Ron Cameron

[Momo]

The last few months featured a number of sports deaths that Ron was never asked about or acknowledged. I’m anticipating lots of ongoing “What are you doing here?” questions from him.

[Dan in Northville]

Ron and Wilt are probably enjoying a rousing game of HORSE right now

[ConstipatedListener]

Well I posted on Bob Paige’s X account how great it would be if he could call in next Friday, he said he would if people reached out to him, though he said his stories would take the whole show

I did share it with Martins account that he ran for Ron

It'd be nice if Sima would allow some extra time for Ron's on-air wake.

[ConstipatedListener]

Of course, that could shorten or pre-empt the fine "AA And Revolving Door" show.

[uncleb67]

Some nice comments by Alex Alway and Rich Kincaide on their Facebook pages. Also, a very poignant tribute by someone named Butch Davis.

https://www.facebook.com/alex.alway.3

https://www.facebook.com/rich.kincaide

https://www.facebook.com/butchonsports2

In case anyone can't access Facebook, here are the comments.

Alex

Very sad news to report..longtime Detroit sports talk host Ron Cameron has passed away at 79. I first met Ron when he was a customer at an Arbys in Southgate I was a manager at. He ended up hiring me at age 21 to open up a restaurant in Southfield after I just finished up college for hospitality/culinary. It was invaluable experience to help build my resume and career. Then I worked with Ron on air for about 7 years on WCAR and WDTK to help put Sportstalk together. Again, an opportunity that opened up more doors while meeting some truly amazing people along the way, like Tommy Hearns. After my time on the show ended, I was a guest several times. Never a dull moment on the show. I'm always going to be thankful to him and the opportunities he created for me to grow. Rest easy Ron.

Rich

We received word here in LCA Press box tonight that Ron Cameron, Detroits first radio sports talk show host, is dead at 79. I first met Ron in the spring of 1978 when my own broadcast career was nascent. He had a hard life, but we all know he was an iconoclast; a guy who loved being a sportscaster; a guy who managed his own career his own way.
I hope that he is, tonight at long last, at peace.

Butch

I received word tonight that Ron Cameron, Detroit’s first radio sports talk show host, passed on at 79. My first sighting of Ron Cameron was on the show called Auction Movie on Saturday afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon on television stations 62, WGPR in the late 70’s early 80’s. Ron also helps me with my first job on radio as he would have me on his show on Friday morning at station WPON which I end up being on the radio station piggybacking his show on the Friday afternoon on my first Radio Sports show” Butch on Sports” at the same station in the late 90’s. Ron existed to be an original who was not afraid to take on management and leadership of Detroit area sports teams. It seems today that a vast majority of broadcast and print sports media in Detroit are in the various teams’ back pockets for fear if they say anything anti team, they’ll lose their job. Ron was courageous in saying what he thought about any Detroit sports team in the area being good, bad, or ugly. I think the sports world including the People in metropolitan Detroit should all celebrate Ron Cameron for bringing sports talk to the radio and give him his just do because many people in sports radio wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for Ron opening the doors for many to say what they want to say in dealing with the world of sports the way it should be. Ron Cameron R.I.P.

Thanks for putting those up! On a related note, I’d love to see Roger Faulkner’s note that posted on Rich Kincaid’s FB page about the Ron Show Experience!

It was a good one, with some playful honesty.

I made innumerable guest appearances on Ron's show. For some reason I always felt I owed him. Even at the end when i would drive on empty roads to an otherwise deserted studio in Ferndale I would wonder what I was doing. The show would begin with its non-stop ads for places Ron ate at and I would wonder more. Then the phones lines would open and I would be astonished by the number of calls from his faithful listeners. He was a good soul and truly one of a kind.

This post by Roger Faulkner does seem to pretty well encapsulate the Ron Cameron “in-studio” experience for guests. Not often Ron would gets guests to come in and do the show from the studio, even pre-Pandemic! Obviously, Faulkner (and I’m sure other guests) had that “Why am doing this?!” feeling when driving there.

