FARMINGDALE – Charles Stewart McCatherin, 70, a prominent broadcaster and lifelong Yankee fan, passed away here, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, after a prolonged bout with cancer.

Charlie, a resident of Portland, had been living in Farmingdale for several months with his sister and brother-in-law, Keltie and Joseph Collins, while recovering from cancer surgery.

He was born in Augusta on July 26, 1952, the fourth child of D. Stewart and Emma Mary McCatherin, and attended Augusta schools and the University of Maine at Augusta. As a kid, Charlie developed a major interest in baseball and became a fanatic fan of the New York Yankees, remaining as rabidly loyal into his final days. He loved watching Aaron Judge of the Yankees tie, then surpass the American League home run record, but at heart he was always a Mickey Mantle fan.

While in high school, Charlie started working at WFAU Radio in Augusta as a janitor, a job that led him to a very successful career in broadcasting throughout the country. After working as an announcer and disc jockey in Augusta area stations, he moved to WJTO in Bath where he was known on the air as Chuck Howard.

From there, it was onward and upward for the talented broadcaster, moving into major market stations in Providence, R.I., Cleveland, Ohio and St. Louis, Mo., among others. In the 1970s he joined Casa Blanca Records as a promoter in the mid-west, located in St. Louis, Mo. There he was responsible for working with that label’s stars, promoting the likes of Donna Summer and The Village People.

In the 1980s he moved to New York City, N.Y. where he worked for the famous Z100, the city’s major market station and reputed as being the No. 1 radio market in the world. It was there that he produced a nationwide show syndicated in several hundred stations for radio personality Shadow Stevens and where he met and worked with Scott Shannon.

When Shannon purchased a major market station in New Orleans, La., Charlie moved there as production manager, living in the French quarter on Orleans Street, just three blocks from the famed Bourbon Street. His family, most of whom did, soon found a visit with Charlie in New Orleans, La. was like being with royalty as he was well-known from his broadcasting career in all the major venues of the city.

His brother remembers a Jazz Festival weekend in the city and a long line outside the legendary Jazz Preservation Hall when Charlie edged along to the head of the line where the club’s manager hollered, “Hey Charlie, come on in.”

It was also New Orleans, La. where Charlie met his long-time partner, Edward Roberson Jr., who predeceased him in 1998.

When he retired from broadcasting, Charlie moved to the west coast living in various parts of California until he returned to Maine in 2011. Living in Portland, he became an early-morning legend walking about seven miles a day around the peninsula. He also became a major volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House on Brackett Street.

Charlie is survived by his sister, Keltie and husband, Joseph and their children Heather Collins and fiancé Sean Buck of Fairfield, and Holly and Derek Gannett of Manchester; brother John and his partner, Barbara Kovach of Carrabassett Valley, and his children Leslie and Scott, of Yarmouth; the children of Charlie’s late sister, Jean, and her husband, Jim McDonald of Spruce Head, Julie McDonald and William Ross of Santa Barbara, Calif., James and Althea McDonald of Carey, N.C., Jane McDonald and wife, Susan Andrews of Montara, Calif., Jeffrey McDonald of Santa Barbara, Calif., John and Kelley McDonald of Houston, Texas; the sons of Charlie’s late sister, Carol Martin, Jonathan Stevens and his partner, Carolyn Jette of Millbury, Mass., and Christopher Stevens of Elgin, Ill., and all of their families; and special friend and cousin, Constance McCatherin Silver and her husband, Martin Silver of Westport, Conn.

Charlie will be greatly missed by his extended family and their friends for the boundless energy, laughter and joy he brought into all their lives.

The entire family is most thankful for the loving care and support provided to Charlie before and during his illness by his “baby” sister, Keltie and her husband Joe at their home in Farmingdale, and for the work of the Androscoggin Home Health Care and Hospice.

There are no funeral arrangements, but a celebration of Charlie’s life has been scheduled for July 23, 2023, next summer, at Spruce Head when most of his family members will be back in Maine.

In the meantime, Charlie has requested that his ashes be spread by his family over the site of the original Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

Arrangements are entrusted with Staples Funeral Home and Cremation Care, 53 Brunswick Ave., Gardiner. Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared with the family on the obituary page of the Staples Funeral Home website, http://www.staplesfuneralhome.com

Anyone wishing to remember Charlie may do so by contributing to the Ronald McDonald House

in Portland.

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