Jim Eason is a talk radio

Talk radio

Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...

 personality who hosted broadcasts from 1966 to 2000 in the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

. 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 90's 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, NC, and Glade Valley, NC, as well as one year at Edwards Military Academy. Jim studied at Piedmont Bible College in Winston Salem, NC for a year before joining the Air Force in 1954. Eason was an Air Force weatherman at Sidi Slimane

Sidi Slimane

Sidi Slimane is a newly formed province and is a small city in the western centre of Morocco. It is located between two major cities: Kenitra and Meknes....

 and Nouasseur Air Base

Nouasseur Air Base

Nouasseur Air Base near Casablanca, French Morocco is a former United States Air Force Strategic Air Command base. It was designed for B-36 and B-47 bombers.Today, Nouasseur AB is known as Mohammed V International Airport.-Origins:...

 from 1955 to 1956, and in Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

 in 1960.

Following nine years (1954–1963) in the USAF as a meteorologist, Jim came to the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 and attended San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...

, 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

KCBS (AM)

KCBS is an all-news radio station in San Francisco, California, that is a key West Coast flagship radio station of the CBS Radio Network and Westwood One. Its transmitter is located in Novato, California. KCBS currently has studios on Battery Street, where it shares the location with co-owned KPIX...

. In 1969, he joined KGO

KGO (AM)

KGO is a news/talk-format radio station radio with offices and studios in San Francisco, California. Unlike most other American news/talk stations, KGO originates nearly all of its own programming locally. Since 1978, KGO radio has received Arbitron's number-one ranking in the Bay Area...

 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.

In 1983, Eason portrayed poet Omar Khayam

Omar Khayam

Omar Khayam is a British Muslim and convicted drug dealer who achieved a considerable degree of notoriety following a protest in which he dressed like a suicide bomber...

 in the Capuchino Community Theatre production of Kismet

Kismet (musical)

Kismet is a musical with lyrics and musical adaptation by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted from the music of Alexander Borodin, and a book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, based on Kismet, the 1911 play by Edward Knoblock...

, 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, NC.

Throughout his long talk show career, Eason's show always ranked #1 for the afternoon time slot of 2pm to 5pm, then 2pm to 4pm.

Eason quit KSFO radio due to a "philosophical" conflict with management in 2000, which marked his official retirement from broadcasting. Ironically, KSFO had been his first SF 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.

External links

• KGO 810 AM - offers live internet streaming feeds
• KSFO 560 AM - offers live internet streaming feeds
• KGO History - Some Events of the Past Decade (Unauthorized)