Jim Jefferson was an ace of airwaves
He made a name for himself with a phony name, in a profession notorious for its nomadic existence, with a refined delivery uncharacteristic of Southwest Pennsylvania airwaves.
Jim Jefferson is retiring today after 43 years at WJPA Radio, his only professional outpost. The man known legally as Jim Rhone has been the station’s news anchor for most of his tenure, which dates to the Ford administration and spans eight presidencies. With a smooth, unwavering voice, never betraying objectivity, he has delivered details of the fall of Saigon, the demolition of the Berlin Wall, 9/11, six Steelers championships, four Penguins championships and one Pirates World Series triumph to thousands of listeners.
That voice will be missed in Washington and Greene counties and beyond.
Rhone grew up in Bradford, designated “The Icebox of the Nation” because of its harsh winters. Yet that’s where he warmed to his future profession, as a high schooler providing scholastic sports reports to the local station. He continued to work there during the summers, when he wasn’t attending classes at Point Park College (now Point Park University) in Pittsburgh. Rhone, a journalism student, was sports director of the campus radio station, where he further refined the skills that would sustain him for the next four decades at WJPA.
Washington County was a new world for him, and Rhone decided to go with a new surname – Jefferson – a common practice with radio and television announcers in the mid-1970s. Pondering his options for a pseudonym, he thought about Washington & Jefferson College, found the alliteration of “Jim Jefferson” to be appealing and went for it.
Jefferson settled into his job and into a comfortable local lifestyle, 200 miles from his hometown just south of the New York state line. He and wife Debbie, his girlfriend at Point Park, bought a home in Scenery Hill, where they currently oversee a dog, a cat and two horses.
“I love the area,” Jefferson told the Observer-Reporter’s Rick Shrum. That was obvious in his newscasts, which emphasized local news. “The main thing,” he said, “is helping people, letting them know what is happening. It may just be the weather.”
He said he will miss many aspects of his job, especially “the interactions with people. The interviews with police, political officials, the district attorney, judges” and his WJPA colleagues. Splitting with Pete Povich, the station’s program director, will be difficult as well. They’ve been on-air partners for 31 years, engaging in breezy banter that appeals to listeners.
At 65, Jefferson joins his wife – a former commercial loan officer – in retirement. They will not be idle. They have their home, their pets and a passion for travel. Jim plans to do volunteer work and, of course, play golf. He is an avid golfer, and while he said his game “used to be better,” he intends to be on the course more often.
Hit them straight, Jim Jefferson – just as you reported the news for more than four decades.