Legendary Macon disc jockey Ray ‘Satellite Papa’ Brown dies at 82

Ray Brown, who spun rhythm and blues records at WIBB for years under the moniker “Satellite Papa” and helped turn the radio station into a Macon powerhouse, died Sunday. He was 82.

Brown was one of a trio of disc jockeys at the station, along with Hamp “King Bee” Swain and Charles “Big Saul” Greene, who put WIBB on the map in the 1950s and 1960s. Known as “The Three Horsemen,” they were inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame in 2012.

The three were all hired by Tom Maxwell, the owner of WIBB, in 1957. The station was the first in Macon to offer full-time programming specifically geared to black listeners.

“Having (Brown) at WIBB with Hamp Swain and ‘Big Saul’ Greene is an era that will never be duplicated,” John Long, president of the Georgia Radio Museum and Hall of Fame, said Monday. “The pairing of those three gentlemen at that time ... was pure genius and caused WIBB to rise to be the top station in Macon.”

Ben Sandifer, a local music historian, said Brown was extremely popular with listeners.

“A lot of it, for the time, was somewhat risque, cutting edge I guess you would say,” Sandifer said. “People loved him. He was not just a DJ but an entertainer. He didn’t just play the records. He knew a lot of (the performers) personally, and they would stop by and see him (at the station) when they were in town.”

Brown, Swain and Greene often made public appearances at radio hops or live performances, attracting large crowds. They also started the Teenage Party Talent Contest at the Roxy Theater on Hazel Street, which later moved to the Douglass Theatre downtown.

One of the regular performers there was a young Otis Redding.

According to the Macon-Bibb County Convention & Visitors Bureau website, “After winning 15 times straight, he was no longer allowed to compete.”

During the tumultuous, race-fueled 1960s, after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Macon didn’t see the level of rioting and violence like so many other Southern cities.

Sandifer chalks that up in part to “The Three Horsemen” encouraging their listeners to eschew retaliation and violence.

“They were so well thought of that folks didn’t do any of that (rioting) here,” he said.

Later in life, with their storied careers in the rearview mirror, Swain and Brown both were on hand for Hamp’s Hop, a short-lived fundraiser in the late 2000s for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon.

Sandifer said it took some persuading to get the DJs to attend the event because they thought nobody would remember them from so long ago. They were wrong.

“By the third year, we had to move it to the Centreplex to accommodate the crowd,” Sandifer said. “It was a big event.”

Remembering his friend and co-worker Monday, Swain said Brown was “a natural.”

“I always thought that Satellite was one of the best DJs, and I have heard DJs from all over the country. ... He was a crowd-pleaser whenever he did a ... live performance. He always carried his crowd with him. He had a good following.”

Part of Brown’s appeal, Swain said, was his “different rhymes” and catch phrases. He was best known for the line “how sweet it is.”

Swain said there wasn’t anyone quite like Brown.

“We’ll certainly miss him,” he said. “He was quite a guy.”

Brown’s funeral is scheduled for noon Friday at Jones Brothers Mortuary, 3035 Millerfield Road in Macon.

To contact writer Andy M. Drury, call 744-4477 or on Twitter@maconpaperboy.

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 10:22 PM with the headline "Legendary Macon disc jockey Ray ‘Satellite Papa’ Brown dies at 82 ."