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Writer's pictureJames Pagliasotti

Jim Santella RIP


Jim Santella c. 1972 - credit: bmhof.org


We have a sense of impatience about this project and for good reason. So many of the great deejays of the Freeform radio era are passing away. Our friend and website supporter Bruce Allen sent news our way about Jim Santella, one of the original freeform jocks at WYSL-FM in Buffalo, NY, who died a few months ago.


Jim began his shows there in 1969 and like so many of his colleagues at freeform stations across the country soon enough faced a crisis of conscience in 1972 when management decided to drastically reduce the station’s library, another way of saying they instituted a playlist. Goodbye freeform. Goodbye Jim Santella, too. He quit on the air and subsequently was advised “you’ll never do radio again in this town.


In 2012, he did his final radio show in Buffalo, albeit the first few gigs after leaving YSL under an alias, and in 2013 was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame (HERE). His story is typical of so many of those brilliant radio pioneers whose impact on people like Bruce and the rest of his devoted audience still resonates today (HERE). May he rest in peace.

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