Looking Back and Moving Forward
Longtime Kool Hits General Manager Signing Off
Sonya and Gary Newman
The Ashland Beacon
A longtime staple of local airwaves bid farewell to radio audiences Wednesday after a career spanning 48 years. Jim Forrest, General Manager of Kool Hits 105.7 and Kool TV, Jim Forrest, completed his last live on-air program as he prepares for retirement in the coming weeks. He has been with the locally oriented Ashland station since 2006, when it was still known as WLGC.
Although his on-air appearances have ended, Forrest will continue overseeing the business operations of Kool Hits to ensure a smooth transition for the station’s next General Manager. He had already stepped back from sports last spring and is now focusing on administrative duties as retirement draws near.
The timing of his decision was influenced primarily by his wife’s health, although the decision carries deep emotion. “There's some melancholy, but at the same time, the reason I'm doing it is because of my wife’s health,” Forrest explained. “She's been my lifelong partner for all these years. And so, there’s a reason—a really good reason. I think you have to do the most important things when it comes to family, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Looking back, Forrest fondly recalls his early days of working in sports, particularly voicing high school football games at Fairview. However, his original career goal was to become a military chaplain and retire after 20 years of service. “Getting the pension from the Army for being a chaplain for 20 years was my plan,” he said. “I probably just sort of forgot to talk to God about that, and I guess He had something else in mind.” Forrest laughed, adding, “That didn’t work out, and I had to switch everything. I had gone to college for two and a half years, and now I had to change direction. And I thought, well, what am I going to do? Then I went back to the thought of how much I loved sports.”
Forrest began his radio career at Morehead’s public radio station, WMKY, doing sports. He then moved to the commercial station WMOR in Morehead. “I loved it, and I wanted to learn everything about it. I wanted to be on the air. I wanted to learn engineering. I wanted to learn sales. I wanted to learn everything,” he recalled. “Sports, though, was probably my favorite part, and I was very fortunate.”
In 1978, Forrest moved to WCMI in Ashland to be closer to his mother after his father passed away. His next stop was WIRO in Ironton, but in 1982, he returned to Morehead and became General Manager of WMOR, the commercial station where he had started. In 2006, he moved back to Ashland and joined WLGC, which would later become Kool Hits 105.7. Forrest became General Manager in January 2014, just weeks before the station transitioned from country music to playing classic hits from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. He has been the only General Manager since the format change.
Reflecting on his career, Forrest cherishes many memories. “On the sports end of it, just the ability to travel to places I never would have gotten to and do sporting events, meeting some really interesting people along the way—great coaches like Bobby Knight of Indiana. To be able to go to places like Syracuse and Nebraska. Just different places I never would have gone to if it hadn’t been for radio and sports,” he said. “On the radio side of it, it’s the people—the ordinary people that you meet over 40-plus years. You don’t really know them, but they feel like they know you because they listen to you every day.” Another passion for Forrest has been sharing the gospel through his gospel music program at every stop in his career.
Forrest’s advice to the next General Manager at Kool Hits is simple: know everything you can about radio, be flexible, and always adapt to changing times. “I think those three things are the most important things I would advise to whoever sits in that chair next,” he said.
While Forrest is retiring from radio, he has no plans to slow down. He hopes to continue voice work from home, record audiobooks, and serve in his third stint as Pastor at Danleyton Missionary Baptist Church. He and his wife plan to devote more time to ministry together, working to grow the church and support its congregation. “My wife and I both want to be more active in growing the church,” Forrest shared. “That’s going to be our goal—working together and spending the golden years of our lives together, focusing on church and ministry.”
Radio has changed significantly since Forrest started in 1976. Back then, stations cued records and played carts (like a one-track version of an 8-track), which gave way to cassettes, then CDs, and eventually to full digital broadcasting via computers. Now, broadcasts are available via mobile apps and streaming platforms. “It was time to look at TV when the opportunity presented itself,” Forrest said. “When we had the chance to do our own TV thing, we jumped at it. That was the next step—the next evolution. And there will be another evolution coming. If you’re going to be a good manager, you have to have a vision and look ahead, thinking, ‘We’ve got to be first or right there with whoever’s first.’”
Kool TV has led the way in offering more than just sports—it's provided valuable community programming, such as Raceland High School’s The Nutcracker, the Optimist Club Auction, and graduations, to name a few.
“I feel good about leaving and retiring, knowing that, at least in my tenure, we may not be the biggest radio station or have the most listeners. We don’t subscribe to the ratings, so we won’t be rated,” Forrest explained. “But at the same time, we’ve been the most innovative station in the tri-state, and everyone else is playing catch-up to us. That’s something I’m really proud of during my time as General Manager at Kool Hits.”
The mark Jim Forrest has left on his station, the people he’s worked with, those who’ve heard the gospel through his ministry, and those whose lives have been touched by his vision and innovation will leave big shoes to fill. However, his impact will live on in the very air he’s spent 48 years broadcasting into.
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