“I’m the most blessed and thankful man ever.”
Marshall Rowland, a pioneering country music broadcaster born January 23, 1931 in Brunswick and raised in Waynesville, passed away Saturday, January 11, 2025 in Fernandina Beach, Fla., less than two weeks shy of his 94th birthday.
Rowland learned from his early upbringing experiences to help build a successful life in the radio business with three country music stations.
After losing his mother (Chloe Frances Rowland) at the age of five and his father (John Alexander Rowland) leaving shortly thereafter traveling as a building contractor, Rowland was taken in by the Mc-Sweeney family in Waynesville.
“I didn’t have much parentage when I was coming up,” Rowland said in an interview. “When my younger brother was born they took my mother to a sanitarium (a hospital that specializes in treating long-term illnesses and convalescence). My daddy hired a housekeeper and he sent money for a little while and then just kind of disappeared.
“I remember people coming to the house, even though I wasn’t but four or five years old, talking about an orphanage or whatever. She (housekeeper) wound up taking us out to a little community called Waynesville where her two sisters had a little grocery store. They raised us.”
Rowland started working at a dairy farm at the age of 12 and learned to play the guitar about that time. Henry Wiggins taught him to play.
Rowland got his driver’s license at the age of 14.
“Back then, if there was a necessary event or occasion or something they would grant driver’s licenses to younger people,” he said.
Rowland would later drive the school bus while attending his last year of school in Nahunta.
“The school bus driver had a seizure while taking us home one day,” recalls Rowland. “There was nobody else to drive the bus so I got behind the wheel and took the children (and schoolmates) home. I parked the bus and went to work at the dairy.” Supervisor of Schools R.D. Driver heard of the incident and met Rowland after he finished at the dairy.
“He asked if I drove the bus and I said, ‘Yes sir. There was nobody else to take care of the people and we could have sat out there for days,’” said Rowland. “He asked me if I’d like to drive it for the rest of the year and I took the job. I was making $212 a month driving a school bus, playing in a band at night and still working at the dairy.”
The band was the Florida Playboys. “Ray Charles had been in the band,” said Rowland. “It didn’t work out so he moved on. They hired me as a steel guitar player. I played in the band for about two and a half years.”
The group made an appearance on Channel 4 out of Jacksonville when it went on the air in 1949.
With a yearning to get into radio, Rowland built his first station, WFBF, in Fernandina Beach in September of 1955 after working as a DJ early in his career at WJHP. He added 99.1 WQIK (Jacksonville, Fla.) in September 1964 buying it with is father-in-law.
“WQIK was the first country music station around,” Rowland said. “I owned it until 1984.”
He later built a radio station (AM) in Macon, where his wife went to college.
It was during his time at WJHP when he got into promoting shows at the Jacksonville Coliseum. Billy Graham was the first event he did and it was a week-long crusade.
He later presented country music events which featured legends Patsy Kline, Ray Price and Charlie Pride over the years.
Rowland also brought Elvis Presley to Jacksonville and had the pleasure of working with Colonel Tom Parker.
It was after being paid $1,000 Rowland moved to Fernandina Beach and started his first radio station.
A full obituary can be found on Page 3.
