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Jack Harris (broadcaster)
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Jack Harris is a Tampa radio personality who currently co-hosts the morning drive time program on 970 WFLA and is a broadcaster with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Tampa Bay Storm and the Outback Bowl. He has been involved in local radio and television in the Tampa, Florida market since 1970.
is was born William H Harris Jr. in Logan, West Virginia on September 18, 1941 to Elaine (née Stolings) and William Harris.
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Encyclopedia
Jack Harris is a Tampa radio personality who currently co-hosts the morning drive time program on 970 WFLA and is a broadcaster with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Tampa Bay Storm and the Outback Bowl. He has been involved in local radio and television in the Tampa, Florida market since 1970.
Biography
Early life and Beginnings in Radio
Harris was born William H Harris Jr. in Logan, West Virginia on September 18, 1941 to Elaine (née Stolings) and William Harris. After high school, Harris attended Davidson College for a year and a half and transferred to West Virginia University from which he was graduated in 1963.
Harris was named a distinguished military graduate in his ROTC class and spent two years as a lieutenant in the intelligence branch of the army, with tours in the Dominican Republic and Vietnam.
Harris began his radio career around 1960 in Logan at WVOW and followed by ten years in Morgantown, WV at WAJR.
Moving South
Jack Harris decided move south in 1970, taking a job as production director and mid day disc jockey with WFLA radio. A year later, he moved to afternoons and in 1972, became the morning personality.
After producing a parody piece called Floridians, a Yankee’s Opinion in 1974, Harris received over 20 offers to move to larger markets. As a result of his being “discovered” through the record, he took a job as morning man at WRC radio in Washington DC, working alongside figures such as Willard Scott.
Within little time, the parent company of the station, NBC, switched it to an all-news format, moving Harris to the FM station, WKYS, which became the first all-disco station in America.
After declining an offer to move to the NBC owned station in Chicago, WMAQ, Harris returned to mornings at WFLA in Tampa.
Sports Broadcasting and Television
In 1976, Harris became a member of the first broadcast team for the newly created Tampa Bay Buccaneers and began play-by-play with the USF basketball team. Within short time, he also began play-by-play with the soccer team, the Tampa Bay Rowdies. After small positions at Tampa’s WTOG and WFLA-TV television stations in the seventies, he became a host of the highly-rated afternoon program Pulse Plus! on WTVT channel 13.
After its end in 1989, Harris moved on to WFLA channel 8 hosting a similar program, until 1992 when his afternoon talk show Harris & Company premiered on the same station, which ran for eight years and was ended in 2000. Since then, he has been a restaurant reviewer for Bay News 9 and a commentator for the 5 PM news at WFTS-TV.
Recent Years
In 1986, Harris was fired from WFLA and was shortly thereafter picked up as a member of the Q Morning Zoo on WRBQ-FM. In 1988 he moved back to WFLA-FM (now WFLZ) becoming a member of their own morning program, the “Power Pig”. In the early nineties, he returned to WFLA AM mornings, along side of Tedd Webb. The two have since been joined by Sharon Taylor and continue to be a successful AM radio morning show.
In addition to this, Harris served six years as the Alcalde (honorary mayor) of Ybor City and has released a book of satirical essays and recipes titled Jack Harris Unwrapped.
Today
Currently, Harris continues to host AM Tampa Bay on WFLA and has a weekly column for the Tampa Tribune. He has also hosted “The Mayors Hour”, a cable access show in Hillsborough County along with the Tampa mayor since 1996.
Jack has been married since 1986 and has one son, Jackson, born 1991.
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