Old Seattle Radio Saturday: jaynie jones

Best known from a decade on KOMO AM1000 The Overnight Club with  Dillon, Jaynie Dillon was the first-ever woman announcer on KOMO in their 60+ years on the air.

She did every dang thing in radio from spinning country on "The Cowboy, KKBY-FM Seattle-Tacoma, opposite Ichabod Caine in morning drive to all manner of announcing, DJ-ing, news reading, reporting and public affairs direction. Women are still at a distinct minority in radio.

Jaynie told Spokane’s Philco Bill what it was like being a "little radio gal," in the 1960’s and ’70’s:

Back in the '60s when there were almost no females on-the-air anywhere, women or “girls” as we were called, were so trivialized by our gender that we typically were only allowed to use a first name on-the-air. (What brazen hussies we would be to actually dare to have a first and last name!)
Another area where there was this type of sexism was the rule of law and continued to be so up through the '80s is that it was quite clear that the world would come to an end instanteously, if one were to play -- Heaven help us -- two female artists back-to-back. Absolutely no greater sin (from a programming standpoint) than if that were to ever happen. Not only that, but if there was a female announcer on a commercial you absolutely could not play a second commercial adjacent to it with a female voice on it and Heaven help us, if you should go out of a stop set with a female voice on a commercial into a song by a female recording artist. Absolutely forbidden. Nothing in programming was more important than to make sure that there were never two female voices back-to-back in spots or going into a song by a female vocalist. Programmers could just hear those radio dials being instantly tuned away to another station; the listening public would just not tolerate or accept two female voices back-to-back in ANY configuration. That was their (the programmer's) biggest fear.
Just as at KPEG where all the announcers were completely homogenized into not only ONLY having a first name, but that they ALL had to use the name Peg; well, such was my story, too.
In Spokane, as in the Tri-Cities, I was only allowed to use a first name: Jaynie.
It wasn't until the late '70s in Seattle and Tacoma that I finally was allowed to use a first and last name. I decided to use my legal name: Prozora (my married name at the time) and the program director went ballistic. "It's too ethnic!!!”
At that I picked up a stack of 45 RPM records and randomly tried various last names of artists with my first name Jaynie. One of the records was by Billy Joe Royal. I liked the sound of Jaynie Jo Royal, so I used that -- at least at that station. Many of my friends still affectionately call me ‘Jaynie Jo.’
Later a PD at a Seattle country station wanted me to "sound more country" so he named me "Jaynie Dylan" -- briefly -- then it occurred to him that "Dylan" would be more associated with folk music, so he changed the spelling of it to Jaynie Dillon to have more of a connection to Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke.
I used Jaynie Dillon ever after with only one exception: while working in Tacoma at KTAC-AM & KBRD-FM, I was Jaynie Dillon on the Top-40 AM station and Jane Robbins on the FM, a beautiful music station where the station's mantra was, "As beautiful as a bird in flight. K-Bird. K-B-R-D." (the beautiful bird concept was where the 'robin' or Robbins tie-in came in).

A longtime friend of BlatherWatch, (since Allan Prell was fired from KIRO!), Jaynie lives in Tacoma, still does voice-overs but seems to have 8 other careers going simultaneously.

 

Comments

[joanie]

What an interesting read. I had no idea it was that segregated. With all due respect to women cuz' I am one, I don't find all female voices easy to listen to. Even now, I often hear women that sound like valley girls, or shrill. Voices like Rhodes, Rehm, Craft are very listenable for me.

But that's not many. I wish I remembered hearing Jaynie. She must have been the best.

[Nantuckett]

Jaynie is a true groundbreaker. I'm so glad you posted this article. What she had to put up with! And I wonder if things are still the same in radio? You still don't hear that many women DJ's, talk show hosts, or news anchors, unless they are paired with a man. And what about women in radio management? Becky Brenner and Lisa Decker at KMPS, Ursula at KIRO, but the names are few and far between. Thank you for celebrating Jaynie's accomplishments. She's a gem!

[Jarman Siegel]

I used to fantasize about Jaynie with that wonderful, sexy voice...she was smart, too! that doesn't seem to have been a requirement back then. thanks for this, Michael

[sparky]

Has she done anything on local TV or commercials? She looks familiar.

[TommyOate]

Sometimes when you have nothing really to say, it's probably better to remain silent instead of forcing your way into a conversation.

[Jayniejo]

It is nice to be remembered as Jaynie Dillon. I loved the listeners and members of The Overnight Club on KOMO, where I spent nearly ten years. Many of The Overnight Club members have remained in touch over the years and are among my closest friends.

Locally, I still do commercials for KLAY 1180 AM, Lakewood. I also enjoy freelance voice work for clients around the world. http://jayniejones.voice123.com

Radio is in my blood (as it is for anyone who has ever had the privilege of being a part of it) and for me it goes back to my dad's generation when he had a live radio show in the '30s and '40s with his musical group "The Cascadians" who wrote their own music, played guitars, and sang on KUJ Radio, Walla Walla.

Then my brother, Dan Todorovich (Dan Tory) followed in the late 1950s and 1960s with a radio career at KTEL, K-HIT, and KUJ, in Walla Walla, then off to KDNC-FM, Spokane.

In 1967 I had my first radio gig at KCYS-FM, Richland.

Even earlier though (from age 11) I was a member of the KTEL Hi-Fi Club when Burl Barer was hosting it.

The Hi-Fi Club was exclusively for teenagers, but I lied about my age in order to join early -- at 11 -- and file on-air news reports about high school news at MacLaughlin High even though I was still in elementary school at the time.

--Jaynie Dillon Jones

[Coiler]

KCYS, did that become KORD?

[Lucas Foxx]

Great story. There is still a tendency around the country to reserve female voices for middays and late night voice tracking. They were still pushing that female voice separation crap as late as 1995 in AC and CHR formats. Maybe they still are.

[Jaynie Dillon Jones]

I just read in a Facebook post that Angela Kirby is now only allowed to use her first name on the air so she's just "Angela" now.

[Burl Barer]

Okay your busted! I want back any cases of Coca-Cola you may have won on the Hi-Fi Club!

You are not the only radio star to be corrupted by me at an early age. Charlie Brown used to listen to me on KTEL when he was picking peas in Milton-Freewater, Oregon.

[craftmatic]

Seems like they want to blame everyone but themselves. They blame the "industry" for this, that and the other thing, but the industry didn't fail, Air America did.