JJ HEMINGWAY TRIBUTE SITE

J.J. HEMINGWAY
RADIO BROADCASTER TRIBUTE SITE

JJ - CIRCA 1980s

1. LONG STRETCH OF JUST JJ

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2. JJ-ON-WORD-1

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3. JJ-ON-WORD-3

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4. WORD-Humble Carl w-Burt

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5. WORD CLASSIC-RAW

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6. CJ+spots w-Bill Thomas&Tony Brooks

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7. WORD-News w-Brad Casey

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8. JJ w-his brother Jon Hemingway

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9. JJ HEMINGWAY ON KJR-SEATTLE

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10. JJ on KISS-FM-Spokane, WA

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11. KIKX Sports - Burt with JJ

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12. KIKX - JJ with Burt

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13. JJ ON SUNNY 100-Columbus,GA

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14. JJ Production Demo 2012

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15. JJ Production Demo 2015

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Questions, Comments, etc.

Please also contact me if you have airchecks,

pictures or other material

you'd like to contribute and share on the site.

Thank You.

SEND A MESSAGE

This site is about JJ Hemingway and not Bob Brown or Burt Allan, but, to appreciate many of the airchecks and really understand the period of radio history and everything, you need to know a little bit more about it. Many of you have never heard JJ Hemingway in his prime at his best and in my opinion, the period of JJ's career that was arguably the best work he ever did was at 91-AM Word Radio in Spartanburg, SC. and I just wanted to put that in perspective.

JJ and I were privileged to work for an owner that gave us the tools and hired only major market quality talent. It was an amazing place to work. Some of the others on the WORD airchecks are sadly deceased and there is no airchecks of them that I know of on you tube or anywhere. JJ leaving us made me see if I could find some material and thankfully I found these snippets. Understand, too, that if I dug this stuff up and JJ was still with us, he and I would be chuckling and listening to this together. We both loved radio and used to listen to airchecks together. JJ was a friend to everyone on these airchecks. He'd tell me when he looked up CJ or Tony Brooks or spoke to Bob Brown, from WORD, through the years. So, JJ is probably listening and smiling and happy I've been able to resurrect this material that he would have loved to hear himself and I'm glad it will no longer be forgotten. Sadly, there are not too many WORD airchecks around, but, all these top-notch pros, deserve to be recognized and Bob Brown for making it happen including developing JJ's career.

I'm JJ's friend of 33-years. Make that brother. Family. We talked on the phone almost every day right up to the end about everything. Our friendship began when Bob Brown hired me and teamed me up in afternoon drive to be part of JJ's show as the sportscaster every half hour. We became friends. We'd leave the station together after the show and go bowling or we'd drive to Greenville, SC. to pay bills at Montgomery Ward (you couldn't do it online in those days) or whatever errands he had to do for his new family. JJ was very proud of his new baby daughter.

This is JJ at his best in his 20's and in his prime at WORD. It's real genuine personality radio like nobody does it anymore. It's why so many of us got into radio in the first place and I wanted to put it all in perspective when you listen to it. If anyone has airchecks of JJ that go back further than WORD, I'll be happy to post them, as well, but, working for Bob Brown is when the career and the polish that had been developed really came together, in my opinion. It was also a turning point. When JJ left WORD, he went to Dallas and would only return east, one more time, to do mornings in Columbus, GA.

WORD was an amazing station as were the people that went through there. You had to be special to be hired by Bob Brown. I had the privilege of being brought in, as a part of the team, that succeeded the development "class" of Dave O'Brien who went on to do play-by-play with the Atlanta Braves and a lot of ESPN work. Gary Cohen, one of the voices of the New York Mets, had also been at WORD, in a recent period. JJ worked with both of them before me and here I was doing the same job at the same station hired by the same guy and working with the same afternoon guy, JJ Hemingway. Some great major market music radio personalities, as well, passed through there.

During this period, the lineup was the late Bill Thomas doing mornings. Bill was the "voice" of major market commercials and had come to WORD after working in Dallas for Jams and Century 21, as I recollect. Middays was the late "Humble Carl" who was much funnier than Bill Thomas or JJ, but, Bob told me he couldn't leave Carl on in the morning by himself because he'd forget to take care of business and run the commercials and weather, etc. So, although he had done mornings before, Bob put him on in middays where he didn't have to keep up with all the morning stuff around him and could just be funny. JJ was the afternoon guy and CJ Jackson was our night guy at 6pm and the station engineer. This was an amazing station. We had a news department of about 5-people. We had our own staff guy running around with traffic and other news updates from the field, Bobby Dean. The sports team had 3-people including me. Imagine a radio station today with a staff that large. We covered everything. I was out interviewing people during the day, we ran sports all day long, we did play-by-play. It was an amazing station. All live and all local and no syndication filler on weekends. It was amazing. For some of you, you may have never heard radio done like this ever; raw, unrehearsed, live and not voicetracked in the can, etc. I'm so happy I was able to preserve a few of these snippets. I was mostly airchecking myself, so, that's why I'm on a lot of it. But, it's a memory for me, too, to hear it because JJ and I worked and played after work together 6-days a week during that stretch. JJ and I worked together, Monday-Friday and also on Sunday mornings, our weekend shift.

