Disc Jockey: OED

The first recorded use of "disc jockey" was in Variety on August 13, 1941. Radio was about twenty years old at that point depending on when you want to start counting. The term had to already be in usage from this context. But it's nice to put the date firmly in the golden age of radio.

"... Gilbert is a disc jockey, who sings with his records." The same issue also wrote "Art Green disc-jockeys from Manhattan Beach..."

Can anyone supply the full text? Or at least better attribute the quote?

Cue Burn

Cue Burn is a little piece of technical jargon used mostly my DJs from before 1980 and record collectors. It's a common find on 45s that spent time in radio station libraries. In most cases it's made evident by a hiss, crackle or fidelity loss in the first few seconds of a single. He's an example:


Cue Burn happens because of the way DJs cue up a record. The Jock drops the needle on the record and then by hand turns the turntable back until the stylus sits just before the start of the song. In this process the stylus is dragged back and forth repeatedly over the very beginning of the track.

The goal here is that the song start instantly, with no gap. When I did this, back in the Triassic period, we used a felt pad on the turntable. This was so that the platter could be spinning, but light finger pressure holding the LP from spinning. As you fade down the prior track, you can just let off the pressure on the felt and it starts spinning at full speed instead of "revving up."

regardless of my personal skill, we all had to cue the record. So we all generated cue burn. The act of turning the record back and forth under the stylus wears that segment of vinyl faster than the rest of the recording. It happens because the needle is a diamond, the hardest substance known to man, and vinyl is designed to be flexible and durable.. not hard.

Disc Jockey Etymology

Everybody says that the term “disc jockey” was coined in the 1940s, but nobody wants to own up to coining the term. The guilty party turns out to be Walter Winchell, a writer for the New York Daily Mirror and radio host. Winchell's column appeared in almost 2,000 newspapers And on the air he dished gossip at a purported average of 197 words per minute.

He started out writing jokes free-lance for Billboard. He must have been funny because he ended up as a columnist for the The Vaudeville News. By the 1920s he was a professional Journalist writing a gossip column 'Your Broadway and Mine'' dedicated to harassing vaudeville entertainers. He himself had been a vaudeville entertainer with the Gus Edwards Newsboys Sextet as was his wife. Apparently he left the stage somewhat bitter. I'm not sure where in there he Americanized his real name from Walter Weinschel.

Walt made his radio debut in 1930 on WCBS-AM. His big move came two years later on the NBC’s Blue Network when he was shuffled onto The Jergens Journal, a popular news program. That program mixed in entertainment news with hard news giving him the opening to start talking trash. While his column was at the peak of it's popularity in 1937. (some sources cite 1934) He was used it to refer to fellow radioman Martin Block as a "Disc Jockey". Block spun records on the program "the Make Believe Ballroom" on WNEW. Block played up the the illusion that the program was broadcast from a ballroom. Martin Block went on to become a wildly popular DJ. The Make-Believe Ballroom idea was actually stolen from another DJ named Al Jarvis.


By the 1960s Winchell's career was in the tank. He's mistakenly supported McCarthy and it stained him for life. His radio show was canceled, and the daily Mirror went under. Ed Sullivan and Jack Paar were openly mocking him and his son committed suicide. He died a recluse of cancer in 1972. Id' also like to note that he exchanged correspondence for decades with America's most famous republican cross-dresser, J. Edgar Hoover. More here. Winchell was inducted into the radio hall of fame in November, 2004.

Tom Clay was a wack job.

I cite three prime events that prove my thesis :
1. He was busted for payola and lost his job

2. Despite this he went on to defraud the residents of Detroit of about half a million dollars.

3. He accidentally cut a top 10 single.

These were not three random events. These were well thought out goals. Tom just wasn't working off the same life-planning sheet as the rest of us.

Mr. Clay was born in 1929, an indigenous New Yorker (real last name Clague) He rose to popularity in the1950s as a Detroit area DJ on 1490 WJBK-AM. It was a good job that parlayed into side gigs hosting dances and events. He screwed it up in 1959 by accepting over $6,000 in payola bribes thereby falling in to scandal and disrepute. In 2005 dollars that bribe would be over $40,000. By comparison, Alan Freed accepted about $34,000 in payola bribes at the same time. Bigger fish = bigger bribes. More on that here and here.

He gets lucky and crosses over to work at a Canadian station in the same market 800 CKLW-AM in neighboring Windsor, Ontario. At the time, the station was a taste-making Top 40 station, back when AM stations could do that. He did a Beatles interview there. More here.

So after burning his ass mishandling the till, he gets fired from CKLW-AM for something equally as bad. He hatched this scheme. He started a non-existent Beatles Fan club. And members paid $1 to join. The club had no benefits so the $1 just got a sticker or something. But with 80,000 not-so-bright members that means 80,000 one dollar bills appeared in his personal PO box. That's $506,940 in today's dollars. So yeah, they really had to fire him.

He tried to stay in the Motor City, but after some short gigs at 1310 WWWW-AM, 560 WQTE-AM, and WTAK-AM he had to leave town. He did manage to get some part-time work at 1020 KGBS in Los Angeles. It would never parlay into a full-time gig... but it did get him production studio access which turned out to be really very important for his future. 

It was there that he put together a medley of sorts. It was based around the song "What the World Needs Now Is Love