Episode Details

Wendy Corr:

Well, hey there folks, welcome to The Roundup. We are a podcast that focuses on really interesting people from the cowboy state or who live in the cowboy state, who are attached to the cowboy state. This guy is all three.

This guy that we're going to talk to today has made the rounds in the tourism industry. He's currently working for Cheyenne Frontier Days, and has so many stories to tell, about music, about people, about places here in Wyoming.

This is Jim Wilkinson, and if you haven't met Jim, which I'd be surprised if there are people in the state that haven't met him, because Jim has made himself known around the state. So I want to welcome Jim Wilkinson to The Roundup. Hello, Jim! We have known each other for a while, right?

Jim Wilkinson:

Yeah, we have. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. I hope I'm as interesting as you, as you, as you say, I am. I looked at some of these other guys, and they do some pretty cool things. But I thought, well, hopefully I'm interesting enough for your audience to find it interesting.

Wendy Corr:

You know, for me, Jim, you have such you've touched so many people in your journey around the state, whether it's in the tourism industry, whether it's in advertising, whether it's in music, because you're a musician as well, and you make your way around the state playing music and and you've got a radio background.

So I want to kind of dive into this, but first, there's not a whole lot of people that we talk to, Jim, who started out life in Rock Springs, Wyoming, but that's where you are from. Tell us about growing up in Rock Springs and how that launched you into the rest of your career?

Jim Wilkinson:

Yeah, my mom and dad, you know, they, they got there, like in the 1940s and stuff. So they were, they were true Rock Springs, family on the, on the, you know, on the bitter Creek there. And so I was, I was born in 63 there, so in the early 60s, and I lived there, you know, my whole life I and I graduated from Rock Springs High School in 1981.

But I was really proud to be from Rock Springs. You know, it was a hard working community. It was a really kind of a small town when I was born there. And I've always said, you know, Rock Springs, when you tell people you're from Rock Springs, or you're from Gillette, the first thing they say is, I'm sorry. It's like, Don't be sorry. Don't be sorry, because the view looking from the inside out is a lot better than the view from the outside looking in, you know.

And I'm very proud to be from Rock Springs Wyoming, in Sweetwater County. I love it there. And so I love growing up in Rock Springs. And then after that, you know, I went to University of Wyoming, and then, and then life started to happen.

Wendy Corr:

And life started to happen. And you have, you, you embarked on a career. You started out. Did you start out in radio? Jim,

Jim Wilkinson:

I, you know, I delved in radio a little bit when I was in high school, a little bit. But actually I delved in, I was in theater, and it's kind of a weird background, but I was a theater major in the University of Wyoming, I got us, I got a scholarship at the University of Wyoming and and I studied theater, and I loved acting and singing and things

Wendy Corr:

That explains a lot about you, and that really does Yes, coming from a fellow theater major, that explains a lot. There you go

Jim Wilkinson:

in speech and debate, you know. And I think you know, you if you can teach kids to communicate, they can do