When Kira Sparks shared the news of her grandfather’s death on Facebook, she wrote about how his mornings began.
“He woke up every morning for the radio at 4 am,” she wrote.
Her grandfather was Jimmy Carter, the longtime Nashville entertainment reporter and broadcaster. He died peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 73, two days before his 74th birthday.
WSM Radio announced his death the same day in a tribute posted on Facebook. WSM is the station that has carried the Grand Ole Opry since 1925, and it counted him as one of its own.
“Today, we lost a dear friend and a cherished member of the WSM family,” the station wrote.
The post said the station would miss his warmth, his humor and his friendship. His family has not publicly disclosed a cause of death, and funeral arrangements had not been announced as of Wednesday morning.
Jimmy Carter Started in Radio at 15 and Spent More Than Five Decades Covering the Stars
Carter grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, and took an interest in radio young. In 1968, when he was 15, he started on-the-job training at a Montgomery rock station. He went on to Auburn University, where he helped name and build WEGL-FM, and his paid career began when it signed on April 25, 1971.
He was still counting from that day in 2020, when he called it his 49th paid year in broadcasting.
Nashville came to know him on television. He spent 21 years at WSMV Channel 4 in two stints, six years in the 1980s and 15 more from 2003 through 2018, covering red carpets, award shows and Music Row events. He was a correspondent for years on the nationally syndicated Crook & Chase, and he contributed to WSM for many years, including its show Coffee, Country & Cody.
The station said he brought his passion for country music, unforgettable stories and deep industry connections to that show.
His interviews ranged from Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson to Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone and Kevin Costner. His work earned duPont-Columbia and Edward R. Murrow honors, according to WSMV, and Carter’s own list of career highlights included an Emmy for public service television work.
Rudy Kalis, his longtime WSMV colleague, told The Tennessean what set him apart.
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“I absolutely admired Jimmy Carter because he wasn’t intimidated by anyone, and yet he was able to endear himself to any of the biggest stars. But beyond that, he was a good, caring friend and a wonderful father and grandfather.”
Demetria Kalodimos, who anchored at WSMV for years, wrote on Facebook that he was a great journalist and a natural broadcaster long before he carved out his entertainment beat in Music City and beyond.
On his website, Carter kept a list of his own career highlights. His first celebrity interview was Bob Hope, and he met Elvis Presley twice, took a bath at Graceland and sang on stage with Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits.
When his WSMV run ended in 2018, he kept broadcasting on his own. By February 2020, he had more than 41,000 Facebook followers, where he shared Nashville news, along with nearly 22,000 YouTube subscribers and over 17.6 million views on his channel, and he was teaching in Belmont University’s Mike Curb School of Music Business.
His Granddaughter Remembered a Man Who Would Drop Everything for His Family
In her announcement, Sparks wrote that he leaves behind three daughters who loved him deeply, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
She described someone who would drop everything on a dime to be there for his family. “He didn’t care about the cost of happiness. He didn’t worry about the work. He just loved seeing his family happy,” she wrote.
She also shared the advice he gave them.
“He hated seeing any of us cry and always said that the worst thing you can do is focus on what makes you sad,” she wrote.
It is the kind of advice a family keeps.
Jimmy Carter met Elvis Presley twice, interviewed Dolly Parton and spent more than five decades telling Nashville about the stars who made its music. He leaves behind three daughters, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and, as his granddaughter remembered it, he always said the worst thing you can do is focus on what makes you sad.
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