CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – A very rough time here at the Charlottesville Radio Group as former long-time WINA News Director/anchor Rob Graham passed away over the weekend at age 69. He was finishing up a week-long golfing trip with his two older brothers when he passed.

Rob grew up in Iowa, save for a short time in Nashville, TN when his dad worked there, and loved radio because his brothers and mom had it on all the time. He went to Cornell College in Iowa where he did his first stint in radio at the college radio station. He worked briefly at his local station in his native Clinton, Iowa before going to work at powerhouse KWPC/KMFH in Muscatine to do news… just to get into the station for who he wanted to work. He had worked in country radio and wanted to do album-oriented rock but got bit by the news “bug” as he worked it. He eventually became news director there.

Rob came to Charlottesville in 1981 after becoming acquainted with our area when his parents lived in Richmond where his father worked for Dupont. He started at WXAM on 4th Street, one block away from WINA on 5th Street, when one Friday in 1982 he walked to WINA and spoke with News Director Sarah McConnell… who hired him. Rob began work here Monday, September 27, 1982. Graham was with WINA 32 of the next 34 years — with 2 years in between working at Martha Jefferson — before retiring from the Charlottesville Radio Group November 2016.

Rob is survived by two older brothers. A formal obituary will be linked when it is completed, as well as announcement of arrangements.