Vale country music identity Ron Adsett

Australian country music identity Ron Adsett lost his lengthy battle with leukaemia, just after celebrating his 70th birthday.

Aside from his significant contribution to the local country music scene as label executive, radio presenter and retailer, he is best remembered for his role in setting up the Country Music Association of Australia (CMAA) in 1991/92.

Adsett was elected a founding board member and he contributed without a break until the late 2000s.

The CMAA remembered him as “a quiet and modest man who was widely respected and loved for his low profile but highly effective involvement.”

Adsett’s love for country music began in the early ‘70s, as a sales rep and promo manager at EMI and Tempo Records.

After two years as music director of Sydney station 2UE, he moved to Brisbane where as music director at 4KQ he played a key role in turning it into a country music powerhouse.

In 1987, when 4KQ was taken over and turned into a talk station, Ron and his wife Rosie opened The Country Music Store in Brisbane’s CBD.

They developed a comprehensive catalogue of Australian country music, gradually moving into mail order and internet marketing.

It won the CMAA Achiever award for Retailer of the Year five times.

Over the years, Adsett started to take country music fans to attend the Fan Fair festival in Nashville, and with friends launched the Bellbird Music label to reissue classic domestic country music recordings based on the well known Hadley Records catalogue.

In January Ron and Rosie joined Tamworth’s Hands of Fame; two of the non-entertainers to be recognised.