The Jim Hampton Collection

Picture of Jim Hampton as a young man
A young Jim Hampton 

Jim in the studio
DJ Jim Hampton 

Jim Today
CEO Jim Hampton

Jim Hampton has had a significant career in Radio Broadcasting, including on-air stints in Detroit, Chicago, Tokyo, and China. His expertise includes Network Programming and Syndication, Integrated Marketing and Promotion, and the design and launch of major web portals.

Hampton is respected as an idea man. He creates out-of-the-box marketing concepts and brings them to reality. The combination of these big ideas with his innovative approach to marketing and implementation has equaled success for many clients.

As a teenager, Hampton was the youngest radio DJ hired by ABC at WXYZ/Detroit. From 1969 to 1970, Jim served as Production Manager at WCAR in the Motor City, and he also worked at WABX and WJBK. From 1970 to 1972, Jim was Production Manager at WLS in Chicago.

Jim produced over 1000 radio specials which aired around the world, and has interviewed almost every major music star of the 60's, 70's & 80's. Specials produced by Hampton for ABC include The Elton John StoryThe Beach BoysThe Bob Seger StoryThe EaglesThe John Lennon StoryMichael JacksonELOFrankie Valli and the 4 Seasons, and Super 70's

Jim Hampton has also produced radio specials for CBSRKOFM TOKYORADIO SHANGHAI and the BBC. He created the first 24-hour voice-tracked format, "Big Country", co-hosted American Top 40 with Casey Kasem in Japan, and developed MasterCard's most successful College/youth program.

A winner of Aegis and Telly Awards, and CEO of Greenhouse Marketing Group, Jim resides in the Los Angeles area.

Greenhouse is a marketing and sponsorship sales company that represents The City of Beverly Hills, The Museum of Latin American Art, the LA Art Show and the LA Latin Film Festival, among other organizations, events and broadcast properties.

About this Collection, Jim writes, "I hope you enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed putting it together."

The Repository thanks Jim Hampton for sharing!

Talk about memorable moments!

I was very young (19) in 1965 and just starting out as a disc jockey. Stevie Wonder, who was still “Little Stevie Wonder,” came to Flint and together we co-DJ’d this show.
You will hear him being a great DJ, playing his harmonica with all the hits, singing, plus guests Diana Ross, Mary and Flo of The Supremes call in.

… It’s been centuries now since the earth was clouded, and shrouded, and stilled …
[Description by Jim Hampton] Along with being a DJ, production was my thing. As Production Director of WCAR and WLS, I had a chance to re-define how PSA’s would sound on the radio. You will hear some very innovative spots for their time (1969-1971). Some still hold up today. Included: “W-Car Cares About Detroit” and “WLS Says A Lot For Chicago”. You will hear Dave Prince, Joel Sebastian, Fred Winston, Chuck Williams, Gary Gears, and myself. Dave Prince was a great inspiration on many of these.

[Description by Jim Hampton]

In the late 80’s, I flew to Big Sur and met Paul Anka in his home.

He took me into his music room, where he had the most beautiful Kawasaki Grand Piano. He sat at the piano, I turned on my Nagra tape recorder and we began one of the most memorable interviews I had ever done.

As I asked him questions about his songs, he proceeded to underscore his comments by playing on the piano, then singing, in what for me was a private concert. Wow! So I produced this special for the ABC Radio Network, featuring Don Bleu as the announcer.

… with studios in Broadcast House …

[Description by contributor Jim Hampton]

My first big radio job in 1966. I was 20 years old and got the chance of a lifetime. This is a scoped aircheck of one of the Solid Gold shows from 1967. You will hear a great Anita Kerr jingle package, some cigarette commercials, Howard Cosell, and some Chickenman.

… Hey! Wait a minute, that’s a Food! …
[Description by Jim Hampton] Gene Taylor, General Manager of WLS when I worked there, asked me to create a sound presentation because it was his turn to speak at the Chicago Broadcaster’s Guild. So, I wrote and produced this presentation. Julius Zaccagnini (Zack), my engineer, mixed and assembled it, and Fred Winston and Joel Sebastian voiced it. Fred goes wild with all his crazy characters, a lot were adlib, as I recall. This exhibit includes classic performances from some of Chicago’s greats.

[Description by Uncle Ricky]

This is a wonderful Detroit Jingle Symphony from Jim Hampton’s Memorial Day 2009 Radio Recall show. It features a lot of many well-known jingles of the Top 40 era, produced and syndicated by the best jingle people.

You will hear PAMS. Lots of GREAT PAMS, performed by the original groups with the original mix, this is very classic material for WXYZ, WJBK, WKMH and WKNR,. There are also amazing Futursonic jingles, with only minimal tape skew for pre-acapella CKLW, and the sparse Johnny Mann CKLW jings are clean.

And who did those WCAR jingles? WCAR is getting it said..! Sounds like an early incarnation of the WCBS-FM material by Chuck Blore. Overall, an inclusive and AMAZING symphony for sure!

… and we’ll call it the cream of the crop, until twelve o’clock …

[Description by Uncle Ricky]

Thanks to Jim Hampton for proving that there really was viable ABC sponsored Top 40 radio in Detroit, even as WKNR was overtaking the market. From Jim’s Radio Recall, we learned quite a bit more about Lee Alan. We had one aircheck from Bob Green of Mr. Alan, but apparently, Lee Alan had a long history with WXYZ and held forth nightly in the Motor City, in addition to recording a record about his horn with major Motown artists. I guess if you don’t ask, you might never know.

The opening to this Lee Alan Show and the generous distribution of PAMS jingles demonstrates that, in fact, the guys on the air at WXYZ were encouraged to think of the time they spent on the air as SHOWTIME. Radio was a show, you see, there were these guys called “disc jockeys” and…

Nevermind. You’ll figure it out. Thanks, Jim!

Talk about memorable moments!

I was very young (19) in 1965 and just starting out as a disc jockey. Stevie Wonder, who was still “Little Stevie Wonder,” came to Flint and together we co-DJ’d this show.
You will hear him being a great DJ, playing his harmonica with all the hits, singing, plus guests Diana Ross, Mary and Flo of The Supremes call in.

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