WTOP Immortalizes Jim Farley
• The main air studio at Hubbard All-News behemoth WTOP/Washington was re-dedicated last Wednesday as “The Jim Farley Glass Enclosed Nerve Center,” in honor of the legendary Jim Farley, who served as VP of News & Programming at WTOP from 1996 until 2013, leading the station’s transformation from a poorly rated AM station, to an all-news digital news organization and the top-billing radio station in the country. Farley died in August 2024, at the age of 75.
With current and former WTOP employees in the newsroom, and Farley’s family watching, Joel Oxley, President of Hubbard DC & GM of WTOP whisked away an Irish flag to reveal a new studio window etched as “The Jim Farley Glass-Enclosed Nerve Center — “First Get It Right, Then Get It First” — citing one of Farley’s famous exhortations. “When Jim came here, it just changed things immediately,” Oxley told those gathered. “It was just such an injection of enthusiasm and creativity and ideas, ideas, ideas.”
Former WTOP Program Director Mike McMearty said the studio renaming is fitting and well-deserved, noting, “‘The Glass-Enclosed Nerve Center’ was [Jim’s] brainchild — it was theater of the mind.” Regarded by admirers as part Edward R. Murrow and part P.T. Barnum, Farley coined the phrase as a ratings and marketing tool.
Current WTOP Director of News and Programming Julia Ziegler said she had been inspired by Farley since she joined the station as in intern in 2002. “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.”
Ziegler added, “My promise to all of you is that we will honor his memory by continuing to impart that wisdom, and all of the other things he taught us, in the next generation of journalists that walk through these doors.” [Studio photo credit: WTOP / Emily Venezky]
