[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 8, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1310-S1311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JUDY JARVIS

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr President, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
woman who has sent her reasoned voice across the radio airwaves of 
America. A strong willed and strong minded woman who is not only a 
friend, but I'm fortunate to say is also a constituent, Judy Jarvis. 
Yesterday, this great radio talk show host, Judy Jarvis, my friend, 
lost her battle with cancer.
  She fought hard to the bitter end. She fought by informing her 
audience, by not keeping them in the dark about the cancer that was 
invading her body. She shared her fears, her hopes and her dreams with 
her weekday broadcasts and in interviews when the table was turned and 
she became the subject of the interview. Mr President I would like to 
submit two articles for the Record about her battle with cancer. A June 
1999 article from Talkers Magazine and a November 29, 1999 article from 
People Magazine. Her listeners became an extended family, and when she 
wasn't well enough to continue broadcasting the entire show everyday, 
they warmly welcomed her cohost, her son, Jason Jarvis. As the only 
nationally syndicated Mother/Son radio team in America, Judy and Jason 
were a great team. They enjoyed each other's company and brought a 
wonderful mixture of generations and views to their show.
  Judy Jarvis will be missed by those of us in this chamber who embrace 
talk radio, by all of us, Democrats and Republicans who have been 
privileged to be regular guests on her show. She was a woman of 
intellect and humor, a broadcaster who did her own research and never 
went for the cheap shot. She was opinionated and provocative, but never 
nasty. Judy dug deep for the questions that would generate answers to 
best inform her audience. Judy Jarvis earned a special place in the 
history of talk radio and left us with a strong human legacy--her 
husband, Wal, her sons Jason and Clayton and her granddaughter 
Alexandra.
  I wouldn't be surprised if Judy has not already set up interviews, up 
there in Heaven. Her audience now is global and out of this world. Judy 
Jarvis, you will be missed by those of us fortunate and blessed enough 
to call you friend.
  Mr. President, I ask that articles from Talkers magazine and from 
People magazine be printed in the Record.
  The articles follows:

                [From Talkers Magazine, June/July 1999]

                    Judy Jarvis--Profile in Courage

                         (By Michael Harrison)

       Hartford.--Everything was rolling along just fine for 
     nationally syndicated talk show host Judy Jarvis. Her 
     independently produced and syndicated midday talk show which 
     has been on the air since April of 1993 had recently achieved 
     what she describes as a ``second tier breakthrough'' and was 
     solidly implanted on more than 50 highly respectable 
     affiliates across America. The longstanding live hours of 
     noon to 3 pm ET had just been expanded an extra couple of 
     hours per day to re-feed several prestigious new stations 
     picking up the show. Judy was appearing as a regular guest on 
     the cable TV news talk channels and her commentaries were 
     being published in important daily newspapers. She was again 
     on the annual TALKERS magazine heavy hundred list for the 
     fifth year in a row and generally admired throughout the 
     industry as a talented talk show host on the rise. Plus, on 
     the business side of things she had attained recognition and 
     respect as the head of a successful, family-run radio network 
     operation complete with a in-house staff of nine and the 
     beneficiary of professional sales and affiliate 
     representation from one of New York's finest national firms, 
     WinStar.
       The show had even built its own state-of-the-art two-room 
     studio in Farmington Connecticut at the well-known 
     Connecticut School of Broadcasting.
       Yes, things was going great guns until this past Fall of 
     1998--shortly after the NAB Radio Show in Seattle--when upon 
     feeling unusually fatigued and having developed a cough that 
     would not go away; Judy Jarvis checked into Beth Israel 
     hospital in Boston

