6 days 12 hours 20 min ago Great Barrington radio host retires after 42 years Play video

(Brian Burnell, NECN) - In this day and age, it is rare to spend an entire career with one company. It's even less likely in broadcasting, which makes the career of Tom Jay, all the more remarkable. Tom has been waking people up in western Massachusetts for over 40 years - a run which will end on May 15th.

NECN's Brian Burnell has his story.

Script:

Great Barrington, Massachusetts is a classic, New England town nestled in the Berkshires.

For 42 years, Tom Jay has been waking up the people around Great Barrington on WSBS radio 860. Born in Brooklyn, his family had a summer home in nearby Copake, NY and he listened to WSBS when they'd travel up from the city. He started his broadcasting career in the Navy during the 1960's.

Tom Jay: "When I got out of the Navy, I called here and I said, 'I'm looking for a job.' And they said, "yeah, come on. We need an afternoon announcer.' I've been here since."

That was 1966. With the exception of a year-and-a-half stint with the Foreign Service, Tom has been on the air at WSBS. He's retiring May 15th.

The Great Barrington Fair ended its run several years ago and the fairgrounds have been quiet ever since. But the biggest story that Tom ever covered was right here and it wasn't the fair.

Tom Jay: "The tornado that took out the fairgrounds. I was the first broadcast journalist there."

In June of 1995, a tornado ripped into town tearing through a number of buildings and wiping

Tom Jay: "When the sky turned green, I came down here and threw as much equipment into the back of the station vehicle as I could and took off."

Tom broadcast from inside the state police lines because he got there before the lines were set up.

Tom Jay: "I'll never forget the words. I said on the air, 'oh my god the fairgrounds as we know them are no more.'"

You might call Tom an icon of hometown radio. And doing the morning news in a small town is not all death and destruction. In fact, it presents opportunities that aren't available in Boston or New York.

The small town he has served for more than 4 decades loves him.

Rev. Charles Van Ausdall, First Congregational Church: "He's been here during our emergencies, when we had a tornado, he's the voice that we hear every morning that tells us what's happened the night before. So if it's good news, bad weather, whatever, Tom's the first one that we hear in the morning. And people are going to miss him. I'm going to miss him. A lot of people are going to miss him. He's not going to be replaced very easily I'm afraid."

That is true, in part, because in addition to doing morning news, Tom is also the Chief Engineer at WSBS.

"I do take care of the equipment here so that when something breaks down at 2:00 in the morning, it doesn't matter. 2:00 in the morning, I'm almost up anyway, but, I have to come fix it."
The bright lights of the big cities have never tempted him. But what is tempting, what is leading him to call it a career is a warm bed.

Jay: "Getting up at quarter-of-three in the morning. That I'm not going to miss."

Especially during the snowy, Berkshire winter. Tom's wife, Marilyn, says it will be an adjustment for a lot of people.

Marilyn Jay: It's going to be different. I know its hurt a lot of people in town that Tom's not going to be there to wake them up at 6:00 in the morning. We've had more people saying, 'I don't know how I'm going to get up because you always woke me up in the morning.'"