The Jamaican media and cultural landscape has lost one of its most distinctive and enduring voices with the passing of Walter Charles Bob Clarke, who died early Tuesday morning, January 27, 2026, at the Port Maria Hospital in St Mary. He was 75.
Clarke, a veteran broadcaster whose career spanned more than five decades, was a man of rhythm, memory, and measured words. His passing has prompted an outpouring of grief across the media fraternity, the music industry, and among listeners who grew up with his voice as a Sunday ritual—steady, reflective, and unmistakably Jamaican.
According to reports, Clarke was admitted to hospital on Monday after becoming unresponsive at home. Despite medical intervention, he died the following morning in his native parish of St Mary, the same parish that shaped his early life and to which he remained deeply connected.
A Voice That Helped Shape Jamaican Radio
Bob Clarke’s name is inseparable from IRIE FM, Jamaica’s first all-reggae radio station, which launche…
