Ray Cordeiro, who interviewed the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra as a radio host in Hong Kong, died on Friday at the age of 98 after a career spanning more than seven decades, France Presse reported.

In 2000, the Guinness Book of Records declared him the longest-serving DJ in the world.

Reynaldo Maria Cordeiro was a “prominent figure in Hong Kong’s popular culture” who made “significant contributions to the music scene” in Hong Kong, the city’s Culture Minister Kevin Yeung said on Saturday.

Known to fans as “Uncle Ray”, Cordeiro launched the careers of many local musicians and introduced a generation of Hong Kong fans to pop music trends during his radio shows.

Cordeiro died on Friday in Hong Kong surrounded by family and friends who sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” in farewell, his funeral team said. He was hospitalized last year after suffering a heart attack.

Born in Hong Kong in 1924, Cordeiro was the fifth of six children of Portuguese immigrants.

After working as a prison guard and bank clerk, he turned to music, hosting his first show, Progressive Jazz, on Radio Rediffusion in 1949.

Cordeiro made a name for himself in the 1960s by hosting shows for Hong Kong’s public network RTHK that were very popular with teenagers.

His late-night show, “All The Way With Ray,” launched in 1970, became the station’s longest-running radio program.

On the occasion of his retirement in 2021, he told RTHK, “I had the best of my life, I was everything I wanted to be, I did everything I wanted.”

In his autobiography, he wrote: “I am in my element when I share good music with my fans. I refuse to imagine a world without music.”