Career
Larsh began his radio career at WCHL in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1960 at the age of 14 as an after school and weekend job. He also worked at WCDJ in Edenton in the summer when his family would go back home during summer break. At some point, he worked for WSSB in Durham, but the time frame is unclear.
Upon graduating from high school in 1964, Larsh moved to Atlanta, where he got an FCC First Class engineer's license, while working on the radio at WDJK. His parents enrolled him in Guilford College in Greensboro in the pre-med course. Larsh dropped out almost immediately, having gotten a radio job at WCOG.
In early 1966, WAYS-AM in Charlotte had begun 24 hour operations. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations at the time required that any station must have an engineer on duty at all times the station was on the air. When Larsh applied for a job there, the station quickly saw an opportunity to fill two sets of shoes with one person, since Larsh already had a First Class license. He was hired to fill the overnight shift.
At WAYS, Larsh met Jack Gale, a seasoned veteran of both the radio and music business who would become his mentor. Larsh later remarked, "Jack (Gale) has forgotten more about the radio business than I've ever known." When asked, he would always cite Gale as one of his major influences.
Larsh's first big break came later in 1966, when he landed a job at WIXY-1260 in Cleveland, Ohio. The evening disc jockey at this station was always called 'Jack Armstrong,' after the 1930s radio serial Jack Armstrong the All American Boy. With his fast talking, young, friendly approach, Larsh became a huge hit in Cleveland - so huge that floundering WKYC-1100 asked him to break his WIXY contract, and come to work for the 50,000 watt blowtorch in January 1967.
'Jack Armstrong' was a copyrighted moniker in the market, so Larsh adopted the alias 'Big Jack Your Leader', and went to work for WKYC. He also occasionally taunted WIXY by calling himself Jackson W. Armstrong.
With WKYC being heard all over the Eastern half of the US, Larsh finally went national. He attracted fans all over the region, and became a huge hit. WKYC was listed as the #3 record buying influence in Miami, Florida in that era, no doubt due to 'Big Jack' and the 50,000 watt night time signal that was so strong over the East Coast of the US.
Larsh moved on, working at other 50,000 watt stations like WMEX-1510 in Boston; CHUM-1050 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; KFI-640 in Los Angeles, KTNQ-/1020 in Los Angeles and WKBW-1520 in Buffalo, New York. It was at the latter that he developed his 'Motormouth' character, and was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1971 as the world's fastest talking human. He participated in WKBWs 1971 War of the Worlds broadcast, a modernized version of the original done by Orson Welles in 1938. Larsh was one of the original disc jockeys hired for the all new 13-Q in Pittsburgh in the early 1970s.
Larsh was working for WWKB-1520 in Buffalo, New York when the sudden format change in 2006 to liberal talk put him in the unemployed ranks. He died on March 22, 2008 at High Point Regional Hospital in North Carolina. He died from injuries suffered in a fall down his very steep stairs at his home.
Read more about this topic: Big Jack Armstrong
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