Jimmy Staggs
Encyclopedia
Jimmy Pearson Staggs was an American
disc jockey
and record store owner in Chicago, Illinois
.
. Staggs was a stellar student and athlete in high school who passed on a football
scholarship to Georgia Tech
. Staggs later graduated from the University of Alabama
. Jim was the featured vocal soloist with the Crimson Tide orchestra during his college years.
(on WYDE AM
). From there, it was on to Philadelphia
(on WBIG
), San Francisco
(on KYA), and Milwaukee
(on WOKY
) before his stint at KYW, Cleveland
.
During the 1960 presidential campaign, Jim (who did the "morning drive") 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
Ken Draper moved to WCFL
to assume the same duties. Staggs and many other station employees, both on and off air, including Dick Orkin
, Jim Runyon
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.
(the station's high-profile 3 to 6 p.m. 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
, Ray Charles
, Frank Sinatra
, The Rolling Stones
, the Supremes
, The Monkees
, and Simon & Garfunkel.
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
.
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
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
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
.
Staggs eschewed the flashy theatrics of other Top-40 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."
' 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 was enough media interest (more reporters covering the Beatles coast to coast) that a separate plane was needed for members of the press. During this tour, Staggs updated Beatle fans every hour on the WCFL airwaves. He also covered The Beatles' third tour in 1966, travelling 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.
, Skokie, Glenview
, and Northbrook
, with two more outlets in Orlando, Florida
. The last Record City, in Lake Zurich, closed in 2005.
Staggs also became a licensed Realtor, 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
montages and interview
techniques.
He made a temporary return to radio via the WJMK-FM
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.
Staggs died on November 6, 2007 at his Lake Forest, Illinois
home of complications from esophageal cancer
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
and record store owner in Chicago, Illinois
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Early life
Staggs was born October 7, 1935 in Bessemer, AlabamaBessemer, Alabama
Bessemer is a city outside of Birmingham in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States eight miles west of Hoover. The population was 29,672 at the 2000 Census, but by the 2009 U.S...
. Staggs was a stellar student and athlete in high school who passed on a football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
scholarship to Georgia Tech
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
. Staggs later graduated from the University of Alabama
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
. Jim was the featured vocal soloist with the Crimson Tide orchestra during his college years.
Radio career
Staggs' radio career began in BirminghamBirmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
(on WYDE AM
WYDE (AM)
WYDE is a radio station currently acting as a simulcast partner of WYDE-FM. It was formerly known as WLGD, an adult standards/oldies radio station that served Birmingham, Alabama, and nearly all of Jefferson County. The station was previously known on the air as "Legends 1260". The station is...
). From there, it was on to Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
(on WBIG
WNTP
WNTP 990 is a politically conservative talk radio station which serves the Philadelphia area. It is owned by Salem Communications, along with a number of similar channels in various markets. Some of those whose programs are run by WNTP include Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, Dennis Miller, Michael...
), San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
(on KYA), and Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
(on WOKY
WOKY
WOKY is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, radio station. They broadcast a classic country radio format emphasizing country from the 50s-80s...
) before his stint at KYW, Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
.
During the 1960 presidential campaign, Jim (who did the "morning drive") and fellow KYA staffer Bob Mitchell had some fun with a parody of the Huntley/Brinkley News report
Huntley-Brinkley Report
The Huntley-Brinkley Report was the NBC television network's flagship evening news program from October 29, 1956 until July 31, 1970. It was anchored by Chet Huntley in New York City, and David Brinkley in Washington, D.C...
. Jim played Ned Nutly to Mitchell's Willie Winkly at the debate between candidates "John Finnerty" and "Nick Dixon".
In 1965, KYW program director
Program director
In service industries, such as education, a program director or programme director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services...
Ken Draper moved to WCFL
WCFL (AM)
WCFL was the callsign of a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor, hence its call letters. The station is now known as WMVP. Its transmitter is located in Downers Grove and is still in use by WMVP...
to assume the same duties. Staggs and many other station employees, both on and off air, including Dick Orkin
Dick Orkin
Dick Orkin is an award-winning voice actor and commercial radio producer who created the series Chickenman and The Secret Adventures of the Tooth Fairy...
, Jim Runyon
Jim Runyon
Jim Runyon was an American radio announcer, disc jockey, and sometime actor from the late 1950s to 1973.-Career:He was the narrator of the Chickenman series which began on his program at WCFL in Chicago in 1966; Runyon also played several parts in the show.James Runyon served in the United States...
