After 55 years on KBEW radio, the popular morning show called ‘Juba’s Jabber,’ aired for the last time on Friday, May 1.

“I moved to Blue Earth on Halloween of 1971,” Tom Juba says. “I came here because we had purchased the grocery store here and I was going to run it.”

Tom Juba was fresh out of the army. His father, Lambert “Buck” Juba, owned Juba’s Grocery in Pipestone which he had owned since 1945.

“My dad arranged for me to get an SBA loan to help purchase the store,” Tom Juba says. “Shortly after I started at the store, I started doing a radio commercial for Juba’s on KBEW.”

Tom says it started just as a three- or four-minute commercial, but it slowly morphed into a half hour show with the name of Juba’s Jabber. It was on from 8:15 to 8:45 each week day.

“Paul Hedberg was the owner of the station and he was always promoting local radio shows he could sell ads for,” Tom says. “When he was on with me he would ask me questions about local things, like basketball games or other community promotions.”

Tom says he can’t claim to have the idea originally.

“My dad, Buck, did the same thing back in the 1950s in Pipestone,” Tom explains. “It was a live commercial and it was not called Juba’s Jabber. I don’t think it had a name at all.”

Over the 55 years, Tom Juba thinks he remembers having talked to 18 different radio announcers over those many years.

He says he shouldn’t name his favorite one, but he does admit he really liked working with Norm Hall and Roy Haven before Norm. Haven’s wife was an employee at Juba’s.

“They both really knew the community,” Tom says. “And that really helps when you are trying to do a show about the town, the school and sports and other local things.”

Tom Juba was not the only person from Juba’s who did the show each weekday over the 55 years. His son, Tim, who now runs the store, has done it a lot.

“So did Jim Sabin, our retired produce manager, and Craig Christians, our retired meat manager. They could do it when called on and could do it well,” Tom says. “And of course Zach Schulz could do it real well; he worked at the store and radio station both.”

Tim Juba and Norm Hall had the Juba’s Jabber chore when it was time for them to be camping out in Juba’s parking lot for the You Can Make A Difference Campout each year.

Over the years there has been some crazy things that happened that kept the radio audience listening. And there were the giveaways and the announcements of birthdays, anniversaries and other events.

“We used to announce birthdays every day,” Tom says. “And if your birthday was announced you had until 9 a.m to call in first and get a free birthday cake. Later we went to just announcing them on Mondays and then we went to a gift certificate, instead of a birthday cake.”

At first it was for $10 each day, but then it went to $50 once a week.

Tom says he looks back at Juba’s Jabber with some fond memories.

At one time in the past there were Juba’s grocery stores in Blue Earth, Pipestone, Willmar, Shakope and Spicer. And, at every one of them there was a radio commercial in the morning each weekday, with the store manager on the air for a couple of minutes, Tom recalls.

“But Blue Earth was the only one that turned into a show, and the only one that was called “Juba’s Jabber.”

Tom says he looks back at Juba’s Jabber with some fond memories and that he will miss it.

So will a whole lot of folks in the Blue Earth area.