BluePower To Present 50,000 Watts Of Pure Soul....WLAC Radio!
Back in the 1950s, when white teenagers were just beginning to discover that Pat Boone's version of "Ain't That A Shame" was not the original, a radio station in Nashville, Tennessee, was beeming rhythm and blues and gospel music to millions of young listeners, each discretely tuning his dial to 1510 on the AM dial late into the evening hours.
It was 10:00 pm in the East, bed time for many a schoolboy. But, if the weather was cooperative and the tuner sensitive enough, wonderful sounds soon began to issue forth. Not Perry Como, not the Chordettes, certainly not Pat Boone. No, here streaming directly into our bedrooms were the strange, new, and wonderful tones of Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Lowell Fulson, Lightning Hopkins, Muddy Waters, Little Junior Parker, The Spaniels, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howling Wolf, and Etta James.
Here was something special, something to be shared only with your very best friends, not with those jerks at school who didn't know about it and couldn't understand it if they did. Here was something that made you wish you could soundproof the door to your room or, perhaps, buy a pair of headphones, all to insure that listening bliss might continue into the wee hours when your mother assumed that you had long been asleep.
In 1962, I had the great pleasure of meeting the gentlemen to whom I had listened for years covertly, late at night, through my "pillow" speaker. If my step-father had only known.
As I pushed the button in the elevator to take me to the floor on which the WLAC jocks ran their controlled madness, I realized that I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Soon however, that nervousness was quelled by a man who would become a mentor to me in many ways....Mr. John Richbourg. Through John, I met all the great jocks who nightly played the best of rhythm and blues. Mr. Gene Nobles (though he no longer worked at WLAC), "Big" Hugh Baby and Bill "Hossman" Allen. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to meet Herman Grizzard.
I have been putting the pieces together for several years now and am finally in the position to put together several hours of history and comments as to how influential WLAC became to so many people in the music business; players, writers, performers and businessmen alike.
Hopefully, I will find the time this weekend to assemble the first in the series dedicated to those great pioneers in Blues and R&B. Without these men and the station which allowed them time to create the demand for James Brown, Otis Redding, Hand Ballard and The Midnighters and many other artists which today are taken for granted. Without WLAC and the few stations which played black music, the world would be a great deal poorer musically.
Stay Tuned!
John Rhys-Eddins
BluePower.com
* The first three paragraphs of this piece were so beautifully written I had to use them. Mr. Jim Lowe is responsible and you should certainly go to his site regarding the mighty WLAC Radio.
Click here to go to WLAC Radio.
posted by John Rhys at 7/26/2006 03:08:00 PM
2 Comments:
All the jocks at WLAC were my insiration as I got into RADIO in the early 60's. In fact many of my original RAPS (AND I WAS DOIN IT BEFORE IT WAS KNOWN AS A "RAP" I actually got my idea from NIPSY RUSSELL) I'd say "I'M JUST LIKE THEM OTHER GUYS "WHAT'S THEIR NAMES JIVIN DOWN HERE IN DIXIE The audience "KNEW". Man would I get the phone ringing for that.THE CALLERS WOULD SAY MAN YOU DIG JOHN "R" OR THE OLE JIVIN HOSSMAN BILL ALLEN OR GENE NOBLES OR HERMAN. I'd do that especially when I worked in the CAROLINA'S and TENN. or JACKSONVILLE. One of my biggest and best "raps" would be when I'd do a little bit of what BROTHER DAVE would say.(BROTHER DAVE GARDENER for you UN-INFORMED TYPES,WHO DON'T REALIZE THE EARTH IS A"SOUTHERN PLANET" Yeah Man,,GIMME THOSE WLAC NIGHTS WHEN I WAS 18-19-20 all over again. TODAYS HOMOGENIZED ROCK RADIO HAS NO "TOUCH" ONLY SOME MORNING SHOWS HAVE ANY FEELING,BUT SOME OF THEM ONLY KNOW HOW TO MAKE FUN OF THINGS OR OTHER PEOPLE. I GOT FIRED AT A STATION ONE TIME AND THE "PD" THOUGHT IT WAS CUTE TO TELL THE AUDIENCE THAT I'D GONE TO WLAC. I ONLY WISHED. "HELL" HE HIRED ME BACK AT HIS NEXT "GIG" IN COCOA BCH. FLA WE REMAIN FRIENDS TO THIS DAY. THEMOJOMAN DOT COM
I believe today's young people have been FM'D. What I mean by that is as they listen they have no idea of what's over the HORIZON.We listened to WLS KMOX WLAC WKBW WABC(if you could stand silly Cousin Brucie) etc etc. We kinda new the weather or something that was going on ouside our little world. Late at night in the 70's in the midwest you could get WOLFMAN JACK late at night FAR OFF in TIJUANA. FM stations are AOK as far as CLARITY & GOOD SOUND but 30 to 50 miles at the most. Some like Q105 in TAMPA with 100,000 watts get out a little farther. In fact I've been in PALM BEACH GARDENS on the East Coast of FLA. and heard Q105(OLDIES) ALL THE WAY ACROSS FLA.IN TAMPA ON THE WEST COAST. WE WINTER NEAR TAMPA. I've always had this WIN THE LOTTERY,WHAT WOULD YOU DO DREAM? I would "buy" or get me some SPONSORS and "DO" a couple hours on one of the BIGGIES just for the "HELL" of it.
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