https://jimandjamie.com/funchal-madeira-a-fond-farewell-to-jay-thomas/ Fri, 06 Sep 2024 22:34:49 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 https://jimandjamie.com/funchal-madeira-a-fond-farewell-to-jay-thomas/#comment-1027 Sun, 27 Aug 2017 13:35:44 +0000 http://jimandjamie.com/?p=6004#comment-1027 Jim & Jamie, “Is grease an herb or a spice?” blew up nice nap for my owner-cat, snoozing on right edge of this keyboard. I’m sharing your whole Jay Thomas piece with bunch of radio guys who swapped Jay stories when he passed. Mine, tepid as it is: I was Program Director at WRNO/NOLA — a short tower/low power FM in a rickety old house in a neighborhood next to a shipyard on the city’s westbank. Sucker often couldn’t be heard at the airport, way out the other way on I-10. Anyway, I got a call from local multi-line record distributor’s promo man asking me to talk to this crazy guy his boss knew, who was from the city and had just “left” Big WAYS in Charlotte, legendary both for its success and for the quirkiness of its husband/wife owner team. Knew there was no way I could offer him money that wouldn’t be a downright insult and that our anemic signal would be a waste of his incredible talent. So, he didn’t come home to The Big Sleazy, had to settle for L-A. And it was all my fault.

]]> https://jimandjamie.com/funchal-madeira-a-fond-farewell-to-jay-thomas/#comment-1025 Sat, 26 Aug 2017 11:25:31 +0000 http://jimandjamie.com/?p=6004#comment-1025 Great story Jim! I remember Jay Thomas very well starting from his Mork and Mindy and Cheers days but I didn’t know he what the voice for El Pollo Loco! And, of course, I didn’t know you had written a lot of their ads. His slightly dark, off the wall humor always appealed to me, I am the same way.

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