KEITH Melbourne does not play a musical instrument.

"I tried, but I was told I was pretty bloody lousy at it," he says with a chuckle.

And even old friends don't mince words about his vocal ability.

"Keith couldn't sing a song to get him out of trouble, you know," is how Ray Kernaghan puts it.

But music is more than its mere creation; there's sharing the sounds, spreading the enjoyment and helping those in the industry reach their potential.

Here Keith excelled.

Originally from Yackandandah, his influence over decades has been felt throughout the Border and well beyond as a longtime country music broadcaster, promoter and manager.

For more than 30 years he presented country music programs on Albury-Wodonga community radio station 2REM 107.3FM, also serving for a time as the station's manager.

His twin loves of radio and country music allowed him to meet, interview and often befriend some of the genre's biggest names, like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and Slim Dusty.

Managing artists and broadcasting took him all around Australia as well as the US, particularly country music's home Nashville.

His commitment and breadth of knowledge have garnered not just respect but accolades, such as induction into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame in Tamworth in the late 1990s.

Now about to celebrate his 90th birthday, Keith says music has always been an important part of his life.

"From the very first day I heard a radio, that was in Yackandandah," he says.

"I was truly amazed, I used to sit there and look at the radio, like we do a TV now, and think, 'How is that sound coming from Melbourne?'

"The old wind-up gramophone and records, that's where my first love, I suppose, of music began."

Born October 7, 1925 as the oldest of three children, Keith's family were among the first in town to own a radio.

He remembers his first day of school, the daily walk there along a dirt track, getting the cuts from the teacher - not that he did anything too bad - and also he and his friends watching the steam trains arrive and leave.

The Melbournes moved to their namesake city in 1936 and Keith completed his education, leaving school at 14 like many did then.

Among a varied working life came stints on a paddle steamer, in Allan's music store and at a textiles factory, where he met his future wife Elizabeth.

The couple married in 1950 and had seven children, Gary, Graeme, Warren, Daryl, Bruce (dec), Anthony and Leanne.

Leanne's registered first name is Victoria, which, combined with the family's surname and the arrival of a daughter after six sons, attracted some media attention.

In his early post-school life, Keith attended many tent shows put on by major stars of the day like Tex Morton, a travelling performer he then joined, and Buddy Williams, whom he managed later in life.

"I used to follow them around everywhere," he says.

"I became somewhat of a nuisance after a while, I think.

"They got to know me a lot."

His interest in radio also led him to Melbourne stations 3KZ and 3XY, where he had to talk his bosses into running a country music program.

"In some quarters country music was frowned upon," Keith says.

"I think people looked at it as being at the bottom end of the scale.”

Radio also occupied home life at St Albans, sometimes to the neighbours' consternation.

"I tried to drag in distant stations and I'd have all sorts of odd-looking antennas on the roof, blowing around in the wind," he says.

The family often visited Yackandandah on holiday and later returned to live in Keith's home town after he finished work as a postman.

Country music artist Ray Kernaghan met Keith in the late 1970s and recalls times at 2REM when the station broadcast out of an old farm house at Ettamogah.

"I'd heard that Keith was very interested in and into country music, so I invited him to join me on the radio for a bit of a chat," Ray says.

"He had a typical radio announcer's voice and he was so good at it that I said to him, 'Well, why don't you do the country music program and I'll be your guest'."

It proved a winning formula owing both to what and who Keith knew.

"We had Slim Dusty, Buddy Williams, Smoky Dawson, Chad Morgan; all popped into the radio station and were guests of Keith Melbourne because he knew them personally," Ray says.

"He would do links to (guests) overseas and get them on the phone for radio interviews on his program."

Keith instigated the Yackandandah Country Music Festival in the early 1980s and used his connections to pull in the talent each year.

As a manager, he was a popular visitor to retail stores when out on the road with records and cassettes.

"He's always been helpful with young people in their careers and would tell them the honest truth as to what he feels they can do," Ray says.

Keith saw the younger Kernaghans grow up and develop as musicians and also assisted Kasey Chambers in her early days.

Ray says his family think highly of all the Melbournes.

"A gentleman of all gentlemen, Keith Melbourne, I've never heard him say a bad word about anyone at all," he says.

Former 2REM colleague Peter Batson, until recently The Border Mail's entertainment reporter, met Keith about 1979, just before the community radio station began broadcasting.

"Even then Keith was known as a country music guru, he had a lot of contacts in the country music field, all over Australia," Peter says.

"Because he had such a rich knowledge of country music and the country music scene, questions came very easily, he knew what questions to ask.

"He's such a warm, giving person and I think people responded to that and that came across when he was broadcasting as well.

"Keith's got a pretty big personality and once you meet him, it's very difficult to forget him."

Now a widower, Keith lives in Thurgoona and takes time to reflect when asked about his general health.

"I'm thinking, aren't I, and if I'm thinking it means it must be all right," he says.

"I better not start bragging too much about that, you never know," he adds quickly.

He will celebrate his 90th birthday with family and friends on October 2, an occasion that will also see the release of his biography From Yackandandah Nights To City Lights, written by his granddaughter Lana.

"Probably the greatest thrill I've got out of country music is meeting the people I've wanted to meet," Keith says.

But it seems, as Peter points out, those people were also happy to meet him in return.

"Look, you just can't help but warm to Keith," Peter says.

"He's one of those personalities and a lot of charisma as well.

"A very cheeky grin and a twinkle in his eye."​