Longtime local radio voice Jim Jefferson dies

Recognized for his smooth, unwavering delivery, Jefferson was well regarded in Washington and Greene counties during his four decades in the news industry. He retired in June 2017 after 43 years at the station – most of them as an anchor – in his only professional job.

He was a tutor, as well, and a role model for Bob Gregg, operations director at WJPA. They knew each other for nearly 40 years.

“Jim was here in the afternoons when I was in high school, walking around here trying to learn stuff,” Gregg said. “The Jim Jefferson that people knew on the air was the one we at the station knew personally. He was real, he was fair and he was honest.

“Several people said he was Walter Cronkite of WJPA Radio.”

Bill DiFabio, a longtime radio personality in the Pittsburgh region, said his friend “is the best news professional I’ve been associated with. You’d marvel at his work.”

Rhone marveled at the news industry while growing up in Bradford, known derisively as “The Icebox of the Nation” because of its bitter winters. Yet that’s where he warmed to his future avocation.

As a high schooler, he provided scholastic sports reports to the local radio station. Rhone worked there during subsequent summers – when he wasn’t attending classes at Point Park College (now Point Park University) in Pittsburgh. He was a journalism student there, and sports director of the campus radio station.

Fresh out of Point Park in 1974, Rhone secured a job at WJPA in an area unfamiliar to him. That is when he decided to go with a new surname – Jefferson – a common practice with on-air radio and television announcers at that time.

Jefferson settled into his job, married his college girlfriend, Debbie, and they bought a home in Scenery Hill. “He loved her so much, along with their horses and dogs,” DiFabio said.

While pondering possible pseudonyms, he was inspired by the name of a local institution of higher learning – Washington & Jefferson College – and embraced the alliteration of “Jim Jefferson.”

His tenure at WJPA would become newsworthy in the newsworthy events he presented. Jefferson’s 43 years there dated to the Nixon administration, and included coverage of nine presidents and a truckload of significant world events. He reported on the aftermath of President Richard Nixon’s resignation, the fall of Saigon, the stock market crash, demolition of the Berlin Wall, 9/11, six Steelers championships, five Penguins championships and one Pirates World Series triumph.

Local news was his specialty, though, and Jefferson embraced what he was covering along with the locale. “I love the area,” Jefferson told the Observer-Reporter in 2017, when he announced his pending retirement. “The main thing (about my job) is helping people, letting them know what is happening. It may just be the weather.”

Jefferson left his job with a measure of trepidation, saying he was going to miss “the interactions with people. The interviews with police, political officials, the district attorney, judges ...” He also enjoyed working alongside Pete Povich, the station’s program director, his on-air partner for 31 years.

Hanging up his microphone, however, gave Jefferson an opportunity to pursue more avidly pursue other passions: his family, playing golf and traveling.

Jim Jefferson may have made a name for himself with a phony name, but he was genuinely liked and respected.