JIM SANTELLA BMHOF CLASS OF 2013

Jim Santella was a Western New York radio veteran who began his radio career as a student DJ at the University at Buffalo’s WBFO-FM 88.7, hosting five hours of jazz. 

In January 1969, he began his professional career as one of the first underground rock radio DJs at WYSL-FM. Notably, Santella was on the startup staff of four album-oriented stations, WYSL/WPHD, QFM-97/97 Rock, WZIR. and the free-wheeling WUWU where  he was program director.     

He dramatically walked off the air on April 24, 1972 (his birthday) in a dispute with management about drastically reducing the music library. Santella left Jefferson Airplane’s “Lather Turned 30 Years Old Today - They Took Away All of His Toys” spinning on the turntable.     

Told by a program director that he would never work in radio again, he was soon hired at WWOL, a country music station, under the name Joel B. Williams — a tribute to his underground radio hero, B. Mitchell Reed.    

He returned to WPHD in 1974, where he was part of an all-star staff headed by Program Director John McGhan. Santella described them as “savvy music fanatics who combined personality, FM radio smarts and intelligence,” qualities that would set the standard for the Lee Abrams consulted Classic Rock formats, which dominated rock radio in the late 1970s and 1980s.  

Always a purist about the music, Jim hosted a special retro show on 97 Rock for 15 years called “Radiation Theatre,” which featured underground music and lost classics. His knowledge of country, jazz, pop/rock, Broadway and blues music was extensive in a career that spanned more than 45 years.     

He began hosting his blues show on WBFO on November 22, 1997. The popularity of the blues increased under his programming from four hours on Saturday to 10 hours on the weekend. Jim’s final blues show aired on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012 at 7 p.m.