Big John Trimble started in radio at the ripe old age of fourteen, in his hometown of Paintsville, Kentucky. From those humble beginnings at 250-watt AM Station WSIP, he has built a career that has culminated with being a member
of  the Country Music D.J  Hall of fame in Nashville and a member of the Country Music Highway Hall of fame and Museum in Kentucky. 

He has also been nominated the past two years as the Radio Personality of the Year at the Golden Voice Awards in Nashville.

Long before he was Big John, he was called 'Jolly' John Trimble, and he played original Rock 'n' Roll and Rockabilly music—including the likes of artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, The Platters, Carl Perkins, Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis.

After completing high school, Big John moved on to WTIP Radio in Charleston, West Virginia, where he broadcast from the original Shoney's Drive Inn six nights a week. From there, he went first to WDOC in Prestonburg, Kentucky, and then into the United States Army, where he was sent to Ft. Lewis, Washington, to work with the Little Theatre and the Ft. Lewis Entertainment team.

Private Trimble became the camp Emcee, handling a variety of live music shows and eventually became a stand-up comedian. Private John performed on shows at service bases up and down the West Coast and eventually throughout Germany. In 1962, he joined the Sixth Army Entertainment Team based in San Francisco and in 1963 took third place in the All Army Entertainment contest held at Fort Lee, Virginia.

While in the Army, Private John performed on many local and regional television shows with performers like Clint Eastwood, Walter Brennan and Dionne Warwick. After leaving the service, Big John moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he worked for KMYO Radio. A short time later, he became the Program Director and Afternoon DJ of a brand-new, full-time Country Music station, KBBA. This was the first time Big John was directly involved with the Country Music scene. Two years later, he was the Program Director and Afternoon DJ for the world's first full-time Country Music FM Station, WVHI in Evansville, Indiana.

While John was there, he started his own live Country Music show, The Country Castle Show, which aired each Friday night on WVHI. This show operated much the same as Big John Trimble's East Coast Opry in that it featured a local and regional cast and brought in artists from Nashville. A year later, Big John moved to station KMO in Seattle / Tacoma, where he was once again the Music Director and Afternoon DJ. John also owned and operated a talent and promotions business, booking most of Nashville's top acts.

In 1972, Big John started an overnight trucker's show, the first like it on the West Coast. His voice and music played everywhere from Alaska to California and all points in between. Two years later, he moved to 50,000-watt station KGA in Spokane. Now he was heard throughout the west and into parts of Canada he had never reached before.

Big John became a top name in Trucker's Radio and was offered a job with KWKH, another 50,000-watt station in Shreveport, Louisiana. For three years, Big John broadcast from Kelly's Truck Stop near Shreveport on the Texas border.

One night, Walt Williams, the program director for WRVA in Richmond, Virginia, dropped in and offered him a job. Several months later, Big John started broadcasting from Jarrell's Truck Stop in Doswell, Virginia. The show ran for eighteen years and made Big John into a national radio personality. He was named the nation's favorite Country DJ in a nationwide poll of truckers conducted by Open Road Magazine. Big John won the award the last two years of the contest. The only other person to ever win the award was Charlie Douglas of WLW Radio in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Other honors include being a finalist in the 1981 Country Music Association Country DJ of the Year and winning the Country Radio Program Director of the Year Award. Big John has appeared on many national television shows, including The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Morning Show, The Last Word, Salute to Fifty States—and many others.

Big John has also appeared on television in Austria, Canada, and on BBC radio in London. He has been featured on the front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times and many other national and regional publications, including People Magazine.

John has recorded three comedy albums and played himself in the Canadian Trucker movie, Behind the Scene. He also appeared in the made-for-cable movie, The Day Lincoln Was Shot.

While at WRVA, Big John and his wife Jean owned and operated a Grand Ole Opry-style show in his hometown of Paintsville, KY, Main Street America National Broadcast. The program was heard in thirty-eight states and Canada.

In May 2005, Big John was awarded the Life Time Achevement Award by the Richmond Broadcasters Association.