Jim Dunbar is an American radio program director, talk show host

Talk radio

Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...

 and news anchor who helped boost the ratings of KGO (AM)

KGO (AM)

KGO is a news/talk-format radio station radio with offices and studios in San Francisco, California. Unlike most other American news/talk stations, KGO originates nearly all of its own programming locally. Since 1978, KGO radio has received Arbitron's number-one ranking in the Bay Area...

 into to the top five with its unique news/talk format. KGO has consistently scored in the top five since 1963 and has been #1 since 1978.

In addition to his radio work, he also hosted the popular A.M. San Francisco program on KGO-TV

KGO-TV

KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...

 (Channel 7) for many years, beginning in 1965. Dunbar is portrayed in the 2007 film Zodiac

Zodiac (film)

Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery-thriller film directed by David Fincher and based on Robert Graysmith's non-fiction book of the same name. The Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros...

in a scene where the Zodiac killer calls in to Dunbar's broadcast (with Dunbar hosting guest Melvin Belli

Melvin Belli

Melvin Mouron Belli was a prominent American lawyer known as "The King of Torts" and by detractors as 'Melvin Bellicose'. He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, Sirhan Sirhan, the Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha...

) in 1969.

Dunbar was a graduate of the Fordson High School

Fordson High School

Fordson High School is a secondary school located in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was completed in 1928 on a parcel of land which was then the village of Fordson, named for Henry Ford and his son Edsel Ford.-History:...

 class of 1947 in Dearborn, Michigan

Dearborn, Michigan

-Economy:Ford Motor Company has its world headquarters in Dearborn. In addition its Dearborn campus contains many research, testing, finance and some production facilities. Ford Land controls the numerous properties owned by Ford including sales and leasing to unrelated businesses such as the...

, and later worked as a rock DJ at WXYZ Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, WDSU

WDSU

WDSU, virtual channel 6, is the NBC-affiliated television station for the New Orleans, Louisiana television market. It is owned by Hearst Television, which in turn is wholly owned by the Hearst Corporation. It broadcasts on UHF digital channel 43...

 New Orleans, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 and WLS (AM)

WLS (AM)

WLS is a Chicago clear-channel AM station on 890 kHz. It uses C-QUAM AM stereo and transmits with 50,000 watts from transmitter and towers on the south edge of Tinley Park, Illinois....

 Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 before coming west to KGO in 1963. Dunbar worked at KGO for the next 37 years, retiring in 2000. He was elected to the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1999, and to the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame (Class 2006) in 2006 as a member of the first class to be inducted.