Jimmy Pearson Staggs (October 7, 1935 – November 6, 2007), also known as Jim Stagg, was an American disc jockey and record store owner in
Chicago, Illinois
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 ...
.
Early life
Staggs was born October 7, 1935, in
Bessemer, Alabama
Bessemer is a city in Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County, Alabama, United States and a southwestern suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham. The population was 26,019 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is within the Bi ...
. Staggs was a stellar student and athlete in high school who passed on a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
scholarship to
Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...
. Staggs later graduated from the
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...
. Jim was the featured vocal soloist with the Crimson Tide orchestra during his college years.
Radio career
Staggs' radio career began in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
(on
WYDE AM).
From there, it was on to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
(on
WIBG),
San Francisco (on
KYA),
and
Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
(on
WOKY
WOKY (920 kHz, "Fox Sports 920") is a commercial AM radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It is one of two sports radio stations owned by iHeart in Milwaukee. WRNW focuses on Wisconsin-based sports shows, while WO ...
) before his stint at
KYW,
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
.
During the 1960 presidential campaign, Jim, who had the "morning drive" airshift, and fellow
KYA staffer Bob Mitchell had some fun with a parody of the
Huntley/Brinkley News report.
[ Jim played Ned Nutly to Mitchell's Willie Winkly at the debate between candidates "John Finnerty" and "Nick Dixon".][
In 1965, KYW ]program director
In service industries, such as education, a program manager or program director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services. For example, in education, a program director is responsible for developing ...
Ken Draper moved to WCFL to assume the same duties. Staggs and many other station employees, both on and off air, including Dick Orkin
Richard Alan Orkin (July 9, 1933 – December 24, 2017) was an American voice actor and commercial radio producer who created the '' Chickenman'' radio series and ''The Secret Adventures of the Tooth Fairy''. His voice was used in many radi ...
, Jim Runyon
Jim Runyon (January 8, 1931 – April 13, 1973) was an American radio announcer, disc jockey, and sometime actor from the late 1950s to 1973. He was in
plays at Cain Park in the early ‘70s
Jim Runyon was loved by his radio audience and was k ...
and Jerry G. (Bishop) eagerly moved from KYW in Cleveland to WCFL in Chicago.
As his radio career wound down, Staggs hosted innovative talk and music shows on WMAQ-AM.
WCFL career
At WCFL, the "Voice of Labor", Staggs did the "afternoon drive" (the station's high-profile 3 to 6 pm slot) shift. He referred to the studio call-in line as the "Stagg Line" and produced a feature titled "Stagg's Starbeat" – in-depth, provocative, and insightful interviews with local, national and international music celebrities. Staggs interviewed nearly every major rock star of the 1960s, including Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling musicians of all time.
He has written and ...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...
, Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
, the Supremes
The Supremes were an American girl group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959 as the Primettes. A premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful Amer ...
, The Monkees
The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones (musician), Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees (TV series), Th ...
, and Simon & Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo comprising the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three US number-one sing ...
.
There was also a weekly column on music and the entertainment industry, the "Stagg Line", which appeared in Sunday editions of the ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
''.
Jim became the Chicago chairman of Let Us Vote (LUV), a youth campaign which began in late 1968 to establish the minimum voting age as 18 in all states. Joey Bishop
Joseph Abraham Gottlieb (February 3, 1918 – October 17, 2007), known professionally as Joey Bishop, was an American entertainer who appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series playing a Talk ...
was honorary national chairman and songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart contributed a campaign song. Everyone's efforts resulted in the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-sixth Amendment (Amendment XXVI) to the United States Constitution establishes a nationally standardized minimum age of 18 for participation in state and federal elections. It was proposed by Congress on March 23, 1971, and three-four ...
being ratified in 1971.
While serving as WCFL's music director, Staggs authorized the station to play the controversial " Ballad of John and Yoko"; he later became the station's program director
In service industries, such as education, a program manager or program director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services. For example, in education, a program director is responsible for developing ...
.
Staggs eschewed the flashy theatrics of other Top-40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top ...
radio hosts in favor a straightforward rock and roll show that kept the focus on the music. His close-of-program line echos that: "Music is my business. I hope my business was your pleasure."
Beatles coverage
Jim was among a handful of reporters who traveled on The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
' private plane during the band's 1964 U.S. tour. The reporters had press credentials for the tour and at times were pursued by the same frenzied teenage girls who were trying to get closer to their idols.
Staggs was once again tapped to cover the Beatles in 1965, but this time for WCFL. For this tour, there were so many reporters covering the Beatles coast to coast, a separate plane was needed for members of the press. Staggs updated Beatle fans every hour on the WCFL airwaves during this tour. He also covered The Beatles' third tour in 1966, traveling with the band from London to Chicago. On all three tours, Staggs captured, on tape, The Beatles' reactions and comments in every city and after each concert.
Post-radio career
Staggs left the radio business in 1975, as the medium's so-called Golden Age finally gave out, and started a chain of record stores in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Staggs opened a record store called Record City, which eventually became a chain with locations in Lake Zurich
Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...
, Skokie, Glenview, and Northbrook, with two more outlets in Orlando, Florida
Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...
. The last Record City, in Lake Zurich, closed in 2005.
Staggs also became a licensed realtor
Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agent ...
, working with Keller Williams Realty in Libertyville, and started a business, along with his wife Valene and daughter Dina, called Looking Back Productions, that captured the times of someone's life and special events using video montage
Montage may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Filmmaking and films
* Montage (filmmaking), a technique in film editing
* ''Montage'' (2013 film), a South Korean film
Music
* Montage (music), or sound collage
* ''Montage'' (EP), a 2017 EP by ...
s and interview
An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" re ...
techniques.
He made a temporary return to radio via the WJMK airwaves as part of the WJMK Rock 'n' Roll Reunion on April 11, 1985 as a guest, along with fellow former WCFL DJs Ron Britain and Barney Pip to share memories of the station and their careers in radio.
Personal
Staggs died on November 6, 2007, at his Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,367. The city is along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and t ...
home of complications from esophageal cancer. Staggs and his wife of 45 years, Valene, had four children—son Patrick, and daughters Kara, Lisa, and Dina. At the time of his death, Staggs had five grandchildren, Dylan, Matthew, Colin, Nadine, and Aimee
References
External links
Photo of Staggs in the KYW studio
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20091117131622/http://www.fabfourfaq.com/news.asp Fab Four FAQ-A Tribute-Jim Staggbr>'60s radio DJ interviewed Beatles-Ben Goldberger-Chicago Sun Times-2007-11-08
Listen
Audio of Jim Stagg on WCFL, September 1966
(RealPlayer
RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player (software), media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimed ...
)
Internet Archives-Download of March 18, 1966 WCFL aircheck-Jim Stagg
(RealPlayer
RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player (software), media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimed ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stagg, Jim
American radio DJs
American talk radio hosts
Deaths from cancer in Illinois
Radio personalities from Chicago
Deaths from esophageal cancer in the United States
University of Alabama alumni
1935 births
2007 deaths
People from Bessemer, Alabama
American radio executives