DJ Dopey Duncan

 

Born in 1920, Luther W. Gehringer was better known as “Dopey Duncan.” His career spanned four decades as a Pennsylvania radio personality, musician, comedian and entertainer. I discovered him through a 90-minute cassette I found in a box of mixed used tapes. It was marked "WXKW Dopey Duncan with the date 5-27-1990" on the front. I quickly learned that this program aired only a few weeks after his death. [SOURCE] There isn't a single word online about this program. My copy may be the only one, or the only copy left. My theory is that it may have belonged to one of those folks in that studio 35 years ago, probably now deceased. 

I have digitized and uploaded that digital audio HERE. 

From the library of Jose Fritz

At the time of the recording, 1470 WXKW-AM was part of the HGF Media Group which included: WLSH-AM, Lansford; WMIM-AM, Mt. Carmel; WKHL-AM, Salladasburg; WSPI-AM, Shamokin;  WMGH-AM, Tamaqua; and WXKY-AM/WQXA-FM, York. The radio program was a special, but the host said that the Country Hall of Fame show was ongoing, weekly. The host introduced himself as "Old Cactus Ed" and in the studio with him were friends of Dopey Duncan: Les Baer, Paul Galgon, and Ken Happel. He goes on to include  station management like  Chris Collier, PD, Harold G. Fulmer III the station owner, Bob "Monk" Rabenold GM, and Rick Musselman GM of the HGF Media group who suggested they put the special together.  

The tape label further lists the names Ed Baumer and Sammy Anderson. Edwin G. Baumer did mid-days at WXKW through at least 2007 closing out a 35 year radio career. Ed was best known as “Cactus Ed” on WXKW. He also worked at WZZO, WKAP, WEEU, WRFY, WHUM, WGPA, WSAN, and WHOL. Likewise, Sammy Anderson was both staff and a guest, he was their station manager back in the 1970s. He knew Duncan personally and in 1992 the Morning Call newspaper stated that they were both "part of the golden era" of WKAP. Sammy started out as a newscaster in Erie and Lancaster, and then moved to radio starting at WNAR in Norristown. Over 5 decades he worked at WSAN, WAEB, WEZV, WKAP and WXKW. Sammy the station manager when WXKW changed to a country format in 1977 when the station was still owned by Rust Communications. Famously from 1998-2000, Sammy was host of “The Sinatra Hours” on WKAP. At one point Sammy also had an afternoon call-in show there called “What’s on Your Mind?”

A little disambiguation: The station we now call WSAN, and was WXKW in 1990 was WKAP from 1995–2006. This gets confusing in this story because the "original" WKAP we will discuss here was 1320 AM, also in Allentown, PA. Today it's 1320 WTKZ-AM, but the station signed on in 1947 a 1,000 watt daytimer on 1580. It held the WKAP calls from 1947–1994 and is the station these people mean when they speak of WKAP. When Les Baer talks about doing mornings with Duncan for 18 years, he's describing 1954 - 1972 at that station. A 1958 issue of Broadcast cites their program as Hooper Rating as #1 in the market. In the mid fifties Paul Galgon did an afternoon show together called the Cross Roads store. That lasted 3-4 years. Gehringer ultimately spent about 24 years on WKAP. It may feel incongruous but in the 1950s WKAP was an MOR station which in 1972, flipped to Adult Contemporary.

Gehringer was born and raised in Allentown, PA and according to his obituary, Duncan's singing career began in 1941. One blog claimed that he performed on WSAN Barn Dance in 1939. I can't corroborate that claim, or even the existence of that show, but he would have been 19 years old. In character he wore a recognizable costume: a checkered suit, big goofy hat, string bow tie and trademark oversized yellow shoes. His obituary describes his live weekly broadcasts from a ranch mock up in Dorney Park's Castle Gardens in South Whitehall Township. He took stage dunking an oversized doughnut in an oversized cup; a vaudevillian trope. It's not said in most bios but Duncan served in WWII in the U.S. Army's 124th Horse Cavalry in Burma. That was probably 1942 - 1945. Merrill's Marauders started their activity in 1943. They were so effective that all the soldiers of Merrill's Marauders were each awarded the Bronze Star. There is something important here to be said about his psychology but I'm not qualified to say it.

Despite the 1941 start date, the earliest print references to Dopey Duncan appear in 1945 after his return from WWII.  In May of that year The Chronicle newspaper describes him as a "Show Clown" performing alongside the Ozark Mountaineers. Another account has him as the stage comic for Willis Meyers, that's probably Willis's his Bar X Ranch Boys 1947-ish. Meyers also performed with "His Swing Band" in the 1940s. (That'd be Western Swing of course.)

