Jim White, 1936 – 2003
A few personal observations… I doubt that I’d be involved in radio at all these days myself, were it not for the many late nights, as a child, in the dark, when I should have been sleeping, listening to Jim White broadcast over the 50,000 watt KMOX blow-torch in St. Louis, MO. Back in the days when talk radio was something very different than what it has now become…
Back in the day, White, who would broadcast for six hours, from 9p – 3a, would often do little more than read a few of the day’s news headlines, and then open up the phone lines for questions and comments on those stories, or anything else on listeners’ minds. It was not ideological nor particularly political. It was discussion about the news events of the day. Period.
KMOX, “The Voice of St. Louis,” was doing all news and talk long before almost any other station in the nation, and certainly long before the 80s and 90s virus of cookie-cutter “outrage” talk radio modeled essentially as: “Here’s an outrageous anecdotal news story! Here’s my opinion on who the villain is and how outrageous they are! What’s your opinion?!”
It was also certainly long before the ideological/political/propaganda-based model of rant radio developed by Rush Limbaugh and picked up across every frequency on the nation’s public airwaves. That, of course, wouldn’t have been possible until Ronald Reagan’s dissolution of the long-held Fairness Doctrine in 1987, paving the way for unfair and wholly unbalanced political doctrine to be espoused, hour after hour, without rebuttal, across our nation’s public airwaves.
The damage wrought by that dissolution was then cemented — or rather, exacerbated many times over — by Bill Clinton’s Telecommuncations Act of 1996 allowing a handful of private corporations to buy up access to virtually all of the nation’s public airwaves so that propagandist loons such as Limbaugh would be heard in every market, to the exclusion of virtually any opposing voices.
The troubles our country now faces stem directly and clearly from those two horrible public policies, both anything but in the public’s best interest.
As Lincoln said to fellow Republicans in 1856 [hat-tip BRAD BLOG commenter Karen]: “Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government.”
Sadly, KMOX would eventually be taken over by corporate radio goliath Clear Channel, and Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, and the other rightwing despots and propagandists would become their staples, as independent, sensible, local radio programming would all but disappear.
But I digress. Back, before all of that, Jim White was a voice in the night. A conduit for the community to come to together and discuss. Whatever was on their minds.
As his obit in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes: “Mr. White occasionally had guests, but his show largely relied on interaction with his audience of insomniacs, night owls, graveyard shift workers, parents up with crying children and children staying up past bedtime.”
I was, of course, as a grade-schooler and then junior high-schooler, in that latter-described group.
Were it up to me, and were the world a very different place than it has now become, I’d loved to have picked up in White’s footsteps today whenever I’m fortunate enough to host or guest host on the public airwaves. I’d have loved to have done a radio show consisting of little more than sharing the day’s news and rationally discussing it all with listeners, rather than carrying out the politically-charged and focused rants and investigative news interviews that have, unfortunately, become all-too-necessary when non-rightwing folks like myself are granted rare access to those public airwaves — all in an attempt to offer even a modicum of balance to the dangerously imbalanced post-1987 perversion of our airwaves.
Alas, such a world, and such a show, will likely no longer be possible in my lifetime, I’m afraid.
I was also reminded, by the Post’s obit, of one particularly notable evening on White’s show:
That event would eventually be the inspiration for a short radio play I wrote and recorded many years ago. Though in my version of the story — written to have taken place on the fictional “Jim Brown’s Talk of the Town” radio show — the ending was somewhat more dramatic.
I’m afraid, as with Jim White and the type of talk radio he so expertly carried out night after night across the vast darkness of the great plains — the powerful KMOX signal could be heard in dozens of states after other stations were forced to power down their transmitters at sunset — that radio play has now been lost to all but memory.
OMG ! Do you make me feel old ! I come from the age when a radio was the size of a car in the living room !We kids would sit against it with our ear against the wood so we would not miss anything ! Jack Benny,and Bob Hope were “TALK RADIO” and the broadcasts from the war zones to the troops during WW2 was the big deal ! The scariest radio was Frank Love joy as a light house keeper watching a freighter crash on his island covered with rats and how they finally got to him !!OMG am I old but I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for new “TALK RADIO” today which is goebbels reinvented by these religious freak terrorists from “C” Street !!!!
Hey Brad,
Wow! Thanks for sharing and paying your respects to a voice in your life that meant so much to you and helped you shape the person you wanted to become.
It was also cool that you took the time to give the historical backround about the corporate takeover of U.S. radio that was able to occured by changed made to the rules that governed telecommunications during the revered Ronald Reagan regime in ’87 and then cemented under crooked Bill Clinton regime in ’96. Both good ole Illuminati boys.
