Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson (a.k.a. Frank Coxe and Jungle Jay Nelson) (July 12, 1936 - February 18, 1994) spent most of his career in radio, although he did a brief stint on television in the early 1960s. He was married twice and had four children. His son Kevin was one of the morning hosts on Majic 100 in Ottawa, Ontario. Kevin died on December 13, 2011 at the age of 52 after a yearlong illness.
Jay started in radio at WRIT in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1955. He then moved on to WARM in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1956; WHLO in Akron, Ohio in 1957; and WBNY in Buffalo, New York in 1960. In the early sixties, he hosted a late night show on WKBW radio, entitled "Jay Nelson's All-Night House Party", using as a theme song "My Boomerang Won't Come Back."
He switched briefly to television, appearing on WKBW-TV, also in Buffalo, where he hosted an afternoon children's show in 1963. On this show he appeared wearing a pith helmet and a faux leopard-skin costume, often working with a chimpanzee. It was at this time that he took the professional name Jungle Jay Nelson, a name that stuck for the rest of his career.
While working at WKBW Channel 7 in Buffalo an ABC television affiliate, he appeared on an episode of The Rifleman which was a high profile ABC production at that time. With much fanfare and promotion on Jay's television show, he appeared as a stage coach driver who hands Chuck Connors an envelope and after Chuck opens the envelope, Jay says, "Is it important?" then gets back on the stage coach and is never seen again.
In the fall of 1963, CHUM radio in Toronto was looking for a new morning host. Prior to Jay's arrival, CHUM held a 'Hollywood Week' promotion with a series of programs that included actor and voice of "mr. Magoo" Jim Backus and Irene Ryan (Granny from "The Beverly Hillbillies") as temporary morning show fill-in hosts.
From May 27, 1957 until April 25, 1975, CHUM printed a weekly list of top songs and distributed it through local record stores. Jay Nelson's picture first appeared on the cover of a CHUM Chart in issue Number 351 on Monday, December 2, 1963. By coincidence, the first Beatles song ever to appear on a CHUM Chart, She Loves You, was listed at position 42 in that very same issue. However, Jay Nelson did not actually start working at CHUM until the following Monday, December 9 and the Beatles did not appear on The Ed Sullivan Show that made them famous in America until February 9, 1964.
Jay Nelson remained at CHUM for the next 17 years. Nelson did his last morning show at 1050 CHUM on December 24, 1980. His last show featured many tributes by current and former co-workers including talk show host John Gilbert, longtime CHUM air personality and Executive Bob Laine and Brian Williams. The mayor of Toronto at the time, Art Eggleton, also called in to wish Nelson well and presented a proclamation congratulating Nelson on his career at CHUM. The final song he played was Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon. After Nelson left CHUM, he briefly worked as a weatherman at CITY-TV, a television station owned by CHUM Ltd.
He returned to radio at CKFM-FM from 1982 to 1985; became CHFI morning man in August, 1985; switched to CHUM's old rival CKEY in May, 1986; and then moved to rival CJEZ as morning host from May, 1987 until August, 1990.
Other odd jobs he held were as:
* Maître d' at The Daily Planet restaurant - Toronto
* Operations Manager at CKAN in Newmarket, Ontario
* Teacher at Toronto's National Institute of Broadcasting

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