GA Radio: WKAK's Jaxon Riley Nominated For GRHOF

Jaxon Riley

Rodney Rouse, whose distinct, bigger-than-life voice has introduced Southwest Georgians to their favorite music and offered “at least one weird thing an hour” over the radio airwaves for the past 41 years, laughs as he talks about that career that recently landed him a Georgia Radio Hall of Fame nomination, according to The Albany Herald.

“People meet me out in the community, and they say two things,” Rouse, who is best-known by his nom de radio Jaxon Riley, said in between songs during a recent 2 p.m.-7 p.m. Monday-through-Friday airshift at WKAK 104.5 FM  NASH FM. “They say they’re astonished at how old I am (63, as of June 4) and how short I am (5-foot-3).”

Rouse may be diminutive in stature, but his big, big voice has made him one of the region’s most loved and widely known personalities. That, and the charity work that he’s tirelessly promoted and taken part in during his four decades on the air, landed him the GRHOF nomination.

“Jaxon has certainly had a distinguished career and has been involved in a lot of charity work,” Georgia Radio Hall of Fame President John Long, who worked briefly with Rouse in the Albany market during the 1980s, said. “He, along with all the other nominees, is deserving of this recognition.”

WKAK 104.5 FM (98Kw) 60dBu Coverage

Rouse got his start in radio at WBIB in Centreville, Ala., but he soon came back “home” to Albany and became a fixture on Southwest Georgia airwaves. He left the market once, for a job at WKXY in Sarasota, Fla., but has otherwise remained a regional fixture at WQDE, WJAZ and WKAK in Albany; Y-100 in Tifton; WAZE in Dawson … 12 area stations in all.

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