That model and style of talking used on Mr. White’s show is like a vintage American car of yesterday. The fact remains that his fond memory and the memories of that time have played an important role that still influences you positively today. Life is really about growing and sharing with others not always winning.
RIP
Thanks for the thoughts, Mike. Though you didn’t note how you guys used to sit around and watch the radio! That always cracked me up.
If it makes you feel any better, granpa, I also listened to Benny, Hope and all the rest. But I had to listen to ’em on cassette tape. 🙂 Over and over and over again. (And, for that matter, “Baby Snooks” and “Innersanctum” on 8-track tape!) 🙂
Dude @ #1, If you listened to that stuff, you’re dust 😉
And thanks to you too, GBD. Vintage American, indeed.
That was indeed a very nice tribute, Brad. Thanks.
Oh my another Baby Snooks fan! Fannie Brice has always held my ear captivated.
J E LL O.
“watch the radio!” Yep and that’s the truth !
Close your eyes and you were right there in the middle of the action !
My 1st crystal radio from radio shack was broken in listening to Jim White.
Nothing but great memory’s of this man and his Boat! I was glad to see when I read the obituary last week he had made that trip he always talked about
I remember him talking about that trip as well, Shortbus. Guessing you’re from St. L as well? Or were u listening from out of state?
Grew up in North county Brad and still in St Louis so imagine my surprise when I seen Jim White on your RSS feed today.
Actually, KMOX was the first to do talk radio in the country.
Some of us remember the nighttime slot when it was held by the man who walks and talks at midnight. In that time, Jim White was on during the afternoon drive time.
For me, growing up in suburban St. Louis, exotic radio at night was WLS-Chicago, or tuning in some CBC radio station (usually Winnepeg or Calgary). KMOX was normal.
There is still one show that has been on a LONG time in Detroit on Sunday late nights on WRIF, Nightcall with Peter Werbe (used to be on IE America with Malloy and Hartman). Pete is still WONDERFUL and fun to listen to live in the middle of the night, starting @ 10PM Detriot time until 1AM. It’s streamed @ http://www.peterwerbe.com . Just had to add this! THANKS for ALL you do Brad and look forward to hearing you on tonight!
Brad ,jim was a wonderful man and great radio God in St. Louis. He was a friend of my mom. Charlotte Peters and she admired admired him so much. Thanks for the tribute it brought back great memories.
And thank you, Mike, along with all the other St. Louisans and KMOX and Jim White fans for stopping by. Feels like home again. Even here from Los Angeles…
Small world, I work with your sister Laura every summer Mike lol
Shortbus, thanks for the kind note. My niece laura is a wonderful girl.She’s got a great family she works really hard. It’s been so great reading about memories of St. Louis.I had no idea that Brad lived there. I go back to St. Louis two or three times a year and I try to tap in to the world of me living in Dog Town as a kid. (Which is one of the reasons why I started drawing Mother goose and grimm. ) I always thought if I ever did a comic strip I’d want it to be about a dog.So I go back and hang around Gregg Ave. and St. James the Greater on Tamm Ave. where I grew up and it inspires me. Brad Thanks so much for bringing up all these memories about Jim White.
Mike – And I had no idea u did Mother Goose & Grimm. Used to love it! But, sadly, not in the LA Times. 🙁
(Though not much is.)
Proud to know you’re a fellow townie! 🙂
Hi Brad,
I have to disagree with you about Jim White’s unbiased shows. He was a great censor and I had to go through all sorts of obscure linguistic permutations to get even the simplest idea on the air on KMOX and Jim’s show.
Earlier writer, Bob Chapman, put Jim on the air in the afternoons for most of his career, and that is where I remember him. His show was very influential, as was the station, and Dick Gephart probably became Speaker of the House because of it. But he was no liberal, and could never be because of the standard KMOX rants, which sounded so reasonable in their viciousness, but were early neo-con techniques. He and Phyllis Schlafly were a team in the area.
After years of frustration I would find two phones and call the show and use my first name, and on the second phone I would use my middle name. In the early 1980s I really exposed him for the fraud he was.
The topic was the ABM plan of Reagan, to put massive nuclear warheads on railroad trains and drive them around the country 24/7. On the first line I gave my reasoned opinion. I then was put on hold for the rest of the show. On the second line I called and said “I would love to have Reagan put nukes in my back yard so I could be safe”. That line was put on right away.
I then proceeded to describe my sidetracked call and the doltish precedent. He was screaming as he bit his hand, but he acknowledged the situation. I then went on to describe in simple, chemical standard, that concrete in the deserts locks precious water away forever. The amount of concrete used for the ABM was projected to be more than the amount of the entire US Interstate Highways. That amounted to America writing off the western states for the indefinite future. He sneered a growl as he slammed the phone down, banning me forever from his show.
The ABM railroad plan was abandoned a few days later.
My Best,
David