Jim Scott: 'It's time to start saying goodbye'

After 54 years on the air, Cincinnati radio icon Jim Scott announced his retirement Tuesday morning.

"How many times have I said good morning and thank you for listening?" Scott asked listeners as he made his announcement at 7:07 a.m. "It's time to start staying goodbye. Hope you have enjoyed the show."

Then, because it is radio, he hit the button and played The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

News crews from all of Cincinnati's major media outlets crowded into the studio for the announcement.

"There is nothing lonely about it," Scott said on air. "I'm really happy…. It's my choice. It's a bittersweet day. I love being on the radio. It's such an intimate media. It's just you and me.

For Scott, the announcement marks the beginning of the end to an illustrious career in Queen City radio that began on WSAI-AM March 23, 1968, according to Enquirer archives. He started in radio in 1960 while a high school senior in Binghamton, N.Y. Scott won the 2002 Marconi Award for Large Market Radio Personality of the Year.

As 700 WLW-AM morning show host, Scott was the first voice many people heard in the morning. Listeners, after reading news stories about Scott's retirement, sent messages of gratitude throughout the morning.

Mike McConnell, who served WLW for 25 years before a three-year radio stint in Chicago from 2010 to 2013, will replace Scott.

"Big shoes to fill," McConnell told Scott this morning. "The old adage is you don't want to be the guy who replaces the legend, you want to be the guy who replaces that guy."

Many Cincinnatians invited Scott into their homes and vehicles as he provided a kind of soundtrack to their lives. Many of those same Cincinnatians might be surprised to know Scott is not the radio host's actual surname. As for his real surname?

"I've been Jim Scott since 1960, for my entire broadcasting career," Scott told The Enquirer in a story published in 2014.

"I don't use my real name, it's meaningless. I'm Jim Scott. There's nothing fake about it."