Jim Stagg

Stagg with Dave Clark of The Dave Clark Five in 1966.

Jimmy Pearson Staggs, (aka Jim Stagg, Jimmy P. Stagg, and Jimmy Staggs) was an American disc jockey and record store owner in Chicago, Illinois. Born October 7, 1935 in Bessemer, Alabama, Stagg was a stellar student and athlete in high school who passed on a football scholarship to Georgia Tech and later graduated from the University of Alabama where he was the featured vocal soloist with the Crimson Tide orchestra.

Staggs' radio career began in Birmingham (on WYDE AM). From there, it was on to Philadelphia (WIBG), San Francisco (KYA), and Milwaukee (WOKY) before his stint at KYW in Cleveland.

During the 1960 presidential campaign, Jim, who had the "morning drive" airshift, and fellow KYA staffer Bob Mitchell had some fun with a parody of the Huntley/Brinkley News report Jim played Ned Nutly to Mitchell's Willie Winkly at the debate between candidates "John Finnerty" and "Nick Dixon".

1961

Here is Jim at KYA playing all the hits on April 14, 1961. [ LISTEN ] (57:58)

In 1965, KYW program director Ken Draper moved to WCFL to assume the same duties. Stagg and many other station employees, both on and off air, including Dick Orkin, Jim Runyon and Jerry G. (Bishop) eagerly moved from KYW in Cleveland to WCFL in Chicago.

At WCFL, the "Voice of Labor", Stagg did the "afternoon drive" (the station's high-profile 3 to 6 pm slot) shift. He referred to the studio call-in line as the "Stagg Line" and produced a feature titled "Stagg's Starbeat" – in-depth, provocative, and insightful interviews with local, national and international music celebrities.

The "Stagg Line" was a weekly column on music and the entertainment industry, which appeared in Sunday editions of the Sun-Times.

WCFL

Jim's regular WCFL shift on March 18, 1966. [ LISTEN ] (8:27)

Stagg was the "afternoon drive" (the station's high-profile 3 to 6 p.m. slot) disc jockey at Chicago's Voice of Labor, WCFL. He interviewed nearly every major rock star of the 1960s, including Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones, the Supremes, The Monkees, and Simon & Garfunkel.

Stagg eschewed the flashy theatrics of other Top-40 radio hosts in favor a straightforward rock and roll show that kept the focus on the music.

Stagg rose to program director at WCFL - where he authorized the station to play the controversial Ballad of John and Yoko.

Jim became the Chicago chairman of Let Us Vote (LUV), a youth campaign which began in late 1968 to establish the minimum voting age as 18 in all states. Joey Bishop was honorary national chairman and songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart contributed a campaign song. Everyone's efforts resulted in the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution being ratified in 1971.

November 2, 1967

While serving as WCFL's music director, Stagg authorized the station to play the controversial Ballad of John and Yoko. He later became the program director.

Stagg eschewed the flashy theatrics of other Top-40 radio hosts in favor a straightforward rock and roll show that kept the focus on the music. His sign-off line was "Music is my business. I hope my business was your pleasure."

WCFL Sound 10 Survey, 1966.

Sound 10 Survey 167.

Jim was among a handful of reporters who traveled on The Beatles' private plane during the band's 1964 U.S. tour. The reporters had press credentials for the tour and at times were pursued by the same frenzied teenage girls who were trying to get closer to their idols.

Stagg was once again tapped to cover the Beatles in 1965, but this time for WCFL. For this tour, there were so many reporters covering the Beatles coast to coast, a separate plane was needed for members of the press.

Stagg updated Beatle fans every hour on the WCFL airwaves during this tour. He also covered The Beatles' third tour in 1966, traveling with the band from London to Chicago. On all three tours, Stagg captured, on tape, The Beatles' reactions and comments in every city and after each concert.

Stagg left the radio business in 1975, as the medium's so-called Golden Age finally gave out, and started a chain of record stores in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Stagg opened a record store called "Record City," which eventually became a chain with locations in Lake Zurich, Skokie, Glenview, and Northbrook, with two more outlets in Orlando, Florida. The last Record City, in Lake Zurich, closed in 2005.

Programmers Digest

In the early to mid 1970s, there was a bi-weekly record sent to radio programmers called Programmer's Digest. It was like an industry magazine for radio executives, but done on a vinyl record. The July 30, 1973 edition of Programmers Digest contained a track dedicated to Chicago's Jim Stagg. This track, named "Yesterday and Today," contained airchecks from almost a decade of Stagg's radio career, including plenty from Chicago's WCFL-AM and WMAQ-AM. [ LISTEN ]

Stagg also became a licensed Realtor, working with Keller Williams Realty in Libertyville, and started a business, along with his wife Valene and daughter Dina, called Looking Back Productions, that captured the times of someone's life and special events using video montages and interview techniques.

He made a temporary return to radio via the WJMK-FM airwaves as part of the WJMK Rock 'n' Roll Reunion on April 11, 1985 as a guest, along with fellow former WCFL DJs Ron Britain and Barney Pip to share memories of the station and their careers in radio.

Stagg died on November 6, 2007 at his Lake Forest, Illinois home.

WHERE DID JIM WORK? Here is the list: WYDE, WIBG, KYA, WOKY, KYW, WCFL, and WMAQ.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Chicago Radio and Media.