At 97, Maruja is the world's oldest radio star

Sixty-eight years later, her "Radio Club Infantil" (Kids Club Radio) is still on the air, making the 97-year-old Venegas the globe's longest-running radio personality, according to Guinness World Records.

Venegas started out her broadcasting career as a popular announcer on music programmes.

"I used to tell the listeners the name of this record is so and so. And from then on, I became the most famous broadcaster at that time, I was 15 years old," said Venegas.

At the request of government officials, she launched Kids Club Radio on Dec 18, 1944 to entertain ailing children at a public hospital.

Venegas' show became so popular in the 1950s that it drew Peru's top singers and performers. It had contests, and helped make careers.

Venegas now broadcasts from home using a telephone that's placed near her desk and transmits her voice as she talks to her listeners.

Venegas began doing the show by telephone from home when she turned 90.

The programme that once aired twice a week is now down to a single half-hour slot at 6 p.m. on Sundays, carried by Santa Rosa, a religion-oriented station.

She still plans her own programmes, which always include a story, music, advice and commentary.

"The children that were listeners have grown up, they're married. Today, they're grandparents. So, it's them, the grandparents that support me most," said Venegas.

Venegas says she does the programme for free.

"My mother told me to never charge for the Kids Radio Club program because it was for children and for the sick."

She could have used the money.

Venegas, who never married, has limited funds and like most people her age, physical limitations to address. She says she suffers from diabetes and has lost her sight on one eye.

She lives alone on an US$870 (RM2649) a month pension that is not sufficient to support her and the 89-year-old sister with whom she lives. In order to pay the two people who care for them, she had to sell the second floor of her house.