Tammie Holland, longtime St. Louis radio personality, dies at 53

St. Louis radio personality Tammie Holland, whose voice was a staple in R&B radio for more than two decades, died early Saturday morning after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 53.

Listeners who heard her on St. Louis’ airwaves came to love her spirited energy, and she loved her city right back, said her older sister, Kelly Buffaloe Taylor.

“No matter what the city is going through or looked like, she loved St. Louis,” Buffaloe Taylor said. “She was the little girl who didn’t grow up with a whole lot from the city. But she just believed that her city was worth all the efforts and all the love and all the accolades.”

Holland died in hospice shortly after 7 a.m., her sister said. Funeral arrangements were pending as of Saturday afternoon.

Holland’s radio career began in the mid-1990s as an intern for veteran radio personalities Tony Scott and Marc Clarke on the now-defunct Majic 105.

That’s where she met Terry Crouppen, a prominent St. Louis attorney who would become a longtime family friend. Crouppen had a weekly segment on Scott and Clarke’s show where he would chat with the hosts about various city issues.

“She had a laugh that just made you want to laugh, and you wanted to just sit there and hope she never stopped laughing,” Crouppen said. “She was a magnet. She was a star. She just was.”

After her internship, Holland continued working for Majic, and also worked nights at KSDK (Channel 5), listening to police scanners and reporting news. She worked mornings at sister station Z107 as news director and, in the afternoon, she wrote features for a syndicated Christian television show, the Post-Dispatch reported in a 2010 profile.

In the early 2000s, then-programmer Chuck Atkins hired Holland onto Majic’s “Tony Scott Show.” Holland and Scott would dish on celebrity gossip, spin R&B hits, and dole out advice on cheating boyfriends and meddling relatives.

It became “The Tony and Tammie Morning Show,” and it consistently ranked as the top show among Black women between ages 25 and 54.

In 2006, Holland had her daughter, Meadow. Holland later told the Post-Dispatch it was a difficult time because she decided to leave her daughter’s father and move back in with her mother.

“But my job saved my life,” she said. “I was forced to come to work and laugh.”

In 2014, Scott was let go from “The Tony and Tammie Morning Show,” and Holland took on the show alone, helping lead the station through its coverage of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson and the civil unrest that followed. At the time, the station was KMJM Majic 100.3 and later became 100.3 the Beat. Holland’s voice guided the Beat through two incarnations, including one under media company iHeartRadio.

In 2017, Holland left the station amid widespread layoffs at iHeartRadio. The next year, she announced she was starting a new phase of her career: public relations.

“I’ve made my own door, and I’m gonna kick that bitch down and keep it moving,” Holland said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch.

In July 2021, a doctor diagnosed Holland with late-stage colon cancer, her sister said.

Later that year, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones awarded her first Key to the City to Holland. Jones remembered her in a social media post Saturday.

“Tammie gave so much to our community and I will forever miss her smile, her wit, her style, her hugs, her infectious giggle,” Jones wrote.

Despite the cancer diagnosis, Holland’s time with radio wasn’t done. In October 2023, she started a podcast — This Week With Tammie Holland — with the sponsorship of her longtime friend’s law firm, Brown and Crouppen, Terry Crouppen said.

“We’re from St. Louis. Our law firm’s based here. We represent St. Louis people,” Crouppen said. “What could be more St. Louis than Tammie?”

She interviewed local artists and leaders in business, fashion, faith and law. Her last episode aired in May.

Holland also made a return to the airwaves on Foxy 106.9, where she co-hosted the Real Breakfast Crew. The station called her “a St. Louis icon” in a statement on its website.

“Tammie was a beloved figure in the St. Louis community known for her tireless work ethic, her generosity and her unwavering commitment to making a difference in the lives of those around her. We will always remember her boundless energy, her quick wit and her incredible spirit.”

Holland shared more than music and her voice during her cancer treatment, said Kevin Johnson, a former Post-Dispatch reporter who covered St. Louis’ music scene for 26 years.

“From the beginning of her cancer journey, she would post videos of what was going on, in doctor’s offices, in the hospital,” Johnson said. “She documented the whole journey up until she entered hospice this summer.”

“She invited the public into her world this way.”

Before she died, Holland had three wishes, her sister said: leave a legacy in St. Louis, and see her daughter graduate from high school and turn 18.

“God gave her those,” Buffaloe Taylor said.

Holland’s death granted peace to her and her family, a relief from the pain and suffering from cancer and its intense treatment, Buffaloe Taylor said.

“I believed her when she said she was ready. She did as much fighting as she wanted to do,” Buffaloe Taylor said. “The end has come and my sister’s no longer in any pain.”

Holland’s daughter, Meadow McNeary, is poised to carry on her mother’s legacy. She’s an aspiring hip hop artist — MG-M — whose debut show is coming up at the Dark Room at the Grandel on Aug. 30.

Kelsey Landis – 314-340-8304

klandis@post-dispatch.com