After 43 years, the voice of Washington radio news is retiring
Jim Jefferson, a voice for WJPA radio news for nearly 43 years, relaxes in the studio after delivering the 10 a.m. report. Jefferson will be retiring this month.
Jim Jefferson, a voice for WJPA radio news for nearly 43 years, relaxes in the studio after delivering the 10 o’clock report. Jefferson will be retiring this month.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Longtime WJPA Radio news anchor Jim Jefferson died Friday. He was 68.
Jim Jefferson during his radio days at Point Park College
Pete Zapadka and the skinny kid from Bradford seemed destined to become buddies in the ’70s. They were about the same age, had similar journalistic aspirations and had adjoining dorm rooms at Point Park College.
Almost every evening, the two dined with a group in the school cafeteria, chewing the fat while chewing what served as food at the institution now called Point Park University. Afterward, Jim Rhone usually returned to his room on the 17th floor of Lawrence Hall and broke away for a while. There was no mystery involved.
“Even in college, Jim had a passion for news and broadcasting,” Zapadka, a retired editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, recalled via email. Rhone was the sports director for Point Park’s radio station, WPPJ, and was perpetually fine-tuning his on-air skills.
“Jim would lock the door and stay in there for at least an hour,” Zapadka continued. “All that time, he’d practice reading wire copy. We could stand in the hallway and listen.
“I’m happy to say I got to enjoy his expertise years before the listeners in Washington County.”
By Friday afternoon, that voice of expertise will have disappeared from the airwaves. Jim Rhone – the man known professionally as Jim Jefferson – will retire that day after 43 years at WJPA Radio. He began as a disc jockey in 1974 but swiftly moved into his signature role, providing the morning news in his steady, unerring voice for four decades. Jefferson departs as news director.
“I’ve been getting up at 2 o’clock in morning for 35 or 40 years. That’s enough,” he said, laughing.
In reality, Jefferson, 65, embraces his vocation and everything it has entailed. He treasures the 31 years he has worked closely with Pete Povich, and the relationships with other WJPA colleagues; the interactions with local officials and other news sources; and – most of all – the listeners from West Alexander to Roscoe, McMurray to Mt. Morris.
“We’re Washington County, where people want to know about their communities and what’s happening with their taxes or at city hall,” he said. “We’re more concerned about Washington City Council than Pittsburgh City Council, and we’re proud of that even though we have listeners beyond (the Washington and Greene county borders).”
More than anything, Jefferson will miss “the interactions with people. The interviews with police, political officials, the district attorney, judges … The main thing is helping people, letting them know what is happening. It may just be the weather.”
Retirement was not a long-term plan, nor a snap decision. Povich, the station’s program director and music maven, said Jefferson first mentioned that prospect the second week of May.
“He said, ‘Let’s talk to Michael (Siegel, general manager of Washington Broadcasting Co., which operates WJPA).’ I was really surprised,” Povich said.
As the radio station in downtown Washington continues to interview for a replacement, Jefferson prepares for a leisurely lifestyle. He will be joining his wife, Debbie, a former commercial loan officer, in retirement. They live in Scenery Hill with a dog, a cat and two horses. Jim and Debbie met in college, where she was a dance major from Aliquippa who enjoyed horseback riding.
“My wife once said, ‘Don’t make me choose between you and the horses,'” he said. “I laughed, but I think she was serious.”
Laughter is on his itinerary. So, of course, is golf. Driving, chipping, putting and dealing with the frustrating vagaries of the game are personal passions.
“I used to be better,” said Jefferson, a member of Lone Pine Country Club. He usually plays once a week, but plans to increase his course time.
Jefferson, however, vows that golf will not cause him to be a one-trick pony in retirement. He and Debbie plan to travel and do volunteer work. Jim is council president at Scenery Hill Lutheran Church.
They also will be tending to those four-legged animals. (Have any of the Rhones’ horses been a roan?)
Although Jefferson is being celebrated mostly for his 43 years at WJPA (95.3 FM, 1450 AM), his radio career has spanned nearly a half-century. It began in Bradford, his northwestern Pennsylvania hometown, where the winters are legendarily horrific. “It was called ‘The Icebox of the Nation,'” he said, chortling.
As Jim Rhone the high schooler, he contributed scholastic sports reports Friday nights at WESB. “I liked it, and they said, ‘If you want to come back during the summer, you can fill in.’ So I did for four years.”
Rhone was in college by then. He acknowledges Zapadka’s account of those not-so-private dormitory readings in the ’70s about Watergate, Vietnam and the Steelers. “I’m not sure I locked the door,” Jefferson said, but he did practice to achieve on-air perfection.
“I’d read newspaper or Associated Press copy and tape it,” he said. “I would practice news and commercials. I might have been doing something incorrectly and wanted to correct it.”
Following graduation, Rhone came to WJPA as a seasoned veteran. But first, there was that surname.
“Changing your name was the thing to do when I broke in,” said the man who would be Jefferson. “I think I got it from the college (Washington & Jefferson), plus I liked the alliteration, Jim Jefferson.
“I’ve never made a big deal of it. About half, maybe three-quarters of the people know.”
Povich certainly knows Jefferson well. Their snappy on-air banter, especially before 8:30 a.m. headlines that never begin at 8:30, are longtime staples. Both admit they are quite different from one another, yet they generate a remarkable synergy when together.
“I’m sure going to miss the old goat,” Povich said, cracking up. He typically jokes that his working relationship with Jefferson – 31 years – has endured longer than his three marriages combined.
“I’ve learned a lot from Jim. I consider it learning from the best,” Povich said. “In the world of radio, he’s Baskin-Robbins vanilla. He does the news straight down the line. As a result, people trust him. Local politicians trust him, the coroner trusts him, the DA trusts him.”
So does Siegel, the general manager, who has worked with Jefferson for many years.
“He’s hard-working, diligent, honorable, smart and curious. He’s a great newsman,” Siegel said. “You can’t replace someone like that, but you try to maintain a strong commitment to local news.”
Heading into his final week, that has been one of Jim Jefferson’s guiding principles. He takes his job seriously, even if his wife sounds like she doesn’t.
“Debbie said, ‘You sit in a room and talk to yourself and you get paid for it,'” Jim said, smiling.
It is an obvious joke, for Jim Jefferson has been talking to a lot of local people for a lot of years.