Jim Carter

Gentleman Jim Carter landed his first radio job at KLIF in Dallas in 1966 when he was still a teenager. His job was driver for the KLIF Headliner Cruiser news truck. Later, after 3 years as a U.S. Marine and a tour in Vietnam, Jim landed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego in 1968 and was hired weekends at K-C-B-Q. This is where he was given the name "Gentleman Jim" by his PD because he said Jim sounded like a Southern gentleman on the air.

After his honorable discharge from the Marines, Jim returned to Texas where he worked at radio stations from Dallas to Abilene before leaving in 1972 for New York. There Jim pioneered his highly successful 'Freak Show' program which allowed listeners to call in and do creative bits on the air…and attracted national attention in several print publications.

In early 1974, Jim returned to Texas, bringing his Freak Show to KONO which aired Midnight to six with great success. The show was unique for radio at the time. Jim aired fairy tales, Hitchcock stories, nursery rhymes, Three Stooges’ shorts, and phone bits with listeners …all mixed into the KONO Top-40 format.

Six months later, Jim was let go after listeners complained about a song he played … every hour on the hour on one particular night. Guess Jack Roth could only handle so much “freak”.

He spent a few years at stations in North Texas … but by 1979 was back at KONO … this time to do middays... where he remained for 3 years. Jim next moved to KSLR-FM, then to KLLS in 1983. After short, part-time gigs at KMGC and KTSA in 1986, and over 20 years on the air, Jim retired from radio.

Throughout his career, Gentleman Jim Carter’s strongest forte was the way he could work the phones with listeners. And, of course, that Southern gentleman way he sounded on the air.