The Jackson Dell Weaver Collection

 

Picture of
Jackson Dell Weaver, WXCO Wausau, WI., 1965
Picture of
Jackson Dell Weaver, WIFC Wausau, WI., 1970
Picture of
Pat O'Day, Jackson Weaver, KJR 1985
Picture of
Jackson, 2004
Picture of
Jackson, 2006		 Jackson Dell Weaver says he still has the rocking chair he sat in each afternoon after his Little League games in Lafayette, Indiana, listening to Art Roberts, and the WLS Silver Dollar Survey. Jackson writes:WLS laid the seeds for an early love of radio. Those Disc Jockeys and the BIG 89 were simply larger than life! I was a 14 year old kid delivering papers to the studios of WRIG in Wausau, Wisconsin when I was hooked. Soon, I had talked my way into an on-air job with WXCO (Home of Mr. X!!!) doing Wednesday and Saturday nights for a variety of formats.I was a college freshman in 1969 when a few of us radicals talked the owners of beautiful-music WSAU-FM into letting us turn it Top 40. Renamed WIFC, the station rocketed to the top of the market and has stayed there since.

In the early '70s I was finishing college at the University of Utah and was jocking for top-40 KCPX. By the time I was to graduate, I looked around at everyone I knew in the radio business and none of them were over the age of 30! Furthermore, the guys driving the nice cars were selling, not on-air. So, I started selling for KCPX-FM (AOR in the early 70s), followed by a stint as General Sales Manager at KRGO (Country). In 1976 I bought a Class IV AM station and rolled out one of the first AC formats with KPRQ (The Park). But man, running a radio station that didn't cover the market was a drag! I sold the station and moved on to TV for years, first at KUTV (NBC) in sales, and then I put independent KZAR (TV16) on-the-air — before going broke with it. I look at my experience with KZAR as my MBA.

When KZAR folded in the mid-80s, Eric Rhoads (now Publisher of Radio Ink) put me in touch with Barry Ackerley and I got the best job I ever had in radio as VP/General Manager running the tattered, but still legendary KJR/950 in Seattle. We bought KLTX shortly after I got there. Pat O'Day, Lan Roberts, KJR and the world famous jingles ("KJR Seattle, Channel 95!!") were very familiar to me when I was 15 years old. Having a chance to manage KJR was great! That experience is worth a book — some other time,

Since being "retired" from KJR in 1990, I helped Eric Rhoads launch Radio Ink magazine, but I couldn't stand living in Florida. So, I came back to Seattle and kicked around doing all kinds of things until the Internet hit. I started seattleinsider.com, launched a VC-funded Internet company, had an Internet real estate marketing company, and as of 2007, I am CEO of eTAGZ, Inc.

I truly miss radio, but I have five kids and a fabulous family who NEVER heard even one of my air checks, well, maybe — until now.

The Repository thanks Jackson Dell Weaver for sharing!

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Jackson Dell Weaver, KCPX Salt Lake City, October 1973 (0:08:25)

… I just happen to be the only disc jockey in Salt Lake City from Wassau, Wisconsin …
KCPX (5KW @ 1320) was typical of many medium market stations with a broad appeal playlist, though the list was short (about 20 currents). The result was a station that dominated the market for years with shares as high as an 18 as late as 1973. By 1974, a couple of FM’s were cutting into the pie (including KCPX’s own AOR FM and KRSP-FM) but the station still reigned supreme with 12 share in the high single digits. The station was programmed by Gary “Wooly” Waldron, a gem of a guy with a great radio ear. Wooly had equal success previously with KNAK/1280. KCPX was owned by Columbia Pictures (Columbia Pix – K-PIX, get it??) along with a TV and FM station. KCPX and staff that included “Skinny” John Mitchell, Jonathon Browne (one of them), Lynn Lehman, Hal Buckner, Chad Stevens (Dan Jessop) and Jordan Mitchell. This recording is straight off the in-studio off-air aircheck machine, activated by the mic switch. Wooly air-checked every shift, but I don’t remember that he ever had a word of criticism, constructive or otherwise to any of us. We must have been either hopeless or damn good!! Within a few years of this 1973 aircheck, KCPX was a shadow of itself, hurt by FM and an expanding metro area that favored big gun signals. In 2007, the calls remained on the FM band, but the call sign is now KFNZ/1320, a Citadel All Sports station.
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KJR Seattle Composite, 1986 (0:06:47)

… Built, on a Legend …
KJR had seen better days. Much better days in fact, when it was sold by Lester Smith (Kaye-Smith) to Metromedia (Carl Bruzell) who quickly decided there were better ways to get a haircut. They flipped it to Barry Ackerley who was expanding his billboard empire to include radio and TV. For a cool $6MM ($4MM less than Metromedia had paid) Barry picked up a station with sub-2 shares. Ironically, “KJR” had far and away the most recognized call letters in the market — just no one listened to it anymore! This composite reflects the station as sort of a recurrent-AC with lots of personality. Gary Lockwood was probably the highest paid guy in the city (his deferred salary alone was in excess of $120k per year) doing mornings, Marty Reimer, one of the really smart talented guys in the market (now on KMTT) did mid-days, Ross Shaefer who hosted a local show on KING-TV, (and was later a replacement host for late night FOX host Joan Rivers), did an inconsistent job in afternoons and the legendary Pat O’Day was pulling a short two hours each day from 5-7PM. Sonics play-by-play and sports-talk shows became the staple for evenings. The hoopla regarding the upcoming Sonics broadcast was a harbinger of the move to All Sports a short time later. This composite was a national sales tool for the rep firm.

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Welcome to the new ReelRadio!

This site is now operated by the North Carolina Broadcast History Museum. 

We want to thank the board of ReelRadio, Inc. for their stewardship since the passing of the founder Richard Irwin in 2018.  It has not been easy and they have maintained the exhibits for future generations to enjoy.

I met Richard Irwin, aka Uncle Ricky, when we were freshmen at East Carolina University.  We both had worked at local stations in our hometowns.  No one was more passionate about radio, especially Top 40 radio, than my friend Richard. 

Our goals with this site are to preserve the exhibits and make them available free of charge for people to enjoy.  Over time, we hope to add some airchecks to the site.  This will not happen immediately.  Time and resources will determine the future of new exhibits. 

Many thanks to the web folks at the Beasley Media Group for countless hours of work.  Again thanks to the board members of ReelRadio, Inc. for their faith in us. 

Richard Irwin’s hope was that his site would live on long after his passing. He said, “I hope REELRADIO will survive as my contribution to the ‘radio business’. The business is allowed to forget me, but the business should never forget the great era of radio that we celebrate here”.

We remember Richard and we thank him. If you enjoy this new site, we would appreciate a contribution. We hope you enjoy the new ReelRadio!

Board of NCBHP
North Carolina Broadcast History Project