Jim LaBarbara "The Music Professor" shares his honest firsthand account of his experience during a dynamic and sometimes turbulent life on and off the radio. He was there when the controversy of playing music performed by black artists was coming to an end and was later innocently thrust in the middle of the payola scandals.

When Jim LaBarbara did his first radio show in 1959, he couldn't have imagined it would lead to a Hall of Fame career that spanned more than fifty years; one where he would work on some of the country's most powerful stations. During his "Happy Days" he was a dreamer whose dreams of baseball and the trumpet became a reality. In college he gave church sermons and studied religion and philosophy. There have been a couple of "Guardian Angels" in his life and a "Hell's Angel" who saved his life.

In the era of the Big Red Machine, his best friend was Johnny Bench and his college professor, Dr. Bill Randle, was the major player in the selling of Elvis. His story is told for the first time. For those who grew up in the 50's and the baby boomer generation, along with others interested in pop culture, you will be transported back to the beginning of rock music. Jim was with the Supremes, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. He interviewed hundreds of entertainers including Bill Haley, Jackie Wilson, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, James Brown, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Diamond, John Denver, and others. It is with the help of these interviews that he tells his own story and in so doing gives a unique perspective of the history of rock 'n' roll.

About the author

Jim LaBarbara began his career in broadcasting in 1959 while working on his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and has been heard on hundreds of radio and television commercials. Throughout the years Jim worked under the pseudonyms of Jimmy Holiday while working in Meadville, Titusville, and DuBois, Pennsylvania, and J. Bentley Starr in Erie, Pennsylvania. He began using his real name on the 50,000-watt WKYC and WIXY in Cleveland and also the year he spent in Denver. However, he is best known as the "Music Professor," a moniker that was given to him when he began his work in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked for the powerful WLW, WCKY, WSAI, and WGRR FM, among others. 

Jim's graduate studies were at the University of Cincinnati where he earned a Master's Degree in Broadcasting and was also an adjunct professor at that university for several years. 

Jim is regarded as a respected musicologist on early rock 'n' roll, was named one of the "Top 40 Radio Personalities of All Time," is listed in the Rock Jock Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Radio/Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame in Ohio. 

Jim is still "Living on the Air in Cincinnati" --weekday mornings 5-9 AM on WDJO playing the 50's, 60's, & 70's oldies

He has a son and daughter and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife Sally.

Published by Little Miami Publishing Milford, Ohio