NorthEast Radio Watch 3/31/2025: Jim Quinn Signs Off

In this week’s issue… Remembering Pittsburgh’s Quinn – Seven Mountains enters Harrisburg – My launches new brands – Ryan out at B101 –  More cuts at Radio Vermont – Another AM deleted

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

*He was one of the biggest names in western PENNSYLVANIA top-40 radio for two decades, and then a significant voice in conservative talk radio for even longer. Along the way, he made memorable detours into Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia and hit national syndication, too.

Jim Quinn, who died Sunday, grew up in New Jersey and started in radio at WING (1410) in Dayton, but his career always centered on Pittsburgh, where he first hit the airwaves at KQV (1410) in 1967. As with so many big talents of the day, he moved often, crossing the state to work at Philly’s WIBG (990) a year later, then quickly returning to KQV for a few years only to move to New York’s WPIX (101.9) in 1972, then to the night shift at Buffalo’s WKBW (1520), where that big 50,000-watt signal brought him into homes up and down the East Coast.

Quinn came back to Pittsburgh in 1977 as part of the high-energy crew at WKTQ (13Q), then moved to middays two years later at WTAE (1250). In 1983, he and Don Jefferson hit the morning shift at WBZZ (B94), where their “Quinn and Banana Show” was full of as much blue humor as a southwest Pennsylvania audience would tolerate, and sometimes a little more than that.

In 1990, Quinn and Jefferson were sued by B94’s news director, who won her defamation case after accusing the pair of portraying her as promiscuous on the air. That sent Quinn in a new direction – after the show was cancelled, he moved to WRRK (Rock 97), hosting what started out as a rock morning show but gradually transformed into right-wing political talk with almost no music.

In his new life as a talk host, Quinn moved around the dial even more, landing at iHeart’s WPGB (104.7) when it launched a talk format in 2004. Nine years later, Quinn didn’t follow the rest of the WPGB lineup over to WJAS (1320); instead, his “War Room” show resurfaced as a mostly-streaming offering anchored at WYSL (1040) in suburban Rochester, NY, whose owner Bob Savage had worked with Quinn in Buffalo. For a time, it also aired on SiriusXM.

Quinn had been off the air for over a month, after suffering an aortic aneurysm that led to open-heart surgery.

Jim Quinn was 82.