James "Jim" Lang
From the Kentucky Post December 9, 1999
James ''Jim'' Lang was "a man of great ideas," said his wife Ann. Mr. Lang was one of the founders of WNOP (AM 740), an all-jazz radio station that is still on the air in Cincinnati. ''He could just look at something and know what to do with it,'' said Mrs. Lang, who worked at the station with her husband. ''He had wonderful ideas about everything.''
Mr. Lang, 93, died Wednesday at Highlands of Fort Thomas Nursing Home. WNOP was at first a hodgepodge of entertainment, featuring politicians and entertainers who came to town, Mrs. Lang said. The station then went from all-country to all-jazz before the Langs sold it in 1972.
Their next venture was a small religious radio station in the heart of the Bible Belt, Alabama, where Mr. Lang was born. He owned and programmed the Alabama Religious Broadcasting Co. and Mrs. Lang handled the finances until 1996. ''Jim was the brains behind it,'' Mrs. Lang said. ''He just had a lot of fun.'' Mr. Lang, Campbell County sheriff from 1946 to 1950, was also involved with politics, his wife said. ''That gave him an opportunity to be around people,'' she said. ''He just loved people.''
He was also an elder of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Thomas and a member of Henry Barnes Masonic Lodge No. 607 in Dayton. A daughter, Anna Marie Scholl, preceded him in death. Other survivors include a son, James E. Lang of Lexington; daughters, Linda Gard of San Antonio and Polly Palmer of Fort Thomas; a sister, Rena White of Satellite Beach, Fla.; 11 grandchildren and six grandchildren.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian
Church of Fort Thomas. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at Dobbling
Funeral Home, Fort Thomas. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery, Southgate.