Awards for Excellence
Find out more about CAB's annual Awards for Excellence in Broadcasting.
Scholarships
CAB is committed to helping educate the next generation of broadcasters.
Events
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play....
2023-2024 Scholarship Update – Winners announced:
Amber Phillips (Two Year Scholarship)
Ohio Media School
Drew Bailey ($2,000 Pam Godfrey Scholarship with a focus on audio)
University of Akron
Ethan Jenkin ($2,000 Pam Godfrey Scholarship with a focus on television)
Ashland University
Justin Dedrick ($2,016 Fred McLeod Memorial Scholarship)
University of Cincinnati
Cab Legacy Spotlight
Jim LaBarbara
Jim LaBarbara
Jim LaBarbara, the “Music Professor” – A Life Amplified Through Radio & Rock ‘n’ Roll
When Jim LaBarbara did his first radio show in 1959, he couldn’t have imagined it would lead to a “Hall of Fame” career that spanned more than sixty years; one where he would work on some of the country’s most powerful stations. During his “happy days” he was a dreamer whose dreams of baseball and the trumpet became a reality. In the era of the Big Red Machine, his best friend was Johnny Bench and his college professor, Dr. Bill Randle, was the major player in the selling of Elvis. Jim was instrumental with the Supremes, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and he interviewed hundreds of other entertainers including Bill Haley, Jackie Wilson, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, James Brown, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Diamond, John Denver and many others. He was there when the controversy of playing music performed by black artists was just about coming to an end, and was later innocently thrust in the middle of the payola scandals during a dynamic, although turbulent life on and off the radio.
In 1959, LaBarbara used the name Jimmy Holiday while working on stations in Meadville, Titusville and DuBois, Pennsylvania. In 1964, he became J Bentley Starr in Erie. In 1966, Jim began using his real name on 50,000-watt WKYC and WIXY in Cleveland. He then spent a year in Denver, but he was on Cincinnati radio in afternoon drive for more than forty years going back to a fifteen-year period on powerful WLW that began in 1969. He also worked on several Cincinnati stations including: WCKY, WSAI and WGRR FM. His voice has also been heard on hundreds of radio and television commercials. Jim is known as “The Music Professor” and has a master’s degree in broadcasting from the University of Cincinnati. He taught at the university for several years, so yes, the Professor is a Professor. He is regarded as a respected musicologist on early rock n’ roll. Jim was named one of the “Top 40 Radio Personalities of All Time” and is listed in the Rock Jock Hall of Fame. In 2000, he was inducted into the Radio/Television/ Broadcasters Hall of Fame in Akron.
Jim LaBarbara, “The Music Professor,” can still be heard on WDJO RADIO 99.5 and 107.9fm 1480am and streaming on iHeartRadio.
CAB Mission Statement
As a nonprofit 501c6 we work collaboratively as an industry to continue to advance excellence in broadcasting in Cleveland through education, social interaction, recognition and philanthropy.- Promote the quality of broadcasting in the Cleveland area
- Provide a forum for issues concerning all segments of the Cleveland broadcasting community
- Foster greater understanding between those in the broadcasting sales, advertising and business communities
- Increase the level of professionalism among those in the Cleveland broadcast community