Dr. Jerry Nolan, one of the founders of Friends of Public Radio, died on November 3 after an extraordinary 99-year life. The community continues to mourn his passing.
In addition to his busy and distinguished medical career, Jerry was passionate about opera. WHQR was founded by Jerry and fellow opera buffs when in 1979 the weekly Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera Broadcast was cancelled by the local commercial station that carried it. Jerry wrote a seminal Letter to the Editor of the Wilmington Morning Star, inviting fellow opera lovers to join a new group called Friends of the Opera, to restore opera on the radio to Southeastern North Carolina.
Friends of the Opera became Friends of Public Radio, which in five years organized, built, licensed, and began operation of the public radio station named Wilmington's High Quality Radio. This year we're celebrating the 40th anniversary of Jerry's accomplishment.
In WHQR's early years, Jerry produced a series of programs for people who enjoyed listening to opera but didn't know too much about it. These sessions imparted his own love and knowledge of opera to WHQR listeners.
Jerry's short, intelligent but down-to-earth introductions to several of the programs in this series have been preserved from Jerry's own archives, and are presented here for Jerry's friends, fellow opera buffs, and lovers of early WHQR history.
These are recordings of recordings of recordings, so the sound fidelity is not remarkable. But Jerry's love for the subject and his humanity come shining through. Rest in peace, Jerry. Every single WHQR listener owes you big time.