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Smokin' Joe Hager/Beamer - Aircheck - KDWB-FM - December 31, 1976

M

MN Maniac

Guest
"Smokin' Joe" plays back the #1 songs of previous years in advance of KDWB's "Top 101 of 1976" countdown. Here's the first segment, beginning promptly at 6:00PM.

At the time, Joe was one of the top jocks in the Twin Cities. Those of you in North Florida are no doubt familiar with his later years at WKQL "Cool 96.9" in Jacksonville.

http://elliskansas.info/drew/?page_id=674



Consider this a tribute to one of the Twin Cities' top night jocks during the glory days of Top 40 radio. R.I.P, Joe.
 
I happened to reside in Jacksonville circa 1993--got to hear "Smokin" Joe on "Cool 96.9"--Great Jock (sort of had a Dan Ingram-type "delivery"). Years later, I heard he passed on. Any info--was it age, etc?
 
I lived in Jacksonville in the late 90s. At that time my job saw me travel all over the country so I got to sample many oldies formats. "Cool 96.9" was top tier as far as I was concerned. What a great station that was to include the jocks. Pat Garrett was the P.D. He worked in L.A. for a time but he understood Jacksonville very well. Jax is an extremely difficult market for lots of reasons.

"Smokin' Joe Beamer" was the PM drive jock and he had it nailed down. As I recall, by mid 1998 he was frequently absent from the show. Eventually, he was off altogether but the station kept his name shouts going etc. I believe he had lung cancer and was hospitalized.

The "fill-in" host was a guy named "Tom Murphy" who was, even back then, a very known quantity in Jacksonville, having worked at "The Big Ape" WAPE when it was on AM. Tom conveyed an image of decency and not something you always find in a cut-throat business such as radio. Virtually every day, Tom would extend encouraging messages for his friend. Eventually Tom got the shift when Smokin Joe passed away in early 1999. He was only 54 years old.

Cool 96.9 lasted only a few years more. I always believed Cool should have evolved into a variety-based classic hits station as the cluster already had a classic rock station. And so it goes.

 
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