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"Drive time
Drive time is the daypart analog to prime time for radio broadcasting. It consists of the morning hours when listeners wake up, get ready, and/or head to work or school, and the afternoon hours when they are heading home and before their evening meal. These are the periods where the number of...
(the station's high-profile 3 to 6 p.m. 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 Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, the Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
, The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
, and Simon & Garfunkel.
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
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
.
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
Joey Bishop
Joey Bishop was an American entertainer who was perhaps best known for being a member of the "Rat Pack" with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin...
was honorary national chairman and songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart
Boyce and Hart
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart were a prolific songwriting duo, best known for the songs they wrote for The Monkees.-Early years:Hart's father was a church minister and he himself served in the Army after leaving high school, Upon discharge,...
contributed a campaign song. Everyone's efforts resulted in the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution limited the minimum voting age to no more than 18. It was adopted in response to student activism against the Vietnam War and to partially overrule the Supreme Court's decision in Oregon v. Mitchell...
being ratified in 1971.
While serving as WCFL's music director
Music director
A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the co-ordinator of the musical ensembles in a university or college , the head bandmaster of a military band, the head...
, Staggs authorized the station to play the controversial Ballad of John and Yoko
Ballad of John and Yoko
"The Ballad of John and Yoko" is a song written by John Lennon, attributed to Lennon–McCartney as was the custom, and released by The Beatles as a single in May 1969...
; he later became the station's program director
Program director
In service industries, such as education, a program director or programme director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services...
.
Staggs eschewed the flashy theatrics of other Top-40 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 BeatlesThe Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' 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
WCFL (AM)
WCFL was the callsign of a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor, hence its call letters. The station is now known as WMVP. Its transmitter is located in Downers Grove and is still in use by WMVP...
. For this tour, there was enough media interest (more reporters covering the Beatles coast to coast) that a separate plane was needed for members of the press. During this tour, Staggs updated Beatle fans every hour on the WCFL airwaves. He also covered The Beatles' third tour in 1966, travelling 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 ZurichLake Zurich, Illinois
Lake Zurich is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States, a suburb of Chicago. The population was 18,104 at the 2000 census. A 2003 special census put the village's population at 19,005....
, Skokie, Glenview
Glenview, Cook County, Illinois
Glenview is a suburban village located approximately north of downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 41,847...
, and Northbrook
Northbrook, Illinois
Northbrook is a village located at the northern edge of Cook County, Illinois, which is also a North Shore suburb of Chicago. The population was 33,170 at the 2010 census....
, with two more outlets in Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
. The last Record City, in Lake Zurich, closed in 2005.
Staggs also became a licensed Realtor, working with Keller Williams Realty in Libertyville
Libertyville, Illinois
Libertyville is an affluent northern suburb of Chicago in Lake County, Illinois, United States. It is located west of Lake Michigan on the Des Plaines River. The 2000 census population was 20,742; the 2005 estimate was 21,760...
, 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
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
montages and interview
Interview
An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...
techniques.
He made a temporary return to radio via the WJMK-FM
WJMK (FM)
WJMK is a classic hits radio station in Chicago, Illinois. The station is known as "K-Hits 104.3." The station adopted this format on March 14, 2011, after spending 6 years as Jack FM. Prior to that, WJMK spent 21 years as an oldies station...
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 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.Staggs died on November 6, 2007 at his Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest, Illinois
Lake Forest is an affluent city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. The city is south of Waukegan along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest was founded around Lake Forest College and was laid out as a town in...
home of complications from esophageal cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
.
External links
- Photo of Staggs in the KYW studio
- Chicago Sun-Times 2007 Media in Review-Robert Feder's in memoriam column
- Fab Four FAQ-A Tribute-Jim Stagg
- '60s radio DJ interviewed Beatles-Ben Goldberger-Chicago Sun Times-2007-11-08
Listen
- Audio of Jim Stagg on WCFL, September 1966 (RealPlayerRealPlayerRealPlayer is a cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.-History:...
) - Internet Archives-Download of March 18, 1966 WCFL aircheck-Jim Stagg
- Audio of Jim Stagg on KYA, April 14, 1961 (RealPlayerRealPlayerRealPlayer is a cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.-History:...
)