We celebrate the remarkable life of Ralph Graves, longtime WTJU classical announcer, who passed away on Thursday August 7, 2025 following a courageous journey with cancer-related illnesses.
Ralph joined WTJU as a volunteer classical host in July 1991. For 34 years, he never repeated a work (knowingly), an astonishing feat that reflected Ralph’s creativity and incredible depth and breadth of musical knowledge. He wrote a bit about his programming philosophy in 2013 when we marked his 1,000th program.
In fact, Ralph wrote a lot. At WTJU’s website, Ralph created 1,974 posts, including new album reviews, his Classics A Day series, and a weekly podcast called “Composer Cameo,” which he considered a cornerstone of his legacy. Ralph mirrored these posts at CharlottesvilleClassical.org, where he was the driving force and program director. He also curated and recorded hundreds of hours of radio programs that currently run as “Classical Prelude” on WTJU 91.1 FM and “Classics with Ralph” on Charlottesville Classical…