[[Page S1311]]

     and didn't check out for six weeks. Tests indicated that Judy 
     had developed lung cancer . . . a particularly vicious type 
     that had already impacted her blood and was causing clotting 
     problems.
       ``It was absolutely a shock,'' Judy tells TALKERS magazine. 
     ``It was like being the victim of a drive-by shooting.''
       Judy has never even been a smoker and, until this 
     terrifying revelation, had enjoyed very good health.
       ``I was a moose!'' she says, with the good humor that 
     typifies her positive approach to the great challenge that 
     had fallen upon her shoulders.
       Instantly committed to beating the disease, she was also 
     determined to preserve the radio show that she and her family 
     had worked so long and hard to build. As it is turning out, 
     the family connection plays a key role in the rescue of the 
     Judy Jarvis Show and Hartford-based Jarvis Productions.
       Five years ago, her son, Jason, then 25, left his job at 
     the Washington, DC political journal Hotline and became his 
     mom's producer. He quickly developed a favorable reputation 
     within the business as both an excellent behind the scenes 
     broadcaster and an extremely personable individual. Her 
     husband, Wal Jarvis--a successful businessman outside the 
     radio industry--also serves on the company's executive board 
     to which he brings his considerable experience and expertise. 
     Judy simply describes Wal and the way he has supported her 
     career and now her personal trial as ``the best ever!''
       So when disaster struck . . . as an immediate stop-gap 
     measure, ``We ran tape for a few weeks to keep the show on 
     the air,'' Judy recounts. ``That worked well for a while,'' 
     she says, but with her initial stay in the hospital and 
     newly-diagnosed illness extending beyond the program's 
     ability to keep playing reruns and maintain a viable network, 
     her son Jason--who had never been a radio personality--
     stepped up to the microphone and went on the air. He told the 
     audience about his mother's situation and began to do a radio 
     talk show.
       His natural ability and honesty were enough to hold the 
     fort for another couple of months while Judy began an 
     aggressive round of treatments to begin fighting the disease.
       The affiliates were individually informed of the plight by 
     WinStar reps backed up by Jarvis Productions in-house 
     business manager Deb Shillo. Just about all the affiliates 
     were extremely cooperative . . . especially since Jason 
     Jarvis turned out to be a surprisingly talented talker, 
     enhanced, of course, by the extremely dramatic circumstances 
     in which he was immersed. American talk radio was not about 
     to abandon this sturdy ship caught in a storm.
       When discussing Jason's pinch-hitting effort, Judy tries to 
     hold back the tears. ``He never wanted to do this,'' she says 
     in a burst of emotion that shakes the calm restraint that had 
     marked the conversation to this point.
       ``It was an amazing act of courage and love. He wanted to 
     save it (the show) in case I would get better.''
       Judy Jarvis' form of lung cancer hits 20,000 people per 
     year and kills more women than breast cancer. But she 
     optimistically points out that modern medicine has come a 
     long way and ``it is not quite as grim as it might have 
     been'' had this happened several years ago.
       Judy completed the first round of treatments and returned 
     to the show on January 4, 1999 with nearly 100% of her 
     affiliates (and listeners) intact, waiting for her return. 
     However, now, it had become a two-person show. Jason earned 
     himself a place on the program as co-host and a unique 
     mother-son talk team modestly emerged on the talk radio 
     airwaves of America, largely unheralded by the media at large 
     and void of the hype that usually marks the beginning of 
     something that can lay claim to being a first.
       But the challenges facing Judy Jarvis and her family were 
     far from over. As the Winter of 1999 wore on, so did the pain 
     in Judy's left leg, due to circulation complications arising 
     from the illness. The bleak diagnosis indicated an 
     irreversible condition in which the only remedy was 
     amputation. In March, Judy Jarvis' left leg was removed below 
     the knee.
       More treatment, more recovery, more courage . . . and 
     finally back to work, on the air again with Jason.
       After a period of several weeks in a wheelchair, Judy has 
     been successfully outfitted with a prosthesis and now is able 
     to walk again. She has risen to the challenge with the same 
     positive attitude that she brings to the air. Life is tough 
     enough in the competitive world of day-to-day syndicated talk 
     radio. Judy now does it while going through the discomfort of 
     chemotherapy and adjusting to the trauma of losing a limb.
       ``The work is conducive to my recovery,'' she says, ``it 
     helps me focus on something positive.'' And the program 
     remains positive. Although Judy's situation has been 
     presented quite honestly to the audience, adding an increased 
     dramatic dimension to the culture of the show, the Judy 
     Jarvis Show remains upbeat and issues-oriented. It continues 
     to reflect the niche she has carved out on the talk radio 
     landscape as a fiercely independent moderate who covers the 
     big political issues, but also talks about day-to-day life 
     and the endless controversies, crisis, joys and sorrows that 
     make up real life for real human beings. Her credentials 
     speak for themselves and give her immense credibility to 
     really communicate with her listeners.
       In terms of her status in the talk radio industry: She is a 
     giant of strength, will and talent. Staying on the air and 
     running her company as effectively and as dedicatedly as she 
     has done under the conditions she has faced is the kind of 
     inspirational heroism that brings out the best in talk radio 
     as both a business and a cultural phenomenon.
       Judy Jarvis can be reached via Deb Shillo at Jarvis 
     Productions, 860-242-7276.
                                  ____


