Posted by T. Scott on September 05, 2010 at 21:12:52:
Reporting the passing of J. Douglas Blackburn, better known to many as Jay Blackburn.
From Seattle, WA, to El Paso, TX, to Chicago, IL, to San Juan, PR and the Caribbean islands; Blackburn was a highly successful radio programming veteran who revamped under-performing stations - sometimes so an owner could "flip" the station for more money (Blackburn was associated with radio station broker Art Holt). When a station's owner wanted to sell, they'd hire Holt's company. Holt would then send Blackburn in to do the dirty work, which usually included turning the station into a quick success. Jay Blackburn was known as the radio doctor able to find the "cure" for any station.
He is probably best remembered for his time in Chicago, which began in 1977. The Chess family, owners of the jazz station, WSDM-FM, hired Blackburn to help their floundering radio station. Blackburn flipped the station to a rock & roll AOR station, changing the call letters to WLUP-FM and re-branding it: The Loop. His plan was to make it the best rock station around, broadly accessible to both men & women. He hired Tom O'Toole, Captain Billy Martin, Les Tracy, Greg Budell, and Don Davis to initially rock the mics. He later brought aboard Patti Haze, Garry Meier and Dave Logan. Blackburn indeed made The Loop the #1 AOR station in town in just a matter of months. Unable to compete, other rock-leaning stations eventually changed formats. Although WLUP today is not as strong as it one was, the station is still known nationwide as an iconic rock station ever since Jay Blackburn built it from scratch.
After Blackburn turned the station around, less than two years later, the Chess family (aka L & P Broadcasting) was able to sell Chicago's 97.9 for $5 million to Cecil Heftel & Heftel Broadcasting. At that time in 1979, it was a record high sales price.
Many of the biggest names in Chicago rock radio got their start because of Jay Blackburn. In addition to the Loop names above, he also gave starts to WXRT's Frank E. Lee & Johnny Mars, among others.
In 2008, Blackburn wrote a book about radio's wild 70's days and about his life as a roaming radio programmer. The book, entitled "The Radio Gypsies," is now out of print, but copies can still be found. Officially, the book is a fictional novel, but the stories contained within are all too true. Blackburn was also a contributor to Claude Hall's book, "I Love Radio," and is one of those pictured on the cover.
Jay Blackburn retired from radio in 1990, after he had suffered a broken neck from a martial arts accident that year. He was considering coming back into radio when a car accident in 1993 again broke the fused area in his neck. He and his wife settled into retirement in south central Texas, near where he was born. He spent his days traveling, rescuing & sheltering cats, collecting art and reading.
Blackburn was a Vietnam War veteran, who had served two tours of duty overseas prior to his radio career.
His obituary in a San Antonio newspaper says that he passed away peacefully in his sleep on Friday. He was 65 years old. His family will lay him to rest on Tuesday in Burnet, TX, underneath a pecan tree that he planted with his Grandfather when he was just a child.