JJ and I always talked about Bob Brown. JJ worked for Bob at several of his stations in different cities and he left, came back, etc. and Bob, in my opinion, had a great impact on JJ's career and really admired his talent. Bob, I haven't talked to you since the 1980s when you told me "I had talent" and should stay with sports and I didn't want to do sports and I left in a huff over money and did not listen to you. It was the biggest mistake of my career, but, I treasure the time working there. It is where I first got to work with major market professionals and it is also where I built a life-long friendship with JJ Hemingway. Thank You, Bob. (in case you are out there and read this, it needed to be said)

For those hearing full service radio around the clock for the first time, this was when AM radio was transitioning from music to talk and our station still played music, but, we were a full service radio station and we still beat the FM music stations because we were the last of PERSONALITY RADIO. We were the last "one station-everything" where people could turn and lock it in on the dial and get everything from one station. We ran 5-minutes of news every hour, long detailed weather every half hour from Alan Archer and sports was supposed to be 5-minutes every half hour at about 15 and 45 of the hour, but, since music was no longer the star of the station, JJ and I were allowed to ramble. We almost did a 2-person show, sometimes. 5-minutes became 10 to 15 minutes. The only time we got memos was when we ran behind or over in getting the commercials in and were told to tighten it up. JJ and I were like 2-friends on the air just talking to each other and we became life-long real friends.

JJ and I stayed in touch for 33-years and worked together in several other markets. As I sift through years of material, I will try to dig up what I can and add to the site. Everyone is welcome to send me their pics and airchecks and even comments and I will try to eventually add them all to the site.

P.S. In one snippet, of JJ and his brother, Jon Hemingway, sadly, the aircheck only recorded when the microphone was open, so, I wasn't able to pick up the (2) songs of Jon Hemingway that JJ was playing on the radio, at the time. I point out this aircheck for another reason, as well. At the end of the show, JJ used his familiar sign-off that he has used from radio job to radio job for years. You'll hear "Happy Trails" and more importantly, JJ, a man of faith, always signed off with "Let the Son Shine In Your Life." Well, for those of you that enjoyed his signature sign-off, you'll hear him do it at the end of this particular aircheck. Unfortunately, he closed the microphone after speaking and you don't hear the closing of "Happy Trails" complete and full without being edited/cut off by JJ closing the microphone, but, many of you remember that well and even more significant is that if JJ knew he was going to go suddenly and not see any of us again, I can't think of any last words and last song that he would want to say to everyone. So, think about that. I keep thinking about the last time I spoke to JJ on the phone. He told me he was weak and couldn't talk very much. Instead of quickly signing off and ending the call, he said to me something that I have been thinking about a lot. He said to me, "Burt, I can't talk, but, I can listen" and the call went on for around 15-minutes and I did most of the talking and he listened. I think about that because he may still be listening. He can't talk to us anymore, but, he may very well be listening.

JJ'S CLASSIC SIGN-OFF

Thank You For Visiting!

your Spokane Radio Pal, J.J. Hemingway

worked at many radio stations including:
Shine 104.3, KISC/Spokane KISS 98.1,

Cool 98.9 Bismarck, SD. Q-107, Nagadoches, TX.

Kool 107.1 Spokane, WA. etc.

J.J. Hemingway worked in and/or his radio voice

has been on the air in many cities including:

Savannah, GA. Spartanburg, SC. Greensboro, NC.

Dallas, TX. Nagadoches, TX. Missoula, MT.

Helena, MT. Wenatchee, WA. Bismarck, SD.

and many more in his career

that started as a teenager

Airchecks on this site are from radio stations

that JJ worked at:

WORD-AM, Spartanburg, SC. KIKX, Colorado Springs, CO.
Sunny100, Columbus, GA. KJR-FM, Seattle, WA.
Production Demo from Cascade Broadcast Services

(JJ was owner of this production company)

more bio info & airchecks & pics will be added to the site

about the author/webmaster: http://burtallan.com