Real Roots Radio's Chubby Howard Passes Away At 95

[John1]

Ray 'Chubby' Howard passed away suddenly at age 95 on December 23rd. Chubby has been on weekends at WBZI in Xenia since 1998, right up to Saturday, December 18th. For the past 2-1/2 years he had been on the air 6 hours every Saturday with cohost Tyler Fairborn. Chubby had been a country music performer & radio & tv host since the 1950's, including having his own afternoon radio & tv shows in Tacoma, Washington when Loretta Lynn & Buck Owens were starting their careers there & appeared with him. He returned to sw Ohio to the old WPFB country station in Middletown, while also touring as a steel guitar player backing Connie Smith & others on the Grand Ole Opry, and toured the world with Boxcar Willie in the 1980's. He was elected to the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 2017. In recent times his show was an encyclopedia of country music history, telling tales of working with Hank Williams, Jim Reeves, Jimmy Dickens, Lefty Frizzell & on & on. At 95 he could still read a live commercial with such style that you really wanted to go visit that local business! A true radio legend lost suddenly.

 

[delgriffith]

I just saw this. If I was in the Xenia area I would always tune in. Really enjoyed his old fashioned brand of radio. He could tell great stories and as mentioned above do some of the best live commercials. He had great credibility.

 

[fordranger797]

This is incredibly sad news to hear. Though I never had the opportunity to meet him, he was a member of my extended family.