A trip down memory lane: ACE Radio favourite Ray Lougheed retires

After 37 years hosting the Down Memory Lane Show on Sunday nights, much loved 3YB FM Warrnambool announcer Ray Lougheed is hanging up the headphones.

His last program for the ACE Radio Network will be this Sunday, October 13.

Down Memory Lane debuted forty years ago with Ray taking the reins three years later.

Ray says “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.”

Ray moved to Warrnambool with his wife in 1981 and took a job working in the Ambulance Service. He began casually announcing with 3YB the following year, 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.”

Ray thanked long time helper and show fill-in Steve Welsh.

Ray says the final show 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.

Group photo: Ray Lougheed with the Last 3 GMs of ACE Warrnambool, from left to right: Michael Duncan (Current GM), Ray Lougheed, Mal O’Toole and Peter Headen.