[Gertner]

So what was the deal with Ron and his restaurants? They seemed to close as fast as they opened

Reading over this thread and Bob Page's Twitter account has me hooked on Ron's life haha.

[ShempLives]

Regarding Ron's legacy as a restaurateur, from Wikipedia: "From 1981, Cameron tried different kinds of cuisine in restaurants that he usually owned for only a short period of time.[50] In 1993, Detroit Free Press TV/radio reporter Steve Crowe wrote that Cameron 'changed eatery locations more often than some change socks.' Cameron has often hosted his radio show in these restaurants.
His restaurants in the metropolitan Detroit area have included an Italian restaurant in Birmingham; sports bars on both the east and west sides of Detroit; a submarine sandwich shop in downtown Detroit; a Coney Island hot dog restaurant in Dearborn Heights; a broasted chicken restaurant in Romulus; an old-fashioned grill and pizza in Southfield ("All Star Grill and Pizza"); a pizza establishment in Livonia; and a general restaurant ('Home Run Eatery') in West Bloomfield.[51][52][53]"

[uncleb67]

I know we're all familiar with Ron's nomadic lifestyle, living in motels and all for most of his adult life. But I don't remember any mention of any remaining family or relatives in his life. Does anyone know if there was anyone at all there for him at the end? Sad to think that he was really a "one man operation" in his personal life as well.

He recently mentioned a half-sister, with some acknowledgment that he bore some responsibility for their apparent long estrangement.

Sadly I do not think Ron had anyone in his personal life. I'll share that he called me when he was being released from the rehab center in Warren after his knee surgery asking if I could pick him up and drive him to his motel. It was a weekday and I was working from home in Canton so I told him I wasn't able and to just have them call him a cab which I believe he did. I spoke with him around three weeks ago and he seemed in decent spirits outside of the knee pain. I suspect he passed at the motel if he passed Tuesday and there was no official announcement until a couple of days later. Last time I saw him was when he had the pizza place on Plymouth road in Livonia for all of six weeks or so in June 2016. He was one of kind for sure.

Wait.......................you hadn't seen him in over six years, yet he called you to ask if you could give him a ride to his motel? Ron never ceases to amaze.

We spoke roughly 3-4 times a year; he'd call me to say who's coming on the next show or something like that. I'd call him on occasion when someone big in sports passed away to inform him which he appreciated. Having said that I will say I was more than taken by surprise when he called wanting a ride to his motel room. Lucky me I suppose. One of a kind he certainly was.

Under what circumstances did you exchange phone numbers? It now makes sense that Ron was unclear as to whether or not he got the call about Al Avila’s new job on-air.

When I saw him in December I made a point of not giving him any personal information lest he saw me as someone to whom he could reach out.

I hope Mr. Positive calls in & weighs in on his relationship with Ron. What was it that Ron wanted Mr. Positive to call him about? When I once visited Mr. Positive at GNC, he called Ron & put him on speaker. This was right after he was booted from WDTK for using the N-word in retelling a story. I heard the familiar voice railing against WDTK & how all they wanted to do was make money. Mr. Positive offered to give me Ron’s number, but I declined.

We exchanged numbers around a dozen years ago. I went into his short lived (as all of them were) restaurant in Southfield just off Northwestern Highway. He was familiar with me as I would call in on occasion and he asked what I did for a living. I told him I was with a Tier One Automotive supplier and he immediately said he could cater in food for us. He insisted on exchanging numbers even as I told him I had nothing to do with catering in lunches or anything and I doubted I could put him in touch with someone who could hook him up but he insisted so I got his number at that point. He never bothered me much, the request to pick him up at rehab was about the only time he went over the top. Other than that it was mostly plain sports type talk and the guy did have a heck of a memory. Being twenty years younger than Ron he admired my memory for things going back to the early seventies. He was basically harmless but completely disorganized and living in a bygone era with a flip phone and his yellow pages.

Was it this one, in West Bloomfield, right off of Northwestern? The timeframe sounds about right, too.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/ron-camerons-h ... d-township

That was the failing restaurant that prompted Ron to say that Jews only dined out when they had a coupon. Not long thereafter, I got a coupon from Home Run Eatery that made absolutely no sense. I wished I had saved it for the inevitable Ron Cameron Sports Talk Museum. I once ventured into an open Home Run Eatery only to find it completely abandoned.

