MEMPHIS, Tenn. — John R. Pepper II, co-founder of the first nationwide radio station with programming targeting a black audience, has died. He was 91.

Pepper died Monday at St. Francis Hospital after an extended illness, according to Forest Hill Midtown Funeral Home, where services were held Friday.

Still one of Memphis' top stations, WDIA-AM was the first in the South with an all-black on-air staff. Clear Channel Broadcasting Inc. now owns the station, which reaches five states.

WDIA, which Pepper founded with Bert Ferguson in the 1940s, helped launch the careers of B.B. King and Isaac Hayes, among others, and eased the way for blacks throughout the country to break into broadcasting.

Pepper also founded what later became Pepper Tanner Advertising Agency.

Pepper is survived by a daughter, two sons and a granddaughter.