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Longtime WFMF radio host 'Jim Nasium' passes away Tuesday morning
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BATON ROUGE - Longtime radio host Danny Simar, also known as "Jim Nasium," passed away Tuesday morning. He was 69.
Nasium and his co-host Randy Rice were on WFMF together from 1979 to 1990. Nasium ended his radio career in 1994 after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Rice said Nasium was nice to everyone and always kept a positive attitude.
"We were all about shaking hands, kissing babies, really intimately involved with our audience in a way that no one has ever come close to duplicating. Even though we were a music station, we talked about the who, what, why, when and where of Baton Rouge every morning," Rice said.
WBRZ's longtime weatherman Pat Shingleton joined Rice and Nasium during their shows to deliver the morning forecast for several years.
"Between Naze and Pat, it was hard for me to keep the two of them between the lines. It was always a hoot!"
Rice and Nasium had several recurring segments during their run on air, including fan-favorite Tiger Tracks where Nasium would interview the LSU football coach and their rival ahead of that week's game.
"He would always start with, 'Howdy you LSU football fans. This here is Jim Nasium and this is Tiger Tracks on WFMF' (Eye of the Tiger was always playing under that open.) He might ask Bear Bryant the week of the Alabama game: 'So how do you feel about facing the Tigers Saturday?' And then cut to a clip of Bonnie Tyler’s: It’s a Heartache!"
Rice said the pair had fun while they were working, recounting their Underwear on Your Head contest, racing thoroughbreds at Evangeline Downs and broadcasting their show for three months from a billboard on Florida Boulevard.
"The board looked like a house as we were giving away a condominium," Rice said.
Nasium called the capital city home for decades but was originally from Orange, Texas. A visitation and funeral will be held at Claybar Funeral Home in his hometown on Saturday. The visitation starts at noon and runs until 3 when the funeral starts.
Rice told WBRZ that there would be a memorial service planned for Jim Nasium in Baton Rouge at a later date.
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