Roy Orbison Dies of a Heart Attack 27 Years Ago

The first death I was able to report on the radio was that of Roy Orbison on this day in 1988. I had only been in the business a few months when the AP machine alerted me to his death. Imagine having to listen to this for 6 hours straight. There's a reason why the studio has to be sound proof, because this was the noise that was right outside the door.

For those who don't know. Before the internet, radio stations had a constant feed from the Associated Press. The machine above is a bit older that the one I had to work with, but it was my job to make sure that there was paper always loaded in it. At around 5 in the morning I would then go through all the print outs and save any news and weather that was relevant to our audience. And on occasion of an emergency, I was to interrupt the music with the breaking news.

So it was on this day in 1988 that I told the sleeping city of Minot N.D and surrounding farms, that Lefty Wilbury, otherwise known as Roy Orbison, had died of a heart attack at the age of 52. I then played his song "Crying" in tribute.

He was on the charts again with the super group the Traveling Wilburys. Other members included ex Beatle George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne of E.L.O., and Tom Petty. In fact, the next video they put out, they had Roy's guitar in a rocking chair when his part of the song was played. Fittingly, the song was titled "End of the Line". Just shy of 13 years later we'd lose George Harrison.