Interviews

Earl Jerris at WHAM

On the morning of May 10, 2007, Sheron Dixon sat down with Earle Jerris in his home-recording studio. Earl filled the next hour with fascinating stories mostly about his life in radio.

Told with Earle’s impeccable wit and sense of humor, this was one stellar interview!   

Then, at the end of the interview, Sheron realized she had not pressed the “record” button.”  Oh, no, no, no!  All was lost!

Earl graciously agreed to immediately redo the interview.  However, the fire had gone out of the moment.

At 78, Earle was tired and hungry.  He didn’t remember most of what he had said and needed a lot of prompting.

Nevertheless, enough of Earle’s sparkling personality and memories were captured to make the second interview more than worthwhile.

Of most importance was Earl’s recall of WHAM’s ownership and management during the crucial years between 1956 when Stromberg Carlson divested itself of WHAM and 1962 when William F. Rust bought it.  

 This is information which is totally absent or incorrectly reported on internet sources.  

Earle died on March 3, 2022.

Fats Waller

Track 3:  More About Doug Duke

Track 4: Dominant ideas about radio when Earl
was young

Track 5: How did you get started at WHAM?  Henry Crystal was new owner and Bob McKensie was station manager

Track Coming soon..,

Track 6: Who impressed you the most and why?

Track Coming soon..,

Track 7:  Who was at WHAM when you were hired?  More about Bob McKensie

Track Coming soon..,

Track 10:  About bloopers

Jerris Dixon duet

Track 11: Walter Dixon and Earl Jerris shared a love of music and became good friends

George Haefner with fan

Track 12: The George Haefner story.

Track 13:  Music was always “my thing”

Track 14: About WHAM’s Rochester Radio City on Humboldt Street 

Track 15: When tape replaced vinyl for recording in radio and how double and triple tracking was used before stereo

Track 18:  Earl’s years at Juliard School of Music and his love of writing music

Track 19:  Who was Earl’s target
audience?

Track 20: Who was at WHAM when you came on board?  Riggs and Green were the owners before Henry Crystal.  About Jack Ross and John Woods

Track 21: Bill Givens came when William F. Rust bought WHAM about 1962. Jazz radio historians, Will Moyle and Ed Furland 

Track 22: Moving to East Avenue and Earl built Win-Jeff plaza and started his own recording business.