This website contains hundreds of pix, audio, and videos from Jack Raymond’s radio career. His multi-media collection was created long before there was the internet, iPhones, or interest in the last 50 years of musical entertainment.

After his wife and children, it’s his legacy. But his life’s work is his family. Jack began in the 60s with only great enthusiasm and has the tapes to prove it. He was born lucky with the right genetic tool kit to win.

Beginning in 1964, he appeared on 11 New England radio stations in 4 New England States. WBET and WOKW in Brockton, WIDE Old Orchard Beach, WSAR Fall River, WJAB & WLOB Portland, WMEX Boston, WICE Providence, and WINF Hartford. He settled in Central Massachusetts where he’s been heard on WEIM, WAAB, WAAF, WGAW, WXLO & WORC Radio. Jack’s been a Top-40 DJ, Program Director, Country DJ, Sports Announcer, Telephone Talk Show Host, Music Director, Comedy Writer, salesman, and oldies personality. After 6 years of moving around to many unstable jobs, he got lucky and remained at one radio station for 31 years. Jack says, “he got a great tip early in his career”. Legendary group station owner, Norm Knight, told Jack, “It’s not nearly as important how much you earn a week as it is how many weeks you earn it”. It was a great piece of advice. Today, Jack is in a great position compared to many of his contemporaries who earned incredible amounts of money but they were often unemployed and their savings were eaten up. Jack believes, “whenever you take a job for the money, it’s always for the wrong reason”. The best path in life is to follow your passion. It’s never too late to be the person you could have been. 

In his career, J.R. has worked with many talented radio people, several of whom ended up on network radio & television. People such as “Doc” Jones, Norm Knight, Bob DeCarlo, Frank Filippone, Rick Snyder, Mike Ivers, Chris Sennett, Dave Hammond, Jerry Clark, Bob Cohen, Mike O’Neil, Warren Duffy, John Garabedian, Fred Lowery, Thom Whetston, Joe Martelle, Jack Popejoy, B.J. Dean, Bob Breyer, Jim Conlee, Mark Parenteau, Joey Reynolds, Ray Chalifoux, Don Russell, Gary Berkowitz, Chuck Morgan, Barry Lunderville, Jeff Starr, and Rick Williams to name a few.

Management once encouraged radio performers to develop their personalities. Never once did group owner, Norm Knight, or GM Frank Filippone ever tell him what to say. The Knight Stations were one of 10 great radio chains in the U.S. Many network talents from Tom Bergeron down started there. Now in his late earlies, Jack never dreamed he’d win radio’s Grammy, The Billboard award 2 years in a row as one of America’s Top 15 Radio Personalities. Or get the chance to write comedy for some of his childhood heroes, but it happened. It’s been an amazing journey, all because of the radio.

Listeners think Jack stayed at his station only because he loves the area. That’s true but there’s also another reason. The Knight Broadcast Group was one of 2 great chains in New England. Central Mass. was a regional market and Arbitron Rated. Plus the 2 Knight Radio Stations there, WSRS and WEIM, owned the largest audience for more than 20 years with more than 248,000 listeners (nearly a quarter million) per hour. (see ratings below) Worcester County once had 600,000 residents). Today, it’s the 2^nd largest County in Massachusetts with over 830,000 residents.

The Blair Advertising Agency (later named Banner) represented the Knight Group. The Knight stations got the same national advertising as WBZ and WHDH Radio in Boston. Every advertiser from United Airlines, Hilton Hotels, Mr. Clean, British Airways, and Campbell Soups to McDonald’s, Ford, Dunkin’ Donuts, Chevy, and GMC, even all the ski resorts in New England. The stations in Hyannis, Fall River, Worcester, Fitchburg, Manchester, NH, Burlington, Vt. and Portsmouth, NH ringed Boston and gave national advertisers listeners living outside of Beantown. It worked great for 2 decades until Boston lost 30% of its population. Boston media then put pressure on the rating service to increase the population of Boston. Overnight, Cape Cod, Providence, Worcester County, Manchester, NH, and Portsmouth, NH were considered part of Boston. And only Boston radio stations were counted. This is a good example of, “anyone who believes statistics has no understanding of human nature”. The ratings can be made to look any way you want! Since the late 70s, there’s been pressure from the rating services to target an audience in a specific age group or decade (18-34), (34-49), (49- 54). The concept is flawed because radio is a mass-appeal medium. Many programmers contend FM destroyed AM Radio by 1985. NOT TRUE, unless the AM station relied solely on music for an audience. Red Sox baseball and community identity still existed so local sports were popular. Plus unique local, entertaining personalities brought lots of audience and advertisers until the mid-1990s. Jack’s show continued to place in the top 5 in all Central Mass listener surveys. In 2000, Jack was offered the chance to buy his radio station but passed because he knew over-the-air radio was NOT profitable. Licensing fees made playing music cost-prohibitive and power bills soared 35% in one year. Many stations had to limit their signal coverage just to stay in business. When Apple, Google, and Android refused to activate their radio chips, that meant over-the-air radio would not be where the audience lived. To be successful, you need talent, luck, and timing. Jack says, “Life is high school with money. If you retire happily married to the same person for over 40 years, have healthy and gainfully employed children, no debt, and are worth 7 figures, you’re a winner. Jack WON!”.

Signed,