Talent: JIM NETTLETON
Station: WFIL Philadelphia
Date: February 1969
Time: 26:46 (unscoped)
10:35 (scoped)

"You couldn't find a nicer guy in the business."
Jerry Wilkinson, Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

He was a Philadelphia legend, but Jim Nettleton considered his radio nirvana to be about 80 miles to the east, at New York's WABC.

Nettleton originally turned down WABC when they approached him to do the all-night show with the departure of Charlie Greer in the summer of 1969. They came back to him to offer weekends and fill-in work and this time he took it, joining Musicradio in October, 1969. Nettleton spent 18 months at WABC and while there also wrote, produced and voiced Retro-Rock for ABC's Contemporary Network. He left WABC in May, 1971 in a breach-of-contract dispute over some voice-tracking he'd been doing for WCAU-FM in Philadelphia.

Nettleton started in radio in the late '50s at WRSU, the campus station of Rutgers University in New Jersey. The native of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, had been taking journalism, but the college radio experience gave him the radio bug and he left college after three months to look for a radio job. Before long Nettleton was doing mornings at WPAZ in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. It was 1958. After six months there he moved to WHTG in Eatontown, New Jersey, then to WATR Waterbury, Connecticut, and then to WAVZ New Haven, Connecticut, in 1962. After six months at WAVZ, he started at WDRC Hartford in April, 1963 where he was known as "Diamond Jim." Nettleton left WDRC in August, 1966 for WFIL Philadelphia where he was one of the original Boss Jocks.

After the WABC gig ended, Nettleton worked briefly at WHN New York in mid-1971 then left to spend about a year at WPIX-FM. He then did weekends/swing for a short time at CHUM Toronto, and thus became the only deejay to do air shifts at both WABC and CHUM. He returned to WCAU-FM - now WOGL-FM in 1972. He was named Billboard Magazine's Program Director of the Year in 1974 for his work as director of programming/operations and afternoon-drive personality at WOGL-FM.

In 1976, Nettleton moved to Philadelphia's WUSL as director of operations and co-host of the morning show. From 1979 to 1982, he did afternoon drive on WPEN and produced and hosted a Saturday night Big Band show. He was vice-president of operations at WDAE Tampa, Florida., from 1984 to 1993. Nettleton came back to Philadelphia at WOGL from 1993 to 2000. He returned to WPEN but left when the station changed format from oldies to sports in 2005.

Nettleton also did shows for WARX-FM in Hagarstown, Maryland, and was heavily involved in commercial voice work over the years. In 2006, disappointed with the state of oldies programming, he started an online oldies station with a wide variety of music that featured him and several other well-known Philadelphia personalities.

In April, 2009, Nettleton started doing mornings at WILW-FM (branded "Wibbage" after Philadelphia's WIBG) in Wildwood, New Jersey. Unfortunately, it would be his last gig. Nettleton died of lung cancer October 4, 2009 - the 40th anniversary of his first WABC show. An avid golfer who encouraged "playing by the rules," Nettleton was 69.

Enjoy Jim Nettleton on WFIL (UNSCOPED) here. 

Enjoy Jim Nettleton on WFIL (SCOPED) here.