Jay Roebuck, Veteran of Newspapers and Radio, Dies at 55
Jay Roebuck of Huntington Beach, whose media career spanned 30 years in newspapers and nine years at radio station KLON, died of an apparent heart attack at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange on Wednesday. He was 55.
In 1984, Roebuck began hosting a big band weekend show at KLON, a Long Beach-based jazz radio station. He continued the show after he became communications manager in October, 1990, but gave it up when he became program director in May, 1991.
“He had a great deal of enthusiasm and love for jazz,” said acting General Manager Sharon Weissman.
Chuck Niles, a disc jockey who worked with Roebuck for the last 2 1/2 years, said: “He had an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz.”
Roebuck’s widow, Joyce, said his personal jazz collection included more than 1,000 records and every issue of Downbeat, a monthly jazz publication, since 1960.
Before his work with the radio station, Roebuck worked at newspapers in Corona and Pomona and at the Orange County Register.
Services are still being planned.
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