Charlotte Radio: Stroke Sidelines WRFX's Robert D. Raiford

Robert D. Raiford

Robert D. Raiford – celebrated curmudgeon of Charlotte’s airwaves for decades – isn’t happy, not a bit, and he says he’s kept the reason why a secret long enough.

According to the Charlotte Observer, a stroke in August has cost the veteran broadcaster his mobility, all sensation on his right side and the source of his livelihood: His voice.

Through months of arduous rehabilitation, Raiford has regained the ability to walk haltingly with a cane and speak well enough to make himself understood to those who know him best.

But even at 88, Raiford feels he’s been cheated out of his life. He wasn’t ready to retire or give up his adventurous hobbies that include riding a Harley, piloting planes and parachuting into the blue.

For nearly a year, his 12 co-workers at the “The Big Show” starring John Boy & Billy on iHeartMedia's WRFX 99.7 FM The Fox have deflected questions about Raiford’s absence, saying he was on medical leave but getting better. Raiford didn’t want people to know of his struggle.

But in May, he quietly retired and on Thursday morning, hosts John Isley and Billy James broke the news to listeners that Raiford was done. For now, at least.


Raiford’s first broadcast came as a baseball announcer for local games on WEGO 980 AM in 1945 in his native Concord. He was 15 and had a voice for radio even then.

He worked at WTOP radio, then and now one of the nation’s premiere news radio stations, in Washington, D.C., beside an up-and-comer named Walter Cronkite.

For the funeral of John F. Kennedy in 1963, the CBS radio network used him as one of the reporters narrating along the route. For 14 long minutes, Raiford described in crisp detail the somber scene before him.