A former program director at KACV-FM and a faculty member who taught English and journalism for many years were added Nov. 16 to the Amarillo College Mass Communication Wall of Fame.
Jamey Neill and the late Robert Wylie both influenced the people around them at AC.
Neill, known as Jamey Karr on the air, has been in radio since he was 14 years old, starting around the summer of 1972. Because he was younger than most people in radio, it was hard for him to get people to take him seriously.
“I was serious and was committing the time, and then it became a lot easier after that,” Neill said.
Christa Glasgow, an AC graduate currently attending West Texas A&M University, went through FM90 as a disc jockey. She met Neill after he left AC to work at Cumulus, which owns a group of radio stations, as the operations manager.
“He was the head-honcho boss over all the DJs that worked for that company,” Glasgow said. “A great work ethic and confidence is what he instilled in me.”
Neill said he enjoyed the students who came through the KACV-FM program.
“When they first start, you teach and work with them,” he said. “They come back and say, ‘I got my first job.’ That never got old.”
Neill is at The Eagle, 100.9 FM, where he is general manager and co-hosts the morning show with Morgan Tanner. He said he enjoys the environment at the radio station as well as the people. “She’s very funny and really good at what she does,” he said. “It is a pleasure to work with her every day.”
Wylie worked at AC for about 30 years, teaching English and journalism. He was English department chairman from 1984 to 1992. He also wrote a column for the Amarillo Globe-News called “Word for Word” in which he wrote about the meaning and usage of words.
His son, David Wylie, also ended up in the education field, teaching science.
“I think it’s almost genetic,” David Wylie said.
Neill described Wylie as having a dry sense of humor.
“He was very well respected, and to go in at the same time he did, I was very honored,” Neill said about being added to the Wall of Fame at the same time as Wylie.
Neill said Wylie was a big fan of classical music and interested in how the radio station worked and what was being taught.
After his retirement from AC, Wylie still was involved with grant writing as well as other projects. He was the AC writer-in-residence.
“He enjoyed everything about it,” his son said. “It really was his life, and he enjoyed all the staff there, the kids. He just loved his life there at AC.
“Myself and the family were very honored and appreciative of this tribute.”
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