Mel Royer

Staff

Announcers:

Mel Royer - Weekend Announcer

E-mail: mel.royer@juno.com

Mel Royer, a radio personality from the Midwest, says music is an integral part of his life. As a young boy, he was a cello player at a Des Moines high school; and also formed a musical duo, a la the Everly Brothers, in which he played an electric bass in Iowa jazz night spots. Mel's professional radio announcing career took him to Boston and New Hampshire, where he began solo acts playing original folk compositions on an acoustic guitar in coffee houses. Mel's professional background has enabled him to follow contemporary music formats from radio stations carrying everything from big band, to country, to rock n' roll. He was thrilled to meet Dave Brubeck following a jazz concert and conducted radio interviews with many celebrities.

Recipient of two Illinois Silver Dome awards for excellence in broadcasting in Peoria, Mel went on to open his own media agency in Madison, Wis. Mel settled in the Roanoke Valley in the late 1980s after marriage to his bride, an alumna of Hollins University. He then won two first place awards from the Virginia Association of Broadcasters for best commercial production while he was Production Director for over a decade at WPVR-FM radio station. Mel has done voiceover work for national TV campaigns, and recently donated his voice talent to Blue Ridge Public TV's documentary film of the National D-Day Memorial.

He now sings in the Greene Memorial Chancel Choir and thoroughly enjoys being a low bass addition to the Roanoke Symphony Chorus where he has participated in such works as the Mahler 2 symphony as well as the Faure, Durafle, and Mozart requiems.

Mel has a prized J-200 Gibson guitar affectionately named "Babe" upon which he composes his ballads, folk music, religious themes set to music such as his "Ballad of the Prodigal Son," and has appeared in different churches as a guest musician.

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