Vida Jane Butler

{{Short description|American radio pioneer}}

{{Redirect|Janie Joplin|the American singer-songwriter|Janis Joplin}}

Vida Jane Butler Joplin (1922–2007) was an American radio pioneer known on the air as Janie Joplin.{{cite news |work=NPR All Things Considered |title=Tenn. Radio Pioneer 'Janie Joplin' Has Died |date=2007-04-05 |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9396752 |accessdate=2008-05-08}} She was an announcer on WHER in Memphis, Tennessee, which went on the air on October 29, 1955.{{cite news |work=NPR All Things Considered |title=WHER -- 1000 Beautiful Watts |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3304084 |date=1999-10-29}} The station was billed as the "First All-Girl Radio Station".

Joplin was told her first name was considered too old-fashioned and too Southern for WHER, where she worked as an announcer and a copywriter. After WHER went off the air in the early 1970s, Butler used her talents in radio commercials for station WHBQ. She was nominated for a CLIO Award for this work.

Joplin would always sign off her show by saying, "Be good and you'll be happy!"

References