legendary WLW radio host died at 81
VIDEO: Four minutes with retired WLW “nice guy” Jim Scott
Retired broadcaster Jim Scott talks about his career, his charity work and learning to enjoy retirement.
A legendary voice from Cincinnati has fallen silent.
Popular local radio host Jim Scott, who retired as morning host of 700 WLW-AM in 2015, died Friday of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 81.
Scott, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, was a familiar voice on Cincinnati’s radio airwaves for 46 years as morning anchor for WLW, WSAI-AM and others.
He served as honorary grand marshal of the Reds’ 2024 inaugural parade, one of his favorite events, having marched in the parade on what he called his “favorite day of the year” for the past 50 years.
In a Facebook post Saturday morning, Scott’s wife Donna said the former radio host had “passed over and is in the loving, warm embrace of his mother and father, myself, his sister and so many friends.”
Scott announced on Facebook in August 2023 that he had been diagnosed with ALS, also known as “Lou Gehrig’s Syndrome.” He said he noticed weakness in his left arm, hand and leg, the same areas affected when he contracted polio in 1954 at age 12 in Binghamton, New York.
As a child, he spent six months in a rehabilitation hospital in upstate New York when he heard on the radio that Jonas Salk had developed a vaccine against polio.
“ALS is similar to polio in that both are motor neuron diseases,” Scott wrote when he announced his diagnosis. “The big difference is that not everyone who contracted polio died from it.”
“ALS is a fatal disease.
“Science has found a way to prevent polio. So wouldn’t it be wonderful if doctors and scientists could find a way to defeat ALS?”
Scott continued to use his voice – and his popularity – to raise money for that cause. When he came to Cincinnati as a young disc jockey in 1968, he began leading the annual March of Dimes march for decades. Last September (2023), he led the Walk to Defeat ALS.
Jim Scott was Cincinnati’s morning voice for 46 years
The popular radio host began his career as a presenter in 1960 as a twelfth-grader at Binghamton High School.
Scott made his debut on Cincinnati’s airwaves on March 23, 1968, on WSAI-AM 1360, where he hosted mornings from 6 to 9 a.m. In 1972, he was lured to WNBC radio in New York, NBC’s flagship station, but returned to WSAI after a year. In 1984, he moved to WLW, with brief stops at WYYS-FM (also known as WLLT-FM) and WWNK-FM.
In 2002, Scott received the prestigious Marconi Award for Major Market Radio Presenter of the Year.
Scott’s last day on the air was April 3, 2015.
It was not widely known that his real name was not Jim Scott (but James Boland), but Scott bristled at the idea that it was a false name.
“Since 1960, I’ve been Jim Scott, my entire broadcasting career,” he told the Enquirer in 2014. “I don’t use my real name, it’s meaningless. I’m Jim Scott. There’s nothing fake about that.”
Scott used his radio show to raise awareness of community events, and he could most often be found volunteering in the Greater Cincinnati area, ringing the bell for the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign or emceeing United Way fundraisers.
In 1996 and 2002 he was chosen to carry the Olympic flame on its way through the region to the Olympic Games.
Scott is survived by his wife Donna Hartman and his sons Scott Boland, Jim Boland and Casey Boland.
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“I was constantly bullied online”
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