Jack Holcomb celebrates 65 years of broadcasting on WEEU!
830 WEEU
TWILIGHT BROADCASTING, Inc.
34 North 4th Street
Reading, PA 19601
Lauri Moore
General Manager
610-396-2203
lmoore@830weeu.com
Jack Holcomb celebrates 65 years of broadcasting on WEEU
WEEU is announcing on Friday, October 22, from 9am-12noon during the live “Feedback” programming the celebration of honoring 65 years of broadcasting by “Jack’s Backyard” host Jack Holcomb. Join staff and dignitaries as they honor on air one of the longest serving broadcasters of our area.
Jack Holcomb, 830 WEEU radio host, has been a welcome guest on the airwaves and online. He is known as a past long time host of WEEU’s call-in show “Feedback.” He has worked as a disc jockey and a sports broadcaster as well.
Jack Holcomb is, without a doubt, best known as the birdman of Fourth Street. His program, “Jack’s Backyard,” airs Saturday mornings from 8 to 10 on WEEU. The program began in 2001 after his full-time retirement from the station. The interactive program includes all subjects related to nature and is enjoyed by young and old alike.
Born on May 1, 1933, in Canton, N.Y., he was one of three children of a father who ran a gas station and a mother who stayed home to rear her brood. Holcomb spent a lot of time playing in the woods and fields of the St. Lawrence Valley at the foothills of the Adirondacks in upstate New York. Canton was a college town – the home of St. Lawrence University – in the middle of dairy country. After high school, he attended Ithaca College, graduating in 1956. He majored in speech education, took courses in radio and television, and minored in theater.
His career began in October of 1956 when WEEU had an opening in the 4 p.m. to midnight slot. He was hired for $60 a week at the 433 Penn St. location of WEEU. (WEEU moved to its present site, 34 N. Fourth St., in 1969.) In 1965 Jack’s professional life was transformed when general manager of WEEU K. Richard Creitz asked Jack about doing a bird show for a Baltimore agency “The Bird – Watching Society” which aired 11am-11:15am Monday to Friday. The sponsorship ended in the 1970’s and Holcomb continued the program as “Bird Talk”. In December of 1979 Holcomb became the host of “Feedback” and continuing the award-winning program until his full-time retirement in January of 2001.
When Holcomb, who resides in West Reading, retired from WEEU in 2001, station management asked him to stay on part-time to do a Saturday-morning bird show. He agreed, and that has become the call-in show “Jack’s Backyard.” A dedicated host he at the station at 5 a.m. every Saturday in preparation for his 8 a.m. gig. Nature is the subject, but he said about 85 percent of the discussion is related to birds. He said talking nature gives him direction, and the people he’s met along the way give him joy.
For more than 20 years now, the WEEU phone lines ring off the hook from all over the area and surrounding counties. It’s the only program of its kind in this neck of the woods. His wife Lisa has enjoyed accompanying Holcomb on his nature adventures along with his listening audience.
Join WEEU in congratulating Jack Holcomb on his 65th anniversary of serving the community.
