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Jim West
During his high school years, Illinois native Jim West was president of the student body at New Port Richey’s Gulf High School and began his radio career in 1966 as an announcer for WGUL. After graduation in 1968, he returned to his native state to attend Wheaton College and worked as a staff announcer at the college station. The following year he returned to Tampa Bay and enrolled at Trinity College in Dunedin.
Jim received his B.A. in history/religion/psychology at Palm Beach Atlantic College in West Palm Beach and his M.Div. in theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1977, he joined the news staff of Tampa’s WTVT Channel 13 as a reporter/anchor. By 1983, he had moved up to news operations coordinator and then news director in 1984. After 12 years in the Channel 13 newsroom, he left in 1989 and formed West & Associates, a communications/news consulting firm and video/television producer.
The 90’s were busy years for Jim. He was president of The Christian Network and co-founder (with Bud Paxson) of The Worship Network (1991-1993). He assisted in the startup of Dominion Sky Angel DBS and a second network, Praise TV (1993-1997), and was founder and president of The Open Christian University Network, The Didache Network, and FaithTV (1997-2001).
In 2001, Jim became president of FaithTV, a national faith and family programming network seen in 15-million households through some 50 broadcast affiliates, a growing number of IPTV outlets and nationwide on the Sky Angel DBS platform. He has won numerous awards over the years, including Tampa Toastmasters’ “Communicator of the Year” in 1984, the Fulton J. Sheen “Angel” Award (Wednesday’s Child) in 1985, and Regional RTNDA Continuing Coverage awards in 1986 for Hurricane Elena and the Challenger explosion.
Station History
1966 - 1968 Other Tampa Bay Area Stations (News)
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