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Former Tampa TV, Radio Showman Had 'Interesting Life'

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 6, 2008

TAMPA - John Eastman, a former Tampa radio and TV personality who successfully sued two tobacco companies for contributing to his nicotine addiction, died Sunday at age 79.

Eastman, who had a popular radio show on WDAE in the 1970s and a morning talk show on WTSP, Channel 10, in the 1980s, suffered from chronic emphysema.

In 2005, he collected more than $3.2 million from Philip Morris USA and the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. It was the first time that Philip Morris, the world's largest cigarette maker, paid a judgment in an individual case.

Eastman, once known as "The Dean of Tampa Bay Talk Radio," died in his sleep, said his son John Eastman Jr.

"His last few years were comfortable," Eastman said, "He was living in Temple Terrace, and he was living on his own terms. He didn't want to be at anyone's mercy, and he passed the way that he wanted, without pain."

Eastman also is survived by son Michael Eastman, a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy. Eastman Jr. does voiceover work.

Eastman was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in August 1928. He once told the Tribune that he started smoking at age 12.

He started his broadcast career in the early 1950s as an announcer at a Sioux City, Iowa, radio station. He worked at radio stations in Cedar Rapids; Jacksonville; Mobile, Ala.; Los Angeles; and Pittsburgh.

By the 1960s he was in Miami, where he worked at WIOD, WAME and WINZ (with CNN's Larry King).

He came to Tampa in 1977, and his "Talk of the Town" radio show about local issues and personalities was a hit for two years on WDAE. He then went to WPLP radio, and in 1980 he began hosting "The John Eastman Show," which ran on WTSP, Channel 10, for four years.

In the 1960s, he co-wrote a script for the TV series "The Fugitive," and in the 1970s, he wrote and produced a low-budget film "Rooster," about cockfighting.

"He was always writing a book or a screenplay," his son said. "He had wanted to write a book about his smoking and the lawsuits, but he didn't have the energy."

Eastman also served as the host of an annual March of Dimes telethon that was broadcast locally.

He had five ex-wives; one also is an ex-wife of King.

His career ended in 1990 after he was diagnosed with emphysema, which robbed him of his voice.

In 1997, he filed suit against Philip Morris USA and Brown & Williamson. By the time a jury ruled in his favor in 2003, he said he was living on Social Security and a small military pension. The appeal process took two more years, during which Eastman told the Tribune that he probably wouldn't live to collect it.

"I am a dead man walking," he said.

"But he did live to collect, and he lived a full and interesting life," Eastman Jr. said.

Eastman Jr. said there are no plans for a public funeral.

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at wbelcher@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7654.

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