Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson (a.k.a. Frank Coxe and Jungle Jay Nelson) (July 12, 1936 – February 18, 1994) spent most of his career in radio, although he did a brief stint on television in the early 1960s. He was married twice and had four children.

He started in radio at WRIT in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1955. He then moved on to WARM in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1956; WHLO in Akron, Ohio in 1957; and WBNY in Buffalo, New York in 1960. He switched briefly to television, appearing on WKBW-TV, also in Buffalo, where he hosted an afternoon children's show in 1963.

On this show he appeared wearing a pith helmet and a faux leopard-skin costume, often working with a chimpanzee. It was at this time that he took the professional name Jungle Jay Nelson, a name that stuck for the rest of his career.

It was Monday December 2nd 1963, when Nelson, CHUM’s new ‘morning mayor’, turned on the microphone in the studios at 1331 Yonge Street for the first time and said...actually, what he said on his initial CHUM broadcast is lost to time, but for the next 17 years and 22 days, ‘Jungle’ Jay woke up Southern Ontario with plenty of humor, lovable characters such as Maude and Shredney Vashtar, plus chartfuls of hit music.

Jay and the Chum Chicks, Canadian National Exhibition.

Jay and friends during the 70s.

November 14, 1970.

CHUM’s original morning man Al Boliska had quit in the fall of ’63 and left for rival Toronto radio station CKEY. CHUM’s then Program Director Allan Slaight and Promotions Director Allen Farrell concocted yet another zany stunt to find CHUM’s new morning man.

All of the CHUM DJ’s of that time (John Spragge, Bob McAdorey, Mike Darow, Dave Johnson, Dick Clark and Bob Laine) ‘auditioned’ for the vacant morning slot, but the eventual winner was just across the border in Buffalo, N.Y., at WKBW radio and WKBW TV where he did a kids afternoon TV show wearing a pith helmet and calling himself ‘Jungle’ Jay. It has been reported that Irene Ryan (Granny?) also auditioned for this position. However, CHUM selected Jay Nelson for the job.

Toronto radio audiences quickly took to ‘Jungle’ Jay Nelson. Early on, he gave away an elephant tusk on-the-air and donated (although CHUM paid) two wallabies to the Toronto Zoo. Every weekday, he’d make ‘candid-camera’ type’ phone calls on ‘Hello Toronto”. Jay MC’d The Beatles Maple Leaf Gardens concerts in 1964, ’65 and ’66. Jay was also there at Nathan Phillips Square on December 10th, 1980, along with tens of thousands of other Beatles fans, to mourn the death of John Lennon.

From May 27, 1957 until June 6, 1986, CHUM printed a weekly list of top songs and distributed it through local record stores. Nelson's picture first appeared on the cover of a CHUM Chart in issue Number 351 on Monday, December 2, 1963.

Promo for Jay's morning show feature called "Hello Toronto" aired in 1964.
[ LISTEN ]

By coincidence, the first Beatles song ever to appear on a CHUM Chart, She Loves You, was listed at position 42 in that very same issue. However, Jay Nelson did not actually start working at CHUM until the following Monday, December 9 and the Beatles did not appear on the Ed Sullivan Show that made them famous in America until February 9, 1964.

Everything changed at CHUM in the summer of 1968. Not only did the station move to a more streamlined Drake-style approach, the entire lineup was revamped with a new voice emerging and some old friends exiting the airwaves.

Added to the lineup was J. Michael Wilson in the new 3-7 p.m. shift. He replaced long-time afternoon driver Bob McAdorey, who had been doing 3-6 p.m. Bob Laine went from the all-night show to 11 a.m.-3 p.m., succeeding John Spragge who ended a 10-year run in middays. Jack Armstrong, who had been doing 6-9 p.m., moved to 7 -11 p.m. Brian Skinner's shift changed from 9 p.m.-midnight to 11 p.m.-5 a.m.

The date is June 5, 1975 and Jay is behind the mic at CHUM. [ LISTEN ] (16:17) This aircheck includes reports from the CHUM newsroom.

THE JAY NELSON SHOW
September 27, 1968
[ LISTEN ] (9:07}

Least affected by all of the moves was morning man Jay Nelson, whose shift simply moved to a hour earlier. He was doing 5-9 a.m. followed by Larry Solway's Speak Your Mind talk show.

Nelson remained at CHUM for the next 13 years. Nelson did his last morning show at 1050 CHUM on December 24, 1980. His last show featured many tributes by current and former co-workers including Brian Williams. The mayor of Toronto declared Nelson's final day, Jay Nelson Day. The final song he played was Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon.

For a rock radio jock to last 17 years at a single radio station in amazing. To spend 17 years in the same shift is stupendous. To survive 17 years in morning drive is truly unbelievable.

He briefly worked as a weatherman at CITY-TV, a television station owned by CHUM Ltd.

He returned to radio at CKFM-FM from 1982 to 1985; became CHFI morning man on August 1, 1985; switched to CHUM's old rival CKEY in May, 1986; and then moved to rival CJEZ as morning host from May, 1987 until August, 1990. Jay passed away in 1994 at the age of 57.

WHERE DID JAY WORK? Here is the list: WRIT, WARM, WHLO, WBNY, WKBW, CHUM, CKFM-FM, CHFI, CKEY, and CJEZ.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Rock Radio Scrapbook.