Who's Who at WONN

Jerry Smithwick

Jerry was one of three deejays on pirate radio station Swinging Radio England in 1966 that came from Moultrie, Georgia (the other two were Ron O’Quinn and Larry Dean). He served a couple years in the military and worked for WMTM in Moultrie and WDUN in Gainesville, Georgia, before crossing the Atlantic waters to join the pirate station’s air staff. Unfortunately, Swinging Radio England was a failure and only survived about six months, longer than any one of the Moultrie trio.

He soon returned to radio in the states and, in the early part of 1967, landed a job at WONN, staying only a short time before leaving for stations in markets like Miami, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was while in Lake Charles in 1974 that he moved from radio to television, managing the NBC affiliate there, Albany (GA), and Panama City, Florida.

Jerry left broadcasting in 1994 and did consulting work for a couple of years. In 1996 a friend ran for Congress and he became the congressman’s District Director (Florida Chief of Staff) in Tallahassee.

Station History