Update Monday, March 24, 2025: A portion of Race Street, at Liberty Street, will be named “Jim Scott Way” at 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 25.
Scott, the 2024 Findlay Market Opening Day Parade honorary grand marshal and longtime parade supporter, died last June at age 81.
Gathering Tuesday for the ceremony at the intersection, which is the starting point for the annual Findlay Market parade, will be Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, members of the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade committee and Donna Hartman, Scott’s wife.
Scott was a local morning radio host for 46 years until his retirement in 2015, and an Opening Day parade participant for more than 50 years. His wife will walk in the Opening Day Parade Thursday with Marty and Amanda Brennaman with the Kid Glove Game group.
Original post: Monday, March 10, 2025: An honorary street naming for late radio personality Jim Scott is nice, but the new memorial bench at Findlay Market is the perfect way to honor him, says his widow, Donna Hartman.
“I’m really thrilled about the bench. It’s so Jim — making friends out of strangers,” Hartman says. Scott, who died last June at 81, was known for introducing himself to a stranger, and then asking the person to “tell me about you.”
Having a place for people “just to sit down and talk to somebody, that’s so Jim,” she says.
Scott was spokesman for the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade after retiring as WLW-AM’s morning host in 2015, ending his 46-year broadcasting career. He often said his favorite day of the year was Opening Day and being in the Findlay Market parade. For years he broadcast his WLW-AM show on a billboard atop Caddy’s, overlooking Fort Washington Way, a few blocks east of old Riverfront Stadium.
“He came to Cincinnati in March 1968 for WSAI-AM, and one of the first things he did was walked in the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade, and I think that was when he fell in love with Cincinnati. He walked in the parade over 50 years,” Hartman says.
Neil Luken, parade chairman and Findlay Market merchant, said the bench will have an inscription honoring Scott, "who never met a stranger and always had a kind word for everybody.” He made the comment at the media conference Friday when the Cincinnati Reds announced that Reds Hall of Famer Chris Sabo would be grand marshal of this year’s parade on March 27.
Luken also said Friday that a “Jim Scott Way” ceremonial designation will be added to Race Street at Liberty Street, where the parade starts annually. The unveiling is tentatively set for March 25, the Tuesday before Opening Day.
“He was such a special person,” Luken said. “If you ever met him once, he was a friend of yours forever.”
Scott was the parade’s honorary grand marshal last year. But, for the first time, Scott rode in the parade because of his advanced stage of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) a nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease).
“He could barely hold his head up, and only his right forearm and hand still worked, so he waved to people, tipped his hat and held a Grippo’s (Potato Chips) bag. It was a grand day for Jim,” Hartman says. Scott always carried a Grippo’s bag in his hip pocket for good luck.
Luken thanked last year’s parade-goers for the enthusiastic reception Scott received.
“I wanted to give him that special thing. And I have to say, Cincinnati, without a doubt, came through and made Jim Scott feel like he was the luckiest man in the world that day,” Luken said. “That was one of the best moments of my life.”
When Scott died June 28, Hartman said she had no immediate plans for a memorial service because “Jim was so fortunate to have the greatest celebration of life on March 28 when he was honorary grand marshal of the Findlay Market Parade.
"The outpouring of love for Jim that day... It’s beyond words and filled our hearts with such happiness,” Donna wrote on Facebook.
A Jim Scott tribute concert will be held at Mount St. Joseph University on June 28, the anniversary of Scott’s death. It will benefit the University of Cincinnati’s Gardner Neuroscience Institute. More details will be announced in May.
“I honestly don't know anyone who loved Opening Day as much as Jim Scott,” says Mo Egger, WCKY-AM sports talk host and former producer of Scott’s WLW-AM show who took Scott’s place as MC of the Findlay Market parade media press conference Friday.
“No matter where he was broadcasting from in the morning, there was nothing keeping him from being a part of the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade, and he remained a fixture of the parade after his retirement and into last year despite living with ALS.
“There are radio personalities and there are true champions and advocates for a city, and while for my money Jim is the greatest radio personality in our town's history, he was an even bigger proponent of Cincinnati," Egger says. "Few public figures have ever had Jim's reach or his impact.”
