CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The radio queen with the smooth-as-honey voice and a disposition that's even sweeter is signing off.

Dee Perry is retiring after 40 years on the Cleveland airwaves. The final day for the WCPN FM/90.3 broadcast journalist will be Friday, Aug. 26.

"It's just time to go," says Perry, sitting on a couch Thursday after finishing her acclaimed "Sound of Applause" program. "We've been doing this show for..."

She pauses before letting out that gentle laugh that has been her engaging trademark on the show.

"I never imagined this show would go on for 20 years," says Perry, nodding her head back and breaking out in that big smile. "Especially when I think about how it started."

Rewind to 1996, when Perry launched the arts and culture show with producer Dave DeOreo. Back then, it was called "Around Noon."

"It was pre-Internet, and so we would scrounge around looking for guests, hoping people would want to come on and join us," she says. "And then we started building this network that mirrored the growth in the arts scene, where corporate and social leaders started seeing the importance of the arts in driving a city and its economy."

The hourlong "Around Noon" paired Perry, 66, with arts activists, performers, musicians, painters and poets.

"She's such a warm and gracious person," says Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque director John Ewing, a frequent guest. "Rather than giving her own opinions, she shows a genuine interest in her subjects. I'm in awe that she could do a daily show and be informed and knowledgeable about her guests. You can tell she cares."

Perry has logged more than 10,000 interviews, a staggering amount in the here-today-gone-today radio world. She approaches them all the same way: with a respectful, encouraging demeanor, whether they're local up-and-comers or Franz Welser-Most; Harry Belafonte or Viktor Schreckengost; Smokey Robinson or an area arts activist.

Most days, Perry is at WCPN preparing by 7:30 a.m. But grasping her role as friendly facilitator didn't come through work.

"I love the arts, and I've been curious about what drives people to create," says Perry. "Art is a metaphor for the world, where God is the original creator and, you could say, the original artist."

The Cleveland native and John F. Kennedy High School grad left for New York City to attend Barnard College in 1968.

"I went to study English," she says. "I ended up majoring in being a New Yorker."

Perry hung out in the city's theater scene. She hit clubs in Greenwich Village. And she saw jazz greats like McCoy Tyner.

"The Black Arts Movement was happening, and here I was going to these clubs thinking I was the epitome of cool," says Perry.

Not cool with her parents, whose roots go back to Alabama and Mississippi.

"They were disappointed when I quit school," says Perry. "That's when I ended up studying broadcasting,"

Her stint at the New York School of Announcing and Speech didn't last long.

"The name was a lot more impressive than the school," she laughs. "It had a staff of one."

Perry returned to Cleveland in 1976 to spin jazz and soul discs at tiny 1,000-watt WABQ-AM.

Her voice - which blends a luxurious, velvety tone with clear diction and casual delivery - has become her calling card.

Well, not so much back then.

"I was told that I had a sing-songy delivery and didn't talk so well," says Perry, as she breaks out in a singing broadcaster voice. "But the station was so small that it didn't matter what we did, which allowed me to experiment with the music I played."

It also left her jazzed about exploring culture and exposing it to others.

"Radio formats started changing in the '70s, and the DJ and personalities were being phased out," says Perry. "But it was more of a love than a career to me, so I went to Cleveland State to study broadcasting."

Landing in public radio in 1989 allowed her to turn her love into a career.

"The idea that you can have a show running for 20 years - especially an arts and culture show -- is almost unprecedented around the country," says DeOreo. "To have the same person do it is a testament to her excellence."

The self-effacing Perry offers another explanation.

"The station was growing and so was the art scene, and I happened to find myself in the middle of it all," she says.

DeOreo isn't surprised at her response.

"She's the voice of the arts community," he says. "But she's always been more about shining a spotlight on that community."

For good reason, according to Perry.

"I just love doing the show and the engaging with the art community, because I find it so inspiring," she says.

So why leave?

"Because it's inspired me to pursue my own art," says Perry. "I'm going to focus on tap-dancing, painting, photography, writing songs and plays - it's something that I've been yearning to do."

"The Sound of Applause" will continue to air in its noon-2 p.m. weekday slot with WCPN's Dan Polletta sitting in for Perry until a replacement is found.

There's no date yet for a play that Perry is working on to hit the stage - though, she says, it's going to happen. Just a matter of time.

"My play is about crisscrossing boundaries," she says, before pausing to reflect on her move into "retirement." "You know, I've loved listening to other people talk about their art, and it's time to let that thing go, because it has inspired me to do my own art."