http://youtu.be/qqwtfbChBLI
After 40 years as a NewsTalk WDBO’s Morning News host, Jim Turner hosted his last show today. Turner had announced his plans to retire last month.
On May 28, 1972, Turner joined the staff of then AM 580 WDBO by responding to an ad in a broadcast trade magazine. Over 8,000 shows later, Jim Turner has celebrated a rare milestone in the broadcast business. “It wasn’t something planned. The years just sort of piled up on me,” Turner said. In 2004, Turner was honored with a coveted Marconi Award for “Personality of the Year” by the National Association of Broadcasters.
After 12 years as WDBO’s afternoon host, Turner took over the morning drive time slot, and in 1985, (then) Program Director David Bernstein decided that Jim was the personality who should lead the station’s move away from music and into the information and talk format.
“Jim is a broadcast icon,” said Drew Anderssen, WDBO Program Director. “He has been revered as one of the premier morning hosts in America for many years, a true professional, and a great man. We stand by Jim in celebration of his 40 years of community service and dedication to Central Florida as he begins to write a new page in his life. He will truly be missed as the daily voice of morning news in Orlando radio.”
“Jim has been WDBO’s anchor to our listeners and community,” added Susan Larkin, Cox Media Group Orlando Vice President and Market Manager. “His talent, engagement, and sheer love of radio is to be admired. We will miss Jim and cannot thank him enough for his part in building this brand.”
Upon Turner's retirement, fellow CMG News Talk host, Joe Kelley, will be at the helm of Central Florida's Morning News on NewsTalk 96.5 WDBO.
Kelley joins WDBO from KRMG in Tulsa, Okla., where he and Anderssen achieved consecutive #No. 1 market ratings in coveted demographics and a number of prestigious awards for broadcast excellence.
“Moving to CMG Orlando’s news/talk station, NewsTalk 96.5 WDBO, has been a long-time goal of mine,” said Kelley. “Jim Turner has been there for 40 years. So this is, indeed, a rare opportunity.”
Kelley has been the host of the KRMG Morning News since 2005 and News Director since 2010. “Although we can never replace Jim Turner, we are fortunate to be able to pull from within our exis
ting resources to find his successor,” added Anderssen. “And, as we continue to build a better WDBO, I know listeners will love Joe’s attention to the community and the content that matters most to Central Floridians.”
"Joe's been a great believer and advocate of KRMG and the Tulsa community, most notably with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, where he has led the efforts to raised more than $1.4-millio
n in the last seven years to help make Wishes come true for children with life-threatening illnesses,” said CMG Tulsa VP and Market Manager Gene Vidler.
Jim's announcement, as heard this Monday (12/03) at 6:50am:
Good morning, this is Jim Turner. Well, the big announcement we’ve been promoting is actually all about me. See, after forty and a half years here at WDBO I’ve decided the time has come to do what I’ve been talking about for several years, and that is, retire.
In this business, we joke that radio is my life. In fact, for me, it has been. From as early as I can remember, I wanted to be on the radio. I left the Marine Corps in 1968, quickly got a job announcing and doing some news at a TV station in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. That led to a radio job in the same area about two years later. And two years after that, fed up with the snow and cold weather, I answered an ad in Broadcasting Magazine, for a radio station in sunny Orlando, WDBO. That was in May of 1972. And thanks to then GM, Carl Harlberg and Program Director Bill Taylor for hiring me. I was ambitious; I figured this would be a good stepping stone to bigger and better things. Well as it turned out, all the bigger and better things were happening right here. Disney had just opened a few months earlier… And the rest is history.
You know, I think it’s really remarkable, the changes that we’ve gone through here in Central Florida over the past four decades.
I’ve gone through four ownership changes at WDBO, format changes, numerous general managers and program directors, news people, on air people… So many people I could never name. But they all contributed to the growth of a great radio station. And they helped me along the way. And for that I am eternally grateful. And of course, our listeners. Some of you have been with me for this entire journey. Thank you so very much.
And a special thanks to my best friend, my lovely wife Emily. You see, we met when she came to WDBO as a copywriter in 1975. She grew up in the radio business and she’s kept me on track all these years.
Few people get the opportunity to get to do what they love to do for a living. It’s with mixed emotions I walk away from something that’s been such a huge part of my life for the last 40 years. I’ll miss being on the radio and I’ll miss the people.
But I will not miss the 2:30 AM alarm clock.
I’m looking forward to sleeping in until at least 4 or 5. So for my last two weeks on the air here, we’ll be remembering the last 40 years. We’ll also introduce you to the new host of Central Florida’s Morning News.
Thank you.
Within minutes of the annoucement, WDBO listeners flooded our phone lines with well wishes for Jim.
- "I don't know how old Jim is, but he needs to keep working. I don't know when the retirement age is, but he has not put in enough years. Best wishes, congratulations (I guess for him), but it's just not going to be the same."
- "Jim, you're leaving us, aren't you? Well, now that you all have switched over to FM and we can hear your voice bigger and better, hear the resonance and that Barry White-like timbre in your voice, you're hanging up your shoes aren't you? You have a great retirement."
- "Good luck to Jim Turner. I will surely miss his voice. He's the cause for me turning on WDBO in the morning. I want to say I'll greatly miss him and appreciate his work."
- "Congratulations Jim on your forthcoming, well-deserved retirement. Your morning show kept me on schedule as I got ready for work, until I recently pulled the plug myself. Speaking from my own experience, the best is yet to come for you and Emily. Enjoy and God bless."
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