Ricardo Carballada, known professionally as Rick Azar, was an American broadcaster who spent 31 years at WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York.
12 Facts About Rick Azar
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Rick Azar was the first voice heard on WKBW-TV on November 30,1958.
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Rick Azar did not become sports director at WKBW until 1965, when the station's original sports director, Stan Barron, left for WBEN-TV; Irv Weinstein moved over from AM 1520 to become news director, while Jolls, then working at WBEN-TV, came over to WKBW-TV to rejoin Rick Azar.
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Rick Azar served as a color analyst on WKBW's radio broadcast of the Buffalo Bills games, play-by-play man on the Bills preseason games televised on WKBW-TV and an intermission host on Buffalo Sabres hockey games televised in the 1970s on Ch 7.
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Rick Azar did basketball play-by-play on St Bonaventure basketball games on Ch 7 during the Bob Lanier era.
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Rick Azar was noted for his tough, blunt personality and willingness to editorialize on-air in an era when sports talk was not yet a developed medium.
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Rick Azar denied rumors that he retired from WKBW in 1989 at 60 years old because of the station's change in ownership nor any contract-related disputes.
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Rick Azar instead stated that, though he was comfortable being in the public spotlight, he did not feel an overwhelming need for it and felt that he retired at the right time.
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Rick Azar lived in Pinehurst, North Carolina with his wife Edith, and hosted a weekly jazz radio program on WLHC-FM Life 103.1 through at least the late 2000s.
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Rick Azar was born in Buffalo but grew up in Brooklyn before returning to Buffalo at the start of World War II.
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Rick Azar spent much of his retirement in Whispering Pines, North Carolina before returning to Buffalo in 2014.
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Rick Azar died March 25,2021, at age 91 at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital in Williamsville, New York, following years of old age-related decline.