MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A longtime WAJR-AM radio personality has died. Jim Stallings, 54, passed away Thursday at his home in Preston County after a battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Stallings had worked with West Virginia Radio Corporation since 1985. For decades, he co-hosted “Morgantown A.M.” with Kay Murray on WAJR-AM in Morgantown. “Jim and Kay,” as they became known, brought local issues to their many loyal listeners.
“He could take a boring subject on our talk show, a boring subject into a fun, entertaining subject,” Murray recalled. “It’s the one thing Jim thought radio should be. Entertainment. He used to tell me, man if you can’t leave the air without putting a smile on someone’s face, what are we doing here every day.”
Known as “Cadillac” Jim Stallings, his entertainment reports were a key part of the MetroNews Morning News.
“Jim Stallings was a great broadcaster and an even better person,” said West Virginia Radio Corporation President & CEO Dale Miller. “Jim takes a prominent place in WAJR’s 75 year heritage and our entire radio family already misses him.”
WAJR’s Kyle Wiggs, who handled the sports morning shift with Stallings for 20 years, said the radio personality was devoted and passionate every day.
“Jim Stallings had been the most dedicated employee to this radio station. WAJR was his life. Programming the station and making sure things got done right and the local aspect of everything we did on this radio station, that was Jim’s influence,” Wiggs shared.
Stallings, known for being combative on the air at times, was a talented professional whose love of radio translated on the air each day.
“There were days we would have our misunderstandings and our arguments. That’s why I described it as a dysfunctional marriage sometimes,” joked Stallings’ co-host. “I truly miss him already and I think the public has missed him since he has been off of the air.”
In late 2014, Stallings felt ill and drove himself to the doctor after work one November day. A relentless form of cancer, Gliobastoma Multiforme, was found to be the cause of Stallings’ inexplicable headaches.
He, with his wife Sue, traveled to Pittsburgh for surgery to remove as much of the malignant brain tumor as possible. Stallings and his wife were persistent in his fight hoping he could return to his listeners.
“He anchored the news. He was the program director. He did a morning talk show. He would go out and do remotes. He was very concerned about how WAJR did run. He had a lot of pride in WAJR,” Murray bragged.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.