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| Jack Lee |
Radio announcers don't fade away. They move away.
Except in Milwaukee, where a surprising number of them
settle in and settle down, according to media writer Duane Dudek at wsjonline.com.
Few have been here longer than Jack Lee, who has been an
active member of the local broadcast community since 1964.
He was a jock at Top 40 powerhouse WOKY-AM (920) from 1965
to 1970 when it was No. 1 in the market and today, at age 76, is director of
integrated media at Milwaukee Radio Group stations WKLH-FM (96.5), WHQG-FM
(102.9), WNRG-FM (106.9) and WJYI-AM (1340).
"He's an iconic figure in the corner, like Buddha on
the mountaintop, filled with wisdom," said station group vice president
and general manager Annmarie Topel.
He witnessed the conversion from radio to television, AM to
FM, music to talk formats, and broadcast to digital, and "has transitioned
from one decade to next, from one technology to the next seamlessly and
flawlessly," said Topel.
The first time he was on the radio was at his father's
station in Cookeville, Tenn., at the age of 6, singing "My Dreams Are
Getting Better All the Time." When his parents split up, he moved to
Detroit with his mother, and "did some bit parts in early radio
drama" and later on TV.
As WOKY assistant program director, one of Lee's jobs
"was to police the jocks' " appearances at battles of the bands, bar
mitzvahs and CYO dances, where the priests paid the $40 dollar appearance fees
in $1 bills they collected at the door.
"I remember seeing Barney Pipp," who tooted a
trumpet on the air, "open a trumpet case filled with $500 in
singles," Lee said.
Afterward, Lee was, in order: program director at WTMJ-AM
from 1970 to 1976, where he said he encouraged more talk and less music;
president and general manager of WEMP from 1976 to 1988, where he introduced
the first adult contemporary "Mix" format in the nation at WMYX-FM
(99.1); and managed the Milwaukee Area Radio Stations trade group from 1989 to
2006.
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