Yes that was the place; it was set back in a strip mall; really bad location in my opinion. But that was Ron; hustling around with no definitive or well thought out business plan.

Ron always had a soft spot for taking over bad/cursed locations for his many attempted restaurant ventures.
There was a spot in Northville, that not long after opening it was revealed the owner was being investigated for sex offenses. Not surprisingly, the members of this tight-knit community were aghast and the deli was shuttered literally overnight after only a few months of being open. Ron, needless to say, saw this “golden opportunity” and swept in and took this “turn-key” place/carcass over. I think it happened so quick, the public didn’t even realized the sex offender was out of the picture. Under Ron’s ownership, the place closed even faster than the previous owner, even with Ron touting support/future appearances from his sports world friends that lived near-by, Ken Holland and Drew Stanton!

[Momo]

So what was the deal with Ron and his restaurants? They seemed to close as fast as they opened

Reading over this thread and Bob Page's Twitter account has me hooked on Ron's life haha.

A belated welcome! I wonder how many more pages we would have if you had been hooked earlier? Alas, an artist's "genius" is sometimes recognized only in death.

The opening of a new Cameron restaurant was also attended by breathless expectations. There were the weeks of speculation as to when the new restaurant would open. Always, "Expect an announcement in a couple of weeks" (I would envision Ron holding a well-attended press conference). Always with great hype. The location & everything else was perfect. And when some did open, reality quickly set in. In my listening days, Ron, like clockwork, would immediately start to despair about something or another. I'm being generous with my observation that none of them lasted more than a few months.

It had been pre-pandemic when Ron's last restaurant opened & quickly closed. But, ever the dreamer, Ron until the very end continued to talk about opening a new restaurant. Post-pandemic, such talk was peppered with his laments about how "nobody wanted to work" anymore, limiting his options.

I remember a few years back when a 75ish Ron had former Wing & later successful restauranteur Bugsy Watson as a guest. Of course, Ron, who turned every "interview" into an episode of "This is Your Life," with him as the subject, had to talk about HIS career in restaurants & his then-intention to open a new one. Barely concealing his laughter, Watson asked, "How old are you?!"

[Momo]

I'm not on FB, so could someone please post what the man formerly known as the "third most powerful man in soccer" had to say about Ron?

[Momo]

It's too bad the Free Press instituted its no readers comments policy the start of this month. I would have liked to have seen the response to its story about Ron.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/ ... 406356007/

[Bobbert]

I'm not on FB, so could someone please post what the man formerly known as the "third most powerful man in soccer" had to say about Ron?

https://mibuzzboard.com/phpBB3/viewtopi ... 15#p776593

[Bobbert]

Some more Facebook comments.

Jim Carlini

I just found out that Ron Cameron passed away. Ron was a local sports personality who was on several radio and TV shows back in the day. He also owned a sports bar and was part owner of a minor league baseball team. My buddies and I had some fun times with Ron either at his bar where he put on a sports talk show ( Mike Roberts producer) or down at the Red Wings game at the Joe. R.I.P. Ron ....

Bob Kurashige

detroit area has loss . Long time Radio sports talk host. Ron Cameron. he told it on the air. how he felt . about whats going on. a true Pioneer . to broadcasting. on airwaves. I will miss his talks on radio. last friday, he had Lance parrish on airwaves. R.I.P Ron

Matthew Siroskey

Well I just lost somebody else this week, I'll miss you Ron Cameron. It was great to be a producer for your show. May you rest in peace

[Momo]

Thanks, Bobbert. I did see that post, but for some reason confused that with something Mark Wilson might have contributed.

[Momo]

Matthew Siroskey

Well I just lost somebody else this week, I'll miss you Ron Cameron. It was great to be a producer for your show. May you rest in peace

Matt was the chief offender of Ron's 'don't come in on me' policy. It would be nice if he, too, was a part of this Friday's show.