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Late 60's WABC Radio photo

1960s - former WCKR-AM and WQAM-AM disc jockey Roby Yonge "The Big Kahuna"

New York, NY


Roby started in radio at age 15 in Ocala on WTMC. He moved to Miami and was a newcaster on WCKR (later WIOD) and followed Rick Shaw to WQAM. He was known as "The Big Kahuna" on WQAM and very popular with the listeners. His complete biography is at Roby Sherman's website dedicated to Roby Yonge at http://homepage.mac.com/tikimac/moof/robyyonge/ . This site contains numerous old photos of Roby taken by his father Bob Sherman when he was at WQAM and at South Beach on surfboards.

Roby Yonge died in Miami of an apparent heart attack at age 54 on July 18, 1997.


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Jeff 09-Apr-2015 06:10
I met Roby when he was working at WMYQ (circa 1972) while I was volunteering there.

He was almost as broke as I was (according to his family he was quite big-hearted and generous), but he was kind, approachable, and genuine.

Roby had me help him produce some spots for an Allman Brothers/Jo-Jo Gunee [and others] concert at the old Hollywood Sportatorium by "tag-teaming" th announced acts...

For example, Roby would say The Allman Brothers Band and I'd jump in immediately with "Jo-Jo Gunne". I also did one of the slickest pre-digital edits I ever did on tape.

I was putting together the background music for the spot, and did a "punch-in" (quickly hitting the 'record' button which then put the tape deck into recording mode from playback) and let go of a record I had slip-cued to a particular spot.

More than I'd expected, the edit was SEAMLESS! I only wish I still had my dub of that commercial...

Roby couldn't afford to pay me for my time, but he did treat me to a couple of "Feastburgers" from the Royal Castle across the street from WMYQ's Arthur Godfrey Road location.

One time, his kid sister Bebe came down to visit him from their home town of Ocala, and I had an immediate crush on her. As handsome as Roby was to the women, Bebe knocked me out... Talk about a "schoolboy crush"... and I was the ripe old age of twenty with long curly hair and a fuzzy beard... LOL!

We used to correspond by mail on occasion, and a couple of years later I was on a road trip with a singer from a local boutique label called JEMKL Records heading up the state and on to Nashville for his recording session.

I'd planned that as we neared the outskirts of Ocala for him to stop and find a phone booth so that I could call Bebe and say "hi" while we were on the road.

When I'd called and identified myself to her mom, she told me that Bebe wasn't home at the time, but was expected back shortly. She INSISTED we drive into town and have dinner with them!

While we were sitting at the dinner table waiting for Bebe to come home, she walks up the path and looks through the picture window to see me sitting there. Grinning she exclaimed "What are you doing here?"

We had a wonderful visit, her late parents wer so charming... and they even pulled out some old snapshots and showed up Roby in his crew-cut surfing days.

The last time I'd seen him was when Roby was doing a live remove from Dezerland (the former Holiday Inn on Collins Avenue around 67th Street). He's put on so much weight.

The sad fact is that Roby took care of everyone but himself, and he passed away too soon.
Gary G. 11-Sep-2009 16:29
A band I was (Florida) in during the summer of 1966 had a lot of interaction with WQAM's Rick Shaw and Roby Yonge. We played for WQAM sponsored events and saw both of them frequently. We have a picture of Roby in my Boca Raton High School yearbook where both Roby and Rick were leading pep rallys.