R.I.P.: Bob Robbins, Longtime Little Rock Radio Personality

Bob Robbins

A man with one of the best known voices in the state of Arkansas has died.  Bob Robbins died from an apparent heart attack in Sheridan early Saturday morning at the age of 78, reports Fox16.com.

Robbins, who was born Robert Spears, was a daily presence on Arkansas radio since 1967, most recently working for 105.1 “The Wolf” since 2013.  Prior to that he spent more than 30 years with KSSN 96 FM.

Robbins became a fixture of Arkansas radio in 1967, when he began working for Top 40 KAAY in Little rock. In 1979, Robbins moved to KSSN 96 FM, Arkansas’s top Country station. Robbins stayed with KSSN until the end of 2013. Since then, he has been heard on classic country station 105.1 “The Wolf.”

In 1967, Spears received a phone call from a friend at Top 40 radio station KAAY in Little Rock. One of KAAY’s employees, who had worked under the name “Rob Robbins,” had died in an accident, and Spears agreed to fill the position, taking the name Bob Robbins. He worked for KAAY until 1979, when he moved to Little Rock–based KSSN 96 FM. Robbins stayed with KSSN for the bulk of his career. While he was at KSSN, the station won many awards, including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Marconi Award for Best Medium Market Station and the Arkansas Broadcasters Association’s Most Admired Station Award in 1990. In 1991, KSSN was named Billboard’s Country Radio Station of the Year and received the Country Music Association’s Station of the Year Award. In 1996, Robbins was named Broadcast Personality of the Year by the Country Music Association and led KSSN to another Marconi Award from the NAB.

Robbins was inducted into the Country Radio Broadcasters’ DJ Hall of Fame in 2008.