Pittsburgh, PA Radio News

[TheFugitive]

Longtime Pittsburgh radio personality Jim Quinn passed away over the weekend.  He was 82.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/jim-quinn-pittsburgh-dj-and-conservative-radio-host-dies-at-82/ar-AA1BXs7D?ocid=BingNewsSerp

After stints as a DJ with radio stations in Ashtabula and Dayton, Ohio he came to Pittsburgh in 1967 to work at KQV.  It was there he met Rush Limbaugh, and would eventually follow him into conservative talk radio.  After leaving town for stints in New York and Buffalo he would return to Pittsburgh with 13Q (WKTQ) and from there went on to WTAE.

In the 80's he was hired by B-94, then a top-rated station, to co-host their morning show with "Banana Don" Jefferson. This ended in controversy after Quinn cracked an off-color joke about their newswoman which sent her running out of the studio in tears.  She sued for sexual harassment, using her eventual settlement to put herself through law school.  B-94 fired Quinn, who sued the station for age discrimination and likewise got a settlement.

He was then hired to do the morning show at WRRK, then having a Classic Rock format, and over time his show evolved from music to political talk.  Rose Soma-Tennent became his co-host and the Quinn and Rose in the Morning Show had a very successful run.  In the early 2000's it moved to iHeart's 104.7 and was syndicated to a number of other stations in the region.  The show was canceled shortly before 104.7 flipped to country music.

In recent years Quinn continued to host a daily morning show by himself from a studio in his home, which was broadcast on one station in Rochester, NY (owned by an old DJ friend) and available for subscription streaming.  It was briefly carried on WBGG a few years ago as well.