Augusta ME Radio: WMME Morning Host Jon James Retires

Jon James gets up at 3:30 a.m. each workday and is on the air at WMME 92.3 FM Moose 90 minutes later. After more than 25 years, he’ll do that for the final time on Friday.

“I wanted it to be meaningful when I left, and I wanted to go out on my own terms,” James, 54, said from the conference room at the station’s offices on Western Avenue in Augusta. “I put so much time into this morning show for so long, and I sometimes wonder why (the station) kept me for so long.”

He said the thing he’ll miss the most about the morning show is the interaction with listeners at the Top 40 station and his two on-air partners, Mac Dickson and Renee Nelson.

“I’m going to miss it severely,” James told the Press-Herald. “It’s one of those things that gets in your blood, and I’m very grateful and thankful.”

Sometimes, James said, he listens to himself and wonders what has kept him on the air so long. He said he has had free rein on the morning show and has never had anybody tell him what he could or couldn’t do.

“I like relating to people, and that’s always been the thing about this radio station,” he said. “I’ve had no preconceived notion or false ego about how good I am.”

Dickson and Nelson, both of whom have more than 20 years at the station, will continue hosting the morning show beginning Monday. Dickson, the station’s operations manager, said James’ voice is a big one that will be missed.


Growing up, James played ‘radio’ in his bedroom. He said he started in the business when he was still in high school with the hopes of becoming a radio star.

He started working in Augusta in 1979 and had several offers to move to bigger markets in Oklahoma and Vermont, but once he got to 92 Moose 25 years ago, he knew he had found a home.