Hazlett retires as major player on music scene
For Terry Hazlett, it was time for more leisure time.
The region’s premier retro disc jockey has retired from radio station WJPA in Washington. He lyrically announced his departure on Facebook on June 16, saying, “It’s been a fun run, but we’re done.”
Hazlett, who will turn 74 soon, had been the host of three music theme shows: “Vinyl Countdown,” “Cruisin’ ’60s” and “Friday Night Dance Party.” He not only played tunes, but engaged with listeners, seeking their input and relating background stories on songs and groups, while drawing on his vast knowledge of the industry.
But, he added in his post: “After nearly a decade of playing your favorites at WJPA, we’ve turned off the turntable.”
He has gone from turntable to turning the page. Hazlett, a former journalist and borough manager, had a vacation trip ahead with his wife, Susan, and determined about two weeks ago that this would be an ideal time to bail out.
“It was a quick decision,” he acknowledged. “I was going on vacation and the station was fine with this. I didn’t say anything on the air.
“Now I want to see how real retirement works.”
Hazlett said radio work at times, especially on weekends and holidays, precluded him from doing what he preferred to do. Being at the station a couple of months ago kept him from attending the retirement party of a longtime reporter. Hazlett also is involved with adaptive sports programs, but Saturday and Sunday radio gigs prevented him from attending some events.
And as meticulous as he is with his vocation/avocation, Hazlett also questioned the relevance of what he was doing in this electronic age. “Young people have a lot of choices for their music, not just radio. And not everybody listens to radio,” he said. “Besides, I’m not sure people want to listen to what a 74-year-old likes about music.”
He enjoyed his nearly decade-long tenure at 98 S. Main St., though. Hazlett not only got to share his passion for music at the AM-FM station, he reveled in on-air conversations he had with listeners on all three shows. “The thing I liked most was talking with people, hearing what they had to say about songs. I encountered some younger people who liked ’60s and ’70s songs.”
His departure, and that of another DJ, has necessitated program changes and juggling of part-timers at WJPA. According to a station official, “Dance Party” on Fridays will be replaced by “a mix of uptempo dance and rock. Program director Pete Povich said he has taken over “Cruisin’ ’60s (noon to 4 p.m. Sundays), while G-Whiz George continues with “Cruising Sunday Night,” now from 4 to 10 p.m.
As a sign of dedication to his craft, Hazlett wrote the weekly “Vinyl Countdown” shows – a Sunday retrospective of top 40 AM hits from days of yore. He relied heavily on local music chart results instead of national.
Povich was not broadsided by Hazlett’s retirement. “Terry has said in recent years that he was going to retire – ‘I might do this, I might do that.’ He and his wife, Susan, had a lot of family in Florida, but nothing came of it. I guess I kind of talked him out of it a couple of times.
“He has right to take it easy, but probably won’t.”
The program director has a keen appreciation for the man. “Terry worked very hard for us,” Povich said. “He did a lot of work with me on our music library. I will really miss him. He was a great employee and a great friend.”
Those are but two of many roles this diverse man has played. Hazlett grew up in McMurray, where his affinity for music was kick-started by an unusual source.
“The thing that drew me in was music class at my grade school,” he said. “We did songs from Hansel and Gretel, three or four 78s (an old style of record). Everyone else was bringing in 45s.”
Hazlett studied journalism at Point Park College (now Point Park University), devoting copious hours at the student radio station. He made use of his degree, landing a dual position – reporter and circulation manager – with the now-defunct Canonsburg Daily Notes, but left after nine months to take a reporting job at the Observer-Reporter.
Hazlett worked a 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift at the O-R, but got little rest in the intervening hours. He also had at a daylight job at 13Q, a trendy new rock station in Pittsburgh, where he was music director for four years.
Hazlett found traction at the newspaper, toiling there for 27 years. “I loved it. I literally had dozens of jobs there (including assistant managing editor and lifestyles).”
A few years after departing the paper in the early 2000s, Hazlett entered another realm: becoming manager of Canonsburg Borough. He served for 10 years, until 2013, but wasn’t enamored of the experience. “Politics didn’t appeal to me.”
The man also is a book author. During the earlier stages of the pandemic, Hazlett did research for and cobbled together “Survey Says: The Hits of the ’60s in Western Pennsylvania,” a self-published tome that has been well-received.
“He did a ton of work on the book, with a lot of chart action,” Povich said.
Terry Hazlett has, indeed, been a major player in the Southwest Pennsylvania music scene. Now, in retirement, he will have more leisure time, more time to spend with his wife, Susan – who, he said, is “absolutely not” the music aficionado he is.
Perhaps nobody is.