3YB FM Warrnambool’s much loved announcer Ray Lougheed is retiring after 37 years of hosting the Down Memory Lane Show on Sundays between 9pm and midnight. His last program for the Ace Radio Network is this Sunday October 13.
Ray Lougheed with the Last 3 GMs of ACE Warrnambool, from left to right: Michael Duncan (Current GM), Ray Lougheed, Mal O’Toole (Retired as GM in 1996) and the recently retired Peter Headen (in June 2024)
Down Memory Lane debuted forty years ago with Ray taking the reins three years later. Ray himself has notched up more than six decades in the industry too.
Ray Lougheed pictured at a morning tea in his honour held October 11, 2024.
He said:
“I started back in 1962 at 3KZ as a turntable operator and in the transcription department and then worked my way through different radio roles, finishing up at the ABC in Melbourne working for Radio Australia. So I’ve had a great radio career, when I tally it all together it is almost 50 years in radio.”
Ray moved to Warrnambool with his wife in 1981 and took a job working in the Ambulance Service. He began casually announcing with 3YB in ’82, before taking over what was then a one hour Down Memory Lane Show in 1987.
“I remember having a conversation with then GM Mal O’Toole, saying perhaps we could take it out for two hours. So it went from 9 to 11pm, and then a few years later I said to Mal perhaps we go through to 12, which gave us our current 3 hour show.
People used to write in to me every week to get their cheerios and I’d have piles of letters. So I said you don’t have to write to me every week, I’ll keep a list and send cheerios to you all each week. Quite a few of those people have been on trips away that we’ve organised through the program, it’s been a wonderful supportive group.”
Lougheed also paid thanks to Steve Welsh, who was a long time helper and fill in on the program.
As for the final program, Lougheed says it will be a collection of all his favourites from the 60s and 70s with some classic Frank Sinatra too. You can listen this Sunday October 13 on 94.5 3YB FM between 9pm and midnight, or on LiSTNR.