Max Meeks became morning host in 1947; at age 75, he was still there in 2000 when he took time off for heart surgery, but he had no intention of retiring. He did sell furniture for a while starting in the late 1950s, but he came back to radio. Listeners compared him to Walter Cronkite and James Stewart and considered him an old friend. He tried sounding like famous people when he started, but it didn't work. He was at his best just being a regular person. and he played a wide variety of music, even hymns. Among the stars Meeks interviewed from the WMFR studios: Eddy Arnold and The Carter Sisters, but not Elvis Presley ("I didn't think he would amount to anything"). After other medical procedures, when he couldn't drive to the studio, he just broadcast from home. He was named to the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1996.