In Memoriam: Jack Wheeler
January 6, 2020PBRTV received word that Jack Wheeler died early this morning (1/6) after a several-year battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He was 93 and had been living at a hospice facility in Jacksonville, Florida.
Wheeler spent many years in Pittsburgh radio at KDKA-AM (1020); WEEP-AM (1080); WJAS-AM (1320) among others. Following the morning stint he held at the nostalgia-formatted WJAS under the Renda ownership, he spent some time at WKHB-AM (620) and WWCS-AM (540).
Mr. Wheeler later moved to Florida and pursued some radio insterests there before retiring completely.
(h/t: Ron Antill)
I worked with Jack at KDKA and the early 70s, and was able to hire him for mornings at WEEP after I became Program Director there. His show with producer Robbie Roman was about 1/3 talk/1/3 country music/ 1/3 commercials and helped drive the station to its greatest success. A great talent.
Jack Wheeler, one of Pittsburgh’s, and the country’s, legendary broadcast personalities, died yesterday (1/6) at 93. (His birthday was Dec. 1) I was in the advertising business when I met Jack sometime in the late sixties and we became close friends. Audiences loved him and station managers dreaded him. Jack rocked the boat even when there wasn’t a boat. He knew his music and It was no surprise that the Sinatra’s, both father and son, were frequent guests on his talk/music shows as well as a host of other celebrities. Jack loved the spotlight and even did some gigs at Pittsburgh’s old Holiday House in Monroeville where he MC’d. When he exhausted Pittsburgh he moved to Ft. Myers where he was the evening anchor on WINK-TV, got into his usual battles with management, and then moved to WBBH-TV before coming back to Pittsburgh. In fact, Jack introduced me to the developers of a golf course project in Florida where I eventually opened an office and worked with Arnold Palmer.
Jack was in Florida only a few weeks when he decided he needed a sailboat although he had no idea how to sail one. Jack never did anything small and his 30 foot boat became as legendary as he was-he ran it aground just about every single time he took it out into the water.
Jack Wheeler was one of as kind. We stayed in touch when he went back to Barnesville Ga. and moved into an assisted living home. Even then he was trying to get back on the air and I wrote numerous commercials for him which he used to try and get a gig in Georgia. Ironically, he had problems with his voice and it was harder to understand him on the phone so our hone conversations dwindled although I did post on his Facebook site.
Stay in your shoes Jackson. I’ll be listening for you.
I was a faithful listener of many years in Pittsburgh. Loved his Wit. He brought a lot to defining radio here.