A Tribute to Longtime Cars 108 Listener, ‘Retired Randy’ Brown [AUDIO]

Rest In Peace, Randy. Thank you for being such a devoted listener of Cars 108.

We received some sad news on Monday morning - a friend of the show, Randy Brown, passed away over the weekend.

If you listen to our morning show, you've no doubt heard Randy before.

Randy has been calling into the radio station since we arrived here in 2014. He was one of the first people to tell us that he liked our show; usually, in the beginning, people call you to tell you how much they HATE your show, but not Randy.

He was a Marine veteran who loved his cigarettes and Crown Royal. He was proud of his service to this country and loved animals, too.

Usually, when people call the radio station, we get to know their voices but not their faces. Fortunately, Randy wasn't just a voice - he came to our Traverse City Vineyard Tours...

...and to Love Court Live at the historic Lapeer County Courthouse...

...and he even came out to our animal adoption events.

Randy was a special guy. There were mornings that he called so often, we couldn't get to him every single time. I always told Pat, "There's going to be a morning when he doesn't call in at all, you know."

When we started working from home in March, we knew that we wouldn't be able to connect with him as much, so we started chatting on the Cars 108 app.

I mailed him a Cars 108 mask and he gave me his cell phone number. Randy had his phone glued to his hand so, when he didn't text me back a couple of weeks ago, I knew something was wrong.

His friend Theresa called on Monday to let us know that he had passed away.

We're still at a loss for words; it will be SO WEIRD not having Randy call us every morning. Luckily, we have all of this wonderful audio from him that we'll be able to remember him by.

Thanks for being a loyal listener. Rest In Peace, Retired Randy.