concert in the area and wrote the original radio spots for Woodstock. Shay also is a partner in Sliced Bread Records, for which he has produced a number of folk music anthologies — including What’s That I Hear, The Songs of Phil Ochs and the Philadelphia Folk Festival 40th Anniversary Anthology. He served as a charter board member of Folk Alliance and has been both a steering committee member and coordinator of workshops for the annual Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) Conference. Shay serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Folksong Society and The American Composers Forum, and is a voting member of the board of governors of NARAS (the Grammy organization) in Philadelphia.