R.I.P.: Norm Jagolinzer, Providence Radio Broadcaster

Norm Jagolinzer

Radio personality Norm Jagolinzer, a member of the Rhode Island Broadcasters Hall of Fame, died Monday.

He was 83-years-of-age according to the Providence Journal.

Jagolinzer owned a classic old-school radio voice, deep and mellow, and had a long broadcasting career in the Rhode Island market. He worked mostly at WLKW 101.5 FM (now WWBB), which in its heyday in the 1970s was a ratings leader until its easy-listening format began to lose popularity.

His preferred music format went under different names, sometimes nostalgia, sometimes easy listening, sometimes "beautiful music." It included the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow, Perry Como, Harry Connick Jr. and Diana Krall. If the audience was right, Jagolinzer would reach all the way back to the golden eras of the big bands.

A Providence native, he started working in sales for his father's construction company, Spencer Roofing and Home Service. "I hated every minute of it," he said in a 2004 interview with The Providence Journal.

One day in 1971, he was talking to a clerk in a record store when a stranger tapped him on the shoulder and asked why he wasn't in broadcasting. The stranger was Bob LaChance, sales manager at WPRO. Jagolinzer went to the station and got a job as a part-time announcer.

He worked at WPRO 99.7 FM until 1974, when it became a Top 40 station. Jagolinzer switched to WLKW-FM, and stayed with his long-time radio partner Tony Rizzini until 1989, when WLKW morphed into rock oldies station B101. Eventually Jagolinzer followed WLKW through several changes in ownership and different positions on the radio dial.

Jagolinzer's music, which appealed to an older audience, was becoming tougher to find on the radio as advertisers chased a younger demographic. Finally, in 1999, the last version of WLKW switched to a talk format. In 2001, Jagolinzer landed at WARL-AM in Attleboro. But WARL shortly changed its format as well.

Jagolinzer was no longer on the air, but he continued to bring his music to people, organizing programs at area nursing homes and assisted-living centers. Jagolinzer would show up with his boombox and velvet voice, playing the likes of Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Artie Shaw.

In 2009 he was inducted into the Rhode Island Broadcasters Hall of Fame.