Tom “the Jazzman” Mallison, a veteran broadcaster and highly regarded, active member of the JJA among other professional organizations, reportedly died in a car crash near Vanceburg, NC,
upon returning from his weekly five-hour broadcast on WTEB Sunday night, Sept. 6. Mallison was 75 years old. A memorial service in his honor was scheduled to be streamed live from the First Presbyterian Church, Greenville, NC Thursday, September 10, at three pm Eastern time.
A sociable and knowledgable voice for jazz across eras and subgenres, Mallison was a lifelong resident of Greenville, NC, whose career in radio spanned 40 years. He was a frequent attendee at conferences, conventions and festivals, offering practical advice, engaging with ideas and proposals and absorbing new anecdotes that informed his program, “An Evening with Tom Mallison,” begun on WTEB in 1984.
Kallison was an easily accessible man, fearlessly taking calls from listeners while in the studio, on air. At the time of his death — written up as a head-on collision with a car that had drifted into his lane at approximately 11:30 pm — Mallison had just been heard on all five frequencies of Public Radio East, as per his regular outreach. Tributes are being posted especially at JazzWeek’s Google group the JazzProgrammersList.
