A legendary voice from Cincinnati has fallen silent.
Popular local radio personality Jim Scott, who retired as morning radio host from 700 WLW-AM in 2015, died Friday of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 81.
Scott, from Lawrenceburg, Indiana, was a familiar voice on the Cincinnati airwaves for 46 years as a morning anchor for WLW, WSAI-AM and others.
He was honorary grand marshal of the 2024 Reds Opening Day Parade, a favorite event of his. He had participated in the parade for the past fifty years on what he called his “favorite day of the year.”
Scott’s wife Donna wrote in a Facebook post Saturday morning that the former radio host “has passed away and is now in the loving, welcoming arms of his mother and father, mine, his sister and many, many friends.”
Scott announced on Facebook in August 2023 that he had been diagnosed with ALS, also known as “Lou Gehrig’s disease.” He said he had noticed weakness in his left arm, hand and leg, the same areas that were affected when he contracted polio in 1954 when he was 12 years old and living in Binghamton, New York.
As a child, he spent six months in a rehabilitation hospital in upstate New York when he heard on the radio that Jonas Salk had developed a polio vaccine.
“ALS is similar to polio in that they are both motor neurone diseases,” Scott wrote when he announced his diagnosis. “The big difference is that not everyone who contracted polio died from it.
“ALS is a deadly disease.
“Science has found a way to prevent polio, so wouldn’t it be great if doctors and scientists found a way to beat ALS?”
Scott continued to use his voice—and his popularity—to raise money for that cause. When he arrived in Cincinnati as a young DJ in 1968, he began a decades-long run as the leader of the annual March of Dimes walk. Last September [2023]he led the Walk to Defeat ALS.
Jim Scott was the morning voice of Cincinnati for 46 years
The popular radio personality began his broadcasting career in 1960 as a high school student in Binghamton.
Scott made his debut on the Cincinnati airwaves on March 23, 1968 on WSAI-AM 1360, hosting mornings from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. In 1972 he was lured to New York’s WNBC radio, NBC’s flagship station, but returned to WSAI after a year. He moved to WLW in 1984, with brief stops at WYYS-FM (also known as WLLT-FM) and WWNK-FM.
In 2002, Scott received the prestigious Marconi Award for Major Market Radio Personality of the Year.
Scott’s last day on the radio was April 3, 2015.
It was not widely known that Jim Scott was not his real name (his real name is James Boland), but Scott resented the idea that it was a false name.
“I’ve been Jim Scott since 1960, my entire broadcasting career,” he told The Enquirer in 2014. “I don’t use my real name, it has no meaning. I’m Jim Scott. There’s nothing fake about it.”
Scott used his radio show to highlight community events and was most often seen throughout Greater Cincinnati as a volunteer, sounding the alarm for the Salvation Army’s red kettle campaign or hosting United Way fundraisers.
In 1996 and 2002 he was chosen as the torchbearer of the Olympic flame through the region on the way to the Olympic Games.
Scott is survived by his wife, Donna Hartman; his sons, Scott Boland, Jim Boland and Casey Boland.
This article originally appeared on the Cincinnati Enquirer: Jim Scott Obituary: Legendary WLW Radio Host Dies at 81
