Jim Dunbar (October 9, 1929 – April 22, 2019) was an American
radio program
A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production, or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode.
Radio netw ...
director,
talk show host
Below is a list of talk show
A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk ...
and
news anchor
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
.
Dunbar was associated with
KGO Radio
KSFO (810 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, featuring a conservative talk radio format. Owned by Cumulus Media, KSFO's studios are on Battery Street in the SoMa portion of San Francisco's Financial Dist ...
in San Francisco for 37 years. According to radio historian
Ben Fong-Torres
Benjamin Fong-Torres ( 方 振 豪; Cantonese: Fong Chan Ho; born January 7, 1945) is an American rock journalist best known for his association with ''Rolling Stone'' magazine (until 1981) and the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' (from around 1982) ...
, "He changed the Bay Area radio landscape by helping turn KGO from an also-ran into the greatest powerhouse on the dial, with a 30-year run at the top of the ratings."
[
]
Career
Born in Dearborn, Michigan
Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...
, Dunbar was a graduate of the Fordson High School
Fordson High School is a secondary school located in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, in Metro Detroit. It was completed in 1928 on a parcel of land which was then the village of Fordson, named for Henry Ford and his son Edsel Ford. It is a pa ...
class of 1947, and then attended Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...
, where he worked at the campus radio station as a play-by-play announcer for basketball games. He then served in the Army for two years, working at the radio station for Fort Riley
Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in North Central Kansas, on the Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 101,733 acres (41,170 ha) in Ge ...
, Kansas.[
He later worked as a rock DJ at WXYZ in ]Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
, WDSU
WDSU (channel 6) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on Howard Avenue in the city's Central Business District, and its transmitte ...
in New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
(where he was also station manager), and WLS (AM)
WLS (890 kHz) is a commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois. Owned by Cumulus Media, through licensee Radio License Holdings LLC, the station airs a talk radio format. WLS studios are in the NBC Tower on North Columbus D ...
in Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
before moving west to work for KGO in 1963.[ Dunbar worked at ]ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting
* Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
-owned-and-operated KGO for the next 37 years, retiring in 2000. In addition to his radio work, he also hosted the popular ''AM San Francisco'' morning talk program on KGO-TV
KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network through its ABC Owne ...
(Channel 7) for many years, beginning in 1965.
In 1969, a man called San Francisco police, identifying himself as the serial killer known as The Zodiac, and agreed to call Dunbar during ''AM San Francisco''s live broadcast if either attorney Melvin Belli
Melvin Mouron Belli (July 29, 1907 – July 9, 1996) was a United States lawyer and writer known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Ch ...
or attorney F. Lee Bailey were present on air. The police contacted Belli and Dunbar to arrange this in the hopes of capturing the individual. The suspect called as promised, spoke a few words, and then hung up, repeating this activity 54 times over the next two hours. The caller was later identified as a mental patient named Eric Weill, who called from Napa State Hospital. Police quickly ruled Weill out as the Zodiac. However, Belli received a letter from the actual Zodiac later that same year.[
]
Honors
He was elected to the National Radio Hall of Fame
The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988.
Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicati ...
in 1999, and to the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame
The 'California Historical Radio Society'' (CHRS) is a non-profit organization centered on the history of radio and radio broadcasting, including related technologies such as vintage TV, amateur radio and HiFi. The focus is on the history of earl ...
(Class 2006) in 2006 as a member of the first class to be inducted.
Personal life and death
Dunbar was married to Beth Monroe, whom he met in New Orleans; they had a son and a daughter.[
On April 22, 2019, Dunbar died peacefully due to old age, according to his daughter.]
Portrayals
Dunbar is portrayed by actor Tom Verica
Tom Verica (born May 13, 1964) is an American actor, director, and producer, best known for his role as Sam Keating in the ABC drama ''How to Get Away with Murder'' (2014–2020). He also played Jack Pryor in the NBC critically acclaimed drama ...
in the 2007 film ''Zodiac
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...
'', in a scene recreating the call to ''AM San Francisco'' by the person claiming to be the Zodiac Killer.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunbar, Jim
American radio journalists
American talk radio hosts
Radio personalities from Chicago
Radio personalities from Detroit
Radio personalities from New Orleans
Radio personalities from San Francisco
Television personalities from San Francisco
Fordson High School alumni
People from Dearborn, Michigan
1929 births
2019 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople