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'Major' Dan Miller still spinning in Billings at 90 years old

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Posted at 8:20 AM, Sep 08, 2022
and last updated 2022-09-08 10:20:38-04

BILLINGS — It’s hard to find a name more synonymous with Billings than Major Dan Miller.

Miller has spent 64 years on the radio in Yellowstone County and was still going strong on his 90th birthday Wednesday, making a rare weekday appearance with his good friends Kurt Anthony and Charlie Fox on the MOJO 92.5 morning show.

"What’s that old saying?" Miller asked. "Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life, and that’s me.”

Miller didn’t know a thing about Montana growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, but he did know where he wanted life to take him.

"At 15 years old I saw a radio announcer in Cincinnati, broadcasting remote in the window of a store," he said. "And I thought, ‘Gee, that’s fascinating.'"

'Major' Dan Miller
On his 90th birthday Wednesday, Billings radio DJ 'Major' Dan Miller said he's thankful to have found a job he loves and has no plans to retire.

His first job out of broadcasting school was at KOOK Radio in Billings in 1958, and he's since spent time at a number of stations across the city. The question he gets more than anything - how did he get to be called 'Major' Dan?

He was in the U.S. Army in the 1950s but never rose to that rank. No, he earned this one from his time as an "astronaut."

"The Russians beat us in space," Miller said. "So the radio station did a big promotion, where people would see me blast off in this rocket. Everyone who went up was a colonel, so that's what they called me.

"But when it got to 1 (on the countdown), I came running out of the rocket and said, ‘I don’t want to die yet! Get someone else to do this thing!’ And I took off and was gone for three days. Because of that, I was demoted from Colonel to Major, and the Major Miller stuck. They had jingles made - 'Major' Dan Miller - so that was it. It's been that way ever since!"

'Major' Dan Miller U.S. Army
'Major' Dan Miller pictured at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in 1953. While Miller was enlisted in the U.S. Army, he never rose to the rank of major and instead got his nickname from a radio station promotion that faked him going to space.

You can still hear the jingle - and "Major" Dan - every Saturday morning on his Miller’s Gold program, because well…

"To be honest with you, I’m afraid to retire," he said. "What do you do?”

So he rolls on, excited to tell more stories and take more calls.

"It’s therapy to me," Miller said, fighting back tears. "When I get on set, you hit it and you go."