Gwyneth "Dandelion" Seese

Inducted 2001

Born: November 6, 1937, Swiftwater, PA

Dandalion is country music's premier female disc jockey For nearly 20 years, she was the all-night disc jockey on WRKZ-FM in Hershey Her show was number one in the Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, and Lebanon ADI for many of those years.

Seese credits a CB radio with launching her radio career. During the 1970s, at the height of the CB radio craze, Seese drove 110 miles each night for the U.S. Postal Service. She bought a CB for protection but soon discovered the fun of communicating with other nighttime travelers, most of them truckers.

Using Dandalion as her handle, Seese developed a special respect for the individuals who were her nightly traveling companions. She wrote a book about truckers which led to her being invited to guest on radio. When Big John Trumble, a well-known trucker DJ in Richmond, VA at WRVA invited her to substitute for him during his vacation, she moved into a new career as an overnight DJ in trucker radio. She was 41 years old

She was hired by a Lancaster County radio station where her show debuted in 1979. Three years later, she moved to WRKZ where she became the dominant female disc jockey in the area. In 1999, she became the first woman in the history of country music to host her own network show, "Dandalion's Cat Country Network."

Seese is the first woman in country music to be nominated for the industry's top three DJ awards (Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, and Billboard). In 1989 she was nominated for all three awards simultaneously. She was named the Academy's Top Country Disc Jockey that year, the first woman so honored. She was inducted into the Country DJ Hall of Fame in 1999, one of the first women to be elected to the Hall.

Seese has also been recognized for her work as music director at WRKZ, a position she has held since 1979.  She was the first female to be named Music Director of the Year (1992) by Gavin.  She has won that award three additional times (1997, 1999,2000). Billboard named her Music Director of the Year in 1993 and Local Air Personality of the Year in 1996.

She has been recognized for her work as a major fund-raiser for a variety of charities, including The Children's Miracle Network, Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and United Cerebral Palsy.

Dandalion retired from her all-night show in 2000. She continues as Music Director at WRKZ where she also serves as Coordinator of Special Events.