For one generation of Pittsburgh radio listeners, he was known as a conservative talk host paired with Rose Tennant at a WPGB-FM 104.7, in command of “The War Room” for nearly a decade until a contract dispute with iHeartMedia predecessor Clear Channel Communications led them to move on.
For an earlier generation of Steel City listeners, he was a memorable Top 40 DJ at former stations including KQV-AM, WKTQ “13Q” and WBZZ “B94.”
Now, many across Western Pennsylvania are pausing to remember Jim Quinn.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper, Quinn died on Sunday (3/30) at the age of 82. A native of New Jersey, Quinn first found fame at Top 40 KQV under ABC ownership. He’d then shift to WTAE, a giant of its era competing against KDKA. Quinn would later end up at Top 40 WKTQ “13Q”, which in 1974 took the market by storm with a tight, high-energy presentation that led ABC to sell KQV to Taft Broadcasting.
In 1983, he joined WBZZ-FM at a time when FM Top 40 radio stations were on the rise. Paired with Don “Banana” Jefferson, Quinn and Banana served as the market’s “Morning Zoo”-styled program until 1992, when market dynamics and a competitor named “MixJams” led to significant changes in Contemporary Hit Radio in the market.
For a period in the 1990s, Quinn would work at Classic Rocker WRRK-FM, and it was there where a second life as a Talk host would come to life. It led Clear Channel to hire him at 2004 at WPGB, following its debut as an FM Talk station to compete against KDKA.
But, by 2014, Quinn’s fortunes had run dry in Pittsburgh, leading him to the former WAVL-AM (now WJFA) in Apollo, Pa., for a morning show. Most recently, The War Room could also be heard on WYSL-AM in Rochester, N.Y.
Quinn’s career began in Ohio. Among his first meaningful stints was at WING-AM in Dayton, a big Top 40 station of its time, in 1967. He lasted one year before moving to WIBG-AM in Philadelphia, also a big Top 40 station. That was a short-lived gig, however, and by 1969 he was at KQV hosting nights — and bringing in a big audience.
By 1972, bigger markets beckoned. He ended up at WPIX-FM in New York — a station that had grown infamous for its fickle programming moves. Those changes led Quinn to move to Buffalo, taking an on-air slot at WKBW-FM 1520 — a huge Top 40 station that withstood FM competitors and AMs from across the region.
Still, Pittsburgh held a place in Quinn’s heart, and he would join the 13Q air staff in 1977 before jumping to WTAE in 1979, just as FM radio penetration was reaching critical mass in the region.
“Bubba” Snider, who was part of the WBZZ morning show in the late 1990s, commented about Quinn’s passing on Facebook midday Sunday (3/30). “The world lost a great one,” he wrote, noting that Quinn’s daughter sent him the news via text earlier in the morning. “He is the reason I am in radio. It is a long yet funny story. May he rest in peace and may his memory always be a blessing. Today is a sad day for me and for everyone else who knew him. Be sad today and then celebrate him every other day.”
