| Jack Harris | |
|---|---|
| Born | William H Harris Jr September 18, 1941 Logan, West Virginia, USA |
| Occupation | television personality, radio personality |
| Years active | 1959–present |
| Spouse | Joy Harris 1986-present |
Jack Harris is an American radio and television personality based in Tampa, Florida who co-hosts the morning drive time program on 970 WFLA and is a broadcaster with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Tampa Bay Storm and the Outback Bowl. He has been involved in local radio and television in the Tampa, Florida market since 1970.
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Harris was born William H Harris Jr. in Logan, West Virginia on September 18, 1941 to Elaine (née Stolings) and William Harris. After high school, Harris attended Davidson College for a year and a half and transferred to West Virginia University from where he graduated in 1963.
Harris was named a distinguished military graduate in his ROTC class and spent two years as a lieutenant in the Intelligence Branch of the United States Army, with tours in the Dominican Republic and Vietnam.
Harris began his radio career in 1959 in Logan at WVOW and followed by ten years in Morgantown, West Virginia at WAJR.
Jack Harris decided move south in 1970, taking a job as production director and mid day disc jockey with WFLA radio. A year later, he moved to afternoons and in 1972, became the morning personality.
After producing a parody piece called Floridians, a Yankee's Opinion in 1974. Through this piece, Harris received offers to move to larger markets and subsequently took a job as morning personality at WRC radio in Washington D.C., working alongside figures such as Willard Scott.
Within little time, the parent company of the station, NBC, switched it to an all-news format, moving Harris to the FM station, WKYS, which was among the first all-disco stations in America.
After declining an offer to move to the NBC owned station in Chicago, WMAQ, Harris returned to mornings at WFLA in Tampa.
In 1976, Harris became a member of the first broadcast team for the newly created Tampa Bay Buccaneers and began play-by-play with the USF men's basketball team. Within short time, he also began play-by-play with the soccer team, the Tampa Bay Rowdies. After small positions at Tampa's WTOG and WFLA-TV television stations in the seventies, he became a host of the afternoon program Pulse Plus! on WTVT channel 13 in 1984.
After its end in 1989, Harris moved on to WFLA channel 8 hosting a similar program, until 1992 when his afternoon talk show Harris & Company premiered on the same station, which ran for eight years. Since then, he has been a restaurant reviewer for Bay News 9 and a commentator for the 5 PM news at WFTS-TV.
In 1986, Harris was fired from WFLA and was shortly thereafter picked up as a member of the Q Morning Zoo on WRBQ-FM. In 1988 he moved back to WFLA-FM (now WFLZ), which was at the time, Z93 a classic hits station. In less than a year, it switched to its current Top 40 format, then known as Power 93. Harris subsequently became a member of their own morning program, the "Power Pig". In 1993, he returned to WFLA AM mornings, alongside of Tedd Webb. The two were joined by Sharon Taylor from 1997 to 2009, and continue to host a successful AM radio morning show.
In addition to this, Harris served six years as the Alcalde (honorary mayor) of Ybor City, briefly had a regular column with The Tampa Tribune and has released a book of satirical essays and recipes titled Jack Harris Unwrapped.
Currently, Harris continues to host AM Tampa Bay on 970 WFLA and The Mayors Hour, a Public-access television show in Hillsborough County along with the Tampa mayor since 1996. He continues to cover play-by-play commentary on the radio broadcasts for the Outback Bowl and the Tampa Bay Storm, as well as pre-game and halftime radio programming for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Jack has been married since 1986 and has one son, Jackson, born 1991.