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.