Jim Eason

Jim Eason as Omar, with a dancer, in the 1983 Capuchino Community Theatre production of Kismet

Jim Eason is a conservative talk radio personality who hosted broadcasts from 1966 to 2000 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He always ended his talk shows with the catchphrase "Do what you can, but behave yourself". His early 1970s theme was Herbie Mann's "Hold On, I'm Coming". In the 1990s he changed his theme to the Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond jazz classic "Take Five".

Biography

James H. Eason, Jr. was born December 26, 1935 in Burlington, North Carolina, and attended schools in Graham, and Glade Valley, as well as one year at Edwards Military Academy. Eason studied at Piedmont Bible College in Winston-Salem for a year before joining the United States Air Force in 1954. Eason was an USAF weatherman at Sidi Slimane and Nouasseur Air Base from 1955 to 1956, and in Greenland in 1960.

Following nine years (1954–1963) in the USAF as a meteorologist, Eason came to the San Francisco Bay Area and attended San Francisco State University, majoring in radio and television. During this time he met and married his wife Barbara, with whom he has two children.

Radio career

From 1966 to 1967, Eason created and hosted "Testing 1-2-3", a call-in game show on KCBS. In 1969, he joined KGO as a weekend talk show host after KCBS went to an all-news format. In 1970, Eason became a week night talk show host at KGO. He moved to weekday afternoons in 1973, frequently interviewing visiting entertainers, authors, and public figures.[1]

In 1983, Eason portrayed poet Omar Khayam in the Capuchino Community Theatre production of Kismet, which was directed by Jack Brooks (1935–1984), director, actor, singer, arts critic, and host of a Saturday morning KGO program.

A longtime resident of the San Francisco area, Eason moved to Asheville, North Carolina in 1993, where he broadcast his KGO talk show via high speed connection from his home studio. He was one of the first to do this type of remote broadcast on a regular basis. In 1996, Eason moved his talk show to KGO's more conservative sister station KSFO, while continuing to broadcast from his home studio in Asheville.

Throughout his long talk show career, Eason's show always ranked #1 for the afternoon time slot of 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., then 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Eason quit KSFO radio due to a "philosophical" conflict with management in 2000, which marked his official retirement from broadcasting.[2][3] Ironically, KSFO had been his first San Francisco Bay Area radio broadcast gig, when he hosted one of their "Records at Random" show in 1963.

Eason and his wife Barbara returned to Northern California in 2003 to live nearer family, but he still considers himself a "Tarheel" through and through.

He was inducted into the Bay Area Radio hall of fame in 2007.[4]

References

  1. ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qTYwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cYsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6600,574668&dq=jim-eason&hl=en
  2. ↑ http://pages.sbcglobal.net/swelf/KGOHistory.htm
  3. ↑ (21 July 2000). S.F. Talk Host Quits 'In Disgust', San Jose Mercury News
  4. ↑ http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-12-16/entertainment/17272891_1_sports-programs-radio-waves-radio-historian

External links

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