June 13th, 2009 
joel For long time listeners of Erie radio, if you thought about people on the air who had that “classic” deep-toned radio voice, you would think Bob Eaton.
It’s been over a week now since his obituary appeared in the Times-News, dying at the age of 82. According to the account in the paper, Bob graduated from Academy High School in 1948, and in 1949 began his career as an announcer at WERC. He went on to work for WLEU from 1950 to 1965, WICU radio and TV from 1966 to 1976, WRIE from 1977 to 1989, then finally to WQLN until 1995.
Forty-six years of continuous broadcasting: that’s something!
Lou Baxter weighed in on my Facebook about Bob:
Bob had a radio voice from God. What I’d give to have a voice like that.
He was reading news at WRIE when I joined Bob Hughes and the crew there in the 70s. Great voice… but no news sense. I was at the station the day Elvis died. Bob was anchoring the news and didn’t understand the significance of the story. He used it as a kicker at the end his newscast…”Finally, the King of Rock n Roll has died”, and then did a weather forecast. Yikes!
He eventually returned to his first love…announcing classical music at QLN.
RIP Bob Eaton.
His boss at WRIE, former owner Brady Louis shares his remembrances:
Blessed with a deep, mellifluous voice at an early age, Bob Eaton was a natural for radio.
When he did mid-days at WRIE ( “housewife time”-ouch, as opposed to “drivetime” ), he tolerated our middle-of -the-road music format until we eased into a more adult contemporary sound at which time he became WRIE’s afternoon news reporter.
Bob’s real love was classical music which made his move to WQLN-FM a natural. Finally, he was in his musical element.
He was a good guy, a loner, with a good sense of humor and a great laugh.
He will be remembered for sharing his on-air talent for decades with audiences of several stations in the Erie market.
Farewell, Bob.
Finally Jim Griffey reminded us that his love for classical music was useful in his side work as a piano tuner!
Include Bob Eaton in the pantheon of great Erie broadcasters who made an impact on our community and industry and are no longer with us.
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My first recollection hearing Bob Eaton on the radio was as a child. Such a powerful set of pipes. R.I.P.
I was 6 or 7 when I heard Bob on-air with Ruth Collander on the old WICU Radio in middays. Then, as I recall, he did afternoon drive for a short period of time before Jim King started doing afternoons.
Just stopped by this site and read of Bob Eaton’s passing. It was Bob who helped me get into broadcasting back in the 60s. I used to stop by WLEU after school and the weekends and frequently run the board for Bob in the 1962-63 time-frame. This led to a part-time job at WLEU and later WWGO Radio, followed by a fairly long-term gig at WICU radio/TV (1967-74). I will miss Bob. He was a very interesting man and had, to me anyway, an amusing view of life in general. RIP Bob!!
Rich, thanks for stopping by, and please visit often.
The more I hear from Lamb Communications vets, the more and more amazed at the dynasty that Ed Lamb was building with the Erie Dispatch and WICU radio & TV. It really could have been one of those incredible “Milwaulkee Journal/WTMJ” or “Chicago Tribune/WGN” success stories, or would it?
Hey Joel:
To the best of my recollection, the Dispatch had already been spun off to the Erie Times News by the time I was with WICU. However, I never could quite understand why Lamb sold the radio portion of the empire. Co-located with TV at 3514 State St., it seemed that one entity complemented the other. I would do an MOR style radio show on 1330 and then swing over to TV to do booth announcing – back in the days when the booth was “live”. We started to put breaks on cart about 1972. Believe me – it was a fun place to work!!
Bob died from surgical complications at the age of 80. He always would told me about his career. He had a great voice. He also took me in as an adopted son. He will me greatly missed.