By 1947 Gehringer was his own headliner performing with a band as Dopey Duncan and the Top Hands. Thought one ad in 1947 instead refers to Dopey Duncan and "His Gang." These may not have been very formal groups as later that month he performed with "his Melody Rangers." In those ads he played dinner events, Outdoor markets and carnivals every month. By 1948 the group name seems to have settled on Top Hands. His first known appearance in a trade magazine was in Cash Box in February of 1952. In a March of Dimes Radio event Dopey Duncan is listed from WKAP. [SOURCE]

"From 9:00 P.M. to the early hours of the morning, deejays alternated on stage with their turntables, spinning disks to the joy of over 2,000 dancers. In sequence, the following jockeys appeared: Paul Galgon, WKAP; Syd Paul, WHOL; Clem Walters, WAEB; Dopey Duncan, WKAP; Marshall Cleaver, WKAP; Ted Weider, WHOL; Art Getz, WSAN; Betty Lou George and Vern Craig,- WKAP; and Tom Early and Joe Prentiss, WAEB. For a two-hour period, three of the. Allentown stations carried the d.j. proceedings direct from the ballroom."

The tape opens with some oldies. The first song on the tape is "Riding Down to Santa Fe" and dates to 1946, sourced from a transcription. Les Baer gives the band members as Dick Layton, Kenny Happel, Norm Arlen, Art Martin, Ralph "Spoony" Spohn. I think Spoony is the same fellow who played fiddle for Uncle Jack & Mary Lou back in 1939, and sometimes performed with the Sleepy Hollow Ranch Gang. He may or may not have played with them on the Hayloft Hoedown at WFIL. The second song on the tape is from 1947, "Will You Be My Darling." The line up was Dick Layton, Kenny Happel, Art Martin, Spooney Spawn on fiddle and Bill Foscht (sp) on accordion. (Pardon any errors on these names, some of these folks are obscure and there's no way to confirm spelling.) Later on the tape were modern solo acoustic recordings, mostly gospel tunes. 

But back to that tribute broadcast for a bit. WXKW started out as WSAN-AM today but had the WXKW calls from 1985 to 1995. It claims to be the oldest station in the Lehigh Valley; which at the very least means it's one Dopey would have known, if not performed on.  The station has it's roots in two predecessors. The first signed on as WCBA on May 24th, 1923 initially broadcasting out of Heimbach's Kaumagraph Repair Shop. At the time they broadcast at just 5 watts on 1070 kHz. Two years later they relocated to 1180 kHz. WSAN received its first license on June 30, 1923, issued to the Allentown Radio Club for 10 watts on 1310 kHz

In 1927 WCBA and WSAN had to share time on 1350 KHz. Together they moved to 1500 kHz and then 1440 kHz and eventually 1470 in 1941. They were hopelessly twinned.  In early 1937, an application was filed to formally consolidate the two stations under the WSAN call sign with the two stations sharing stock in the owning company WSAN, Inc. Dopey may have been on FM in the 1940s. In 1947, WSAN-FM was added, originally on 95.9, then moved to 99.9 but it was deleted in 1956. I believe that station was a simulcast in most of that era. It became WKAP in 1995.

Gehringer appears in the Morning call News paper in 1955 singing, and telling jokes but in an article written in Pennsylvania Dutch, which I can tell you... is very confusing for Google Translate. It thinks it's in Luxembourgian, but it's sort of readable. His morning show with Les Baer was called “Two on the Sunny Side.” The Morning call newspaper claims that ran for 18 years. By the mid 1960s Dopey was doing live broadcasts on Sunday mornings of a brunch radio show from the locally renowned Walp's Restaurant on Route 22, it later moved to  911 Union Blvd in Allentown, PA.  The restaurant closed in 1998.

Who's Who in Television and Radio #5 (1955)

Malvern records released a few 45s with Dopey in the 1960s. His one self-produced LP was recorded live from Walps Restaurant. [SIDE A] and [SIDE B] That record definitely went through multiple pressings. More here. He also had an undated 8-Track released, it has 3 tracks of comedy and 3 songs on the 4th track. It was also probably self released. The American Heart Association released a 90-minute Dopey Duncan tape as a fundraiser in 1991. A description of that tape reports that it was recordings of his old 1950s WKAP program. Apparently that's quite rare now. [SOURCE].

Gehringer semi-retired to Eustis, FL in 1977, at the age of 57 and began playing locally. He survived a stroke in 1986 and was partially paralyzed, which he mostly recovered from. In 1988 Dopey gave a speech at a roast. His closing statement from that event closes out the tape. You can see that video here, and the associated blog post here. He didn't revisit his material from the fifties. Instead he performed new material and had a whole stand up routine about being elderly and living the retired life in Florida. He even talked about his stroke, and recovery. 

Despite those serious moments the recording is utterly hilarious. He even does some Pennsylvania Dutch. But he says nothing about WKAP. So while it's not rich with radio history, it's a real taste of why Duncan was so popular in his day.  He died in 1990 at the age of 77, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound seated in his backyard. I almost skipped that part but you can hear in the voices of his friends something that remained otherwise unsaid. All his peers passed on over the next 20 years. Ralph "Spoony" Spohn died in 2001 [SOURCE]. Sammy Anderson died in 2002 [SOURCE]. Les Baer died in 2015 [SOURCE], Paul Galgon Sr. in 2001, and Ken Happel in 2019. Ed Baumer died in 2021 [SOURCE].