James T. "Big Jim" Morgan, a legendary Kentucky broadcaster who won a George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of the 1977 Cumberland River flood, died yesterday, hours before he was to be honored at the annual Harlan County Heroes celebration.Morgan, who was 84 and had been in poor health recently, worked at WHLN Radio for 62 years. He became president and general manager in the 1950s and owner in 1986. His flood coverage was a great example of public service through community broadcasting, said Neil Middleton, news director of WYMT-TV in Hazard. (Image from WYMT)
"I was a junior in high school and I remember listening to him and Everett Jones provide flood coverage, and he really was the calm in the storm," Middleton told the Harlan Daily Enterprise. "He was just a true friend and someone I have always looked up to and respected he and will be sorely missed." For the Enterprise story by John Middleton, click here. For a longer report by WYMT's Ashley Reynolds, with archival footage and photos, click here.
UPDATE, Sept. 14: "His voice was the one generations of Harlan Countians wanted to hear in times of trouble," Editor John Henson, a former Morgan protege, wrote in the Harlan Daily Enterprise. The Kentucky Broadcasters Association reports that Morgan "was believed to be the oldest active broadcaster in Kentucky," and has funeral arrangements: Visitation 5-7 p.m. Monday at Harlan Christian Church, followed by the service; burial 11 a.m. Tuesday at Resthaven Cemetery.
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