Bob Todd. Gone but not forgotten by a long shot.

Bob Todd died a year ago on Sunday, January 12, clad in his Forty Niner pajamas. He was 57.

Bob was the longtime on-air morning host of the Bob Todd Show on Sierra Wave KSRW FM radio. Many of us would come to know and love that booming voice, the quirky sense of humor, and his musical taste. Bob was a “Deadhead” and had a ton of CDs in his desk from the Grateful Dead, who he would travel far and wide to attend a concert.

The desk that I took over at the radio station when I become the news director back in February of last year, was Bob’s old desk. I had to clean it out…and it was a mess, which anyone that knew Bob would tell you, was not surprising. There were piles of paper in every drawer. Radio scripts. News scripts. Thank you letters and cards from his many friends…and boy, did he have a lot of them. And there were piles of Grateful Dead CDs, both commercial CDs and ones that he taped himself live at the concerts. And there were also notes and numerous recordings of the local high school sports team games and sports interviews. He loved sports and he loved announcing games.

For the most part, over the years, I did not spend much time around Bob simply because I seldom went to the radio station, but I did speak with him over the phone every few weeks. One thing that I came to know about him was that he really was a private sort of guy. He had his core group of friends and his family, and he seemed to pretty much stick with that. He really loved golf and there were many times that I would call the station to only be told, “He’s not here. He out playing golf.” He was a regular fixture at the Bishop Country Club and Golf Course. The only time I actually shared a meal with him was at the golf course. In the last few years of his life, I was privileged to be on his email group list which almost always contained the latest news on…you can probably guess–the Grateful Dead.

Bob Todd with Benett Kessler made quite a team.

Bob was as much a part of the station as its founder, Benett Kessler, who brought him on board at the radio station acting on a hunch that he would be great on the air. And of course, he was.

Today, we here at Sierra Wave just wanted to remind all of you of this great guy who is terribly missed. Maybe spare him a thought and share a memory on our website at sierrawave.net.

Having listened to the Bob Todd Show for so many years, I will always remember that unique voice and that personality that came to life on the air every morning and throughout the day every week for years.

From all of us here at Sierra Wave Media, we miss you, Bob.