{"id":5917,"date":"2012-07-07T01:21:25","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T01:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=5917"},"modified":"2012-07-07T01:21:25","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T01:21:25","slug":"country-music-saddened-by-passing-of-tom-cat-reeder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/07\/country-music-saddened-by-passing-of-tom-cat-reeder\/","title":{"rendered":"Country Saddened By Loss Of Tom \u2018Cat\u2019 Reeder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"COUNTRY MUSIC SADDENED BY THE PASSING OF\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>TOM \u2018CAT\u2019 REEDER<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tom ‘Cat’ Reeder died on Saturday June 30, 2012 at the age of 77, in Fairfax, Virginia after suffering a heart attack the week before<\/strong>.\u00a0There will be a private family service in Alabama where he will be buried.\u00a0 At this time, there are no public memorial services scheduled.\u00a0\u00a0Thanks for Eddie Stubbs (WSM Air Personality) for providing me the above info.\u00a0<\/strong>Tom “Cat” Reeder, longtime country music broadcaster and host of\u00a0The Tom “Cat” Reeder Show<\/em>\u00a0on WAMU\u2019s Bluegrass Country, died Saturday in Virginia. He was 77.\u00a0<\/strong>Reeder joined the WAMU lineup in 2001, becoming one of the hosts of\u00a0Bluegrass Overnight<\/em>\u00a0and, later, the host of his own program. He hosted his final show on WAMU\u2019s Bluegrass Country on June 19 of this year.\u00a0“We are saddened to learn of the loss of our friend and colleague, Tom. His voice and inimitable style on the airwaves will be sorely missed by his loyal fans both locally and throughout the global bluegrass community,” said Caryn G. Mathes, general manager of WAMU 88.5 and WAMU\u2019s Bluegrass Country.\u00a0A native of Abbeville, Ala., Reeder began his career in radio in 1956 at WARL in Arlington, Va., and moved to WDON in the 1960s in Wheaton, Md., to take over the morning drive-time slot with\u00a0The Tom Reeder Show<\/em>.\u00a0“He was a simple country guy, not hard to understand, and when you heard him on the air, he was your friend,” said Gary Henderson, host of\u00a0The Gary Henderson Show<\/em>\u00a0on WAMU\u2019s Bluegrass Country. “That was his real forte.”\u00a0Reeder built a reputation as a broadcaster who preferred traditional country music to modern sounds. He not only connected with listeners, but also earned the respect of musicians and record labels, as well as sponsors, who clamored to have him read their messages on-air during his popular programs. In 1990, Reeder was inducted to the Country Music Broadcasters Hall of Fame in Nashville.\u00a0“He didn\u2019t play the modern country music. It had to have roots. If it was traditional country, he would play it,” said Henderson, who remembered Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, and Jimmy Dean as musicians Reeder liked to play on-air. Reeder met Dean while in the Air Force.\u00a0Along with artist Clyde Beavers, Reeder co-founded Kash Records. He operated his own publishing company, Tom-Cat Publishing Company, and emceed shows around the country, including the National Championship Country Music Contest for more than 20 years.\u00a0Reeder signed off each show with the tune of “Tom Cattin’,” written for him by Tom Brunley and recorded by Buck Owens. He delivered the same daily farewell: \u201cI hope you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live. Bye bye, darlin’.”<\/p>\n

On a personal note<\/span><\/strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When country music was really country music, Tom Cat was at the top of the list.\u00a0 He was there for all of us when we needed\u00a0our\u00a0records played.\u00a0 It just had to be country or\u00a0he wouldn\u2019t\u00a0play\u00a0it.\u00a0 When certain DJ\u2019s would not give us the time of day, and you would be surprised to hear some of the names who are now in the DJ Hall of Fame, but they wanted to play the big label artists, he never turned us away.\u00a0\u00a0It was tough to accept\u00a0those DJ\u2019s who passed us by, but then we would call Tom Cat and asked if he got our new record, and he would\u00a0\u201csure, let\u2019s talk on air about your new song.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got it on the turntable now.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 Not just my records but the list of artists is as long as the country music industry has been in existence.\u00a0 He brought all of\u00a0our\u00a0hopes up by giving us the opportunity that is not given to so many young country artists in this new music they call country.\u00a0 He would have never\u00a0PLAYED A JASON ALDEAN RECORD-NEVER.<\/strong>\u00a0 It is all rock and he disliked\u00a0artists who carry\u00a0the name of country with their music, and never knew what country should be.\u00a0 He was a savior to so many of us who felt at times that our music was not good enough because so many of the radio stations would not play our music or give an interview.\u00a0 He gave many of us the jump start we needed when we would be turned down by the big jocks.\u00a0 He never turned down a good country record, and trust me when I say there were plenty of great country records back when I was recording.<\/p>\n

There was no such things a rock producers producing country records as there is now.\u00a0 Oh, I could go on and on, but this personal note is about a long time friend who was part of the cornerstone of country music being heard.\u00a0 Ask Stonewall Jackson, Jean Shepard, Bill Anderson,\u00a0Little Jimmy Dickens, Ray Price,\u00a0and so many others.\u00a0\u00a0The list of survivors who play traditional country is getting shorter each year, and I could name a few of my friends who are playing real country music.<\/p>\n

Tom Cat Reeder gave me hope to stay in Nashville and record and tour because he made me a believer, and the same goes for many of my artists friends who know what I am saying is true.\u00a0 Thanks Tom Cat.\u00a0 He was a man of his word, and his word was make it country and I will play it.\u00a0 He stuck to his word.<\/p>\n

HE WILL BE MISSED AND IS MISSED.<\/strong><\/p>\n

God Bless Tom Cat.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>MAY HIS SOUL REST IN THE PEACEFUL ARMS OF OUR BLESSED SAVIOR.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please keep Tom Cat\u2019s family in your thoughts and prayers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marty Martel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COUNTRY MUSIC SADDENED BY THE PASSING OF\u00a0TOM \u2018CAT\u2019 REEDER Tom ‘Cat’ Reeder died on Saturday June 30, 2012 at the age of 77, in Fairfax, Virginia after suffering a heart attack the week before.\u00a0There will be a private family service in Alabama where he will be buried.\u00a0 At this time, there are no public memorial services scheduled.\u00a0\u00a0Thanks for Eddie Stubbs (WSM Air Personality) for providing me the above info.\u00a0Tom “Cat” Reeder, longtime country music broadcaster and host of\u00a0The Tom “Cat” Reeder Show\u00a0on WAMU\u2019s Bluegrass Country, died Saturday in Virginia. He<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}