                      [From People, Nov. 29, 1999]

                              Life Support


cancer-stricken, talk radio's judy jarvis sees the show she loves kept 
                  alive as son jason steps to the mike

       The topic today on The Judy Jarvis Show, out of Farmington, 
     Conn., is overprotective parents. Jarvis listens as her son 
     Jason ranges through a serious of examples in the news, then 
     talks herself about a town that removed see-saws from its 
     playgrounds because children were jumping off and sending 
     kids on the other end crashing down. ``I don't understand 
     it,'' says Jarvis. ``In schools they won't give kids failing 
     grades; they won't let them play sports where the scores are 
     too unbalanced. I learn everything I know from failure! 
     Should parents be there all the time to make sure nothing bad 
     happens?''
       Obviously she things not. It is also clear from the way the 
     phones light up that the 54-year-old national-radio talk show 
     host is still, in her words, the same ``independent-minded 
     broad'' she has always been. Thankfully, Jarvis is back--back 
     on the air and, more important, back from cancer. It's not 
     that she has been cured. One of 22,000 people stricken with 
     the disease each year without ever having smoked, she still 
     suffers from lung cancer. But for now she seems as feisty as 
     ever. ``You know when everybody tells you to `live in the 
     moment'?'' asks Jarvis.
       ``I pretty much have done that my whole life. And now we'll 
     just deal with whatever comes.''
       The possibility of relapse notwithstanding, this moment is 
     a good one for Jarvis. The show, broadcast by about 50 
     stations from Boston to Seattle, is thriving. Plus, she gets 
     to work with her older son Jason. In fact, she has Jason to 
     thank for her show's very survival. At the beginning of 
     Jarvis's illness, stations stood behind her, broadcasting 
     reruns of her show in the hope she would return. But after 
     six weeks they were worried. That's when Jason, 30, moved 
     behind the mike and saved the day. ``It was either we give up 
     or I step in,'' says Jason, who had been his mother's 
     producer.
       At first, Jason merely meant to bridge the gap until Judy's 
     return. But the two worked so well together that Jason stayed 
     on as cohost, and they have become the only mother-son team 
     with a nationally syndicated radio show. Jason's new role 
     ``makes it more of a warm, supportive atmosphere,'' says 
     Tracy Marin, operations manager at affiliate KHTL in 
     Albuquerque. ``She was kind of hard-edged before. I think it 
     makes it a lot softer.''
       It was in October 1998, at a meeting of the National 
     Association of Broadcasters in Seattle, that Jarvis first 
     experienced shortness of breath and a nasty little cough. She 
     didn't pay much attention because she was far more concerned 
     with the convention, which she saw as a stepping-stone toward 
     her goal of becoming a recognized name like Imus or Limbaugh. 
     In spite of her fatigue, Jarvis broadcast live each day from 
     Seattle, waking at 4 a.m. to go through the papers for 
     discussion topics. ``By the end of the trip I thought I had a 
     bug of some sort,'' she says. ``I felt just awful.'' Her 
     husband, Wal, 54, who heads a company that makes parts for 
     the aerospace and surgical industries, assumed that the trip 
     had simply exhausted her.
       But back in Connecticut a few days later, Jarvis became 
     short of breath and nearly collapsed in the studio parking 
     lot. Wal drove her to her Boston internist, who, he says, 
     ``did a chest X-ray and didn't like the way it looked.'' 
     Further testing showed fluid in her chest, and on Nov. 5 she 
     was admitted to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. There a 
     lung biopsy revealed cancer.

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