Former WTOP Program Director Jim Farley died earlier this year during a medical procedure at the age of 75. The station remembered the former leader by dedicating its main studio in his honor.
On Wednesday, WTOP renamed its main air studio as “The Jim Farley Glass Enclosed Nerve Center”, a moniker Farley often used to remind those taking the air on the Washington D.C. all-news station to remember that radio was “theatre of the mind.”
“When Jim came here, it just changed things immediately,” WTOP Senior Vice President and General Manager Joel Oxley told those assembled to witness the dedication. “It was just such an injection of enthusiasm and creativity and ideas, ideas, ideas.”
Jim Farley worked at the station from 1996 until his 2013 retirement.
Current Director of News and Programming Julia Ziegler worked with Farley when she joined the station in 2002 before ascending to her current role. She shared that her wish is for all of those who step through the studio at the Hubbard Radio station will remember the lessons of Farley.
“Jim Farley taught us all so much,” she said. “The ‘first get it right, then get it first’ is one of those many phrases I know I will take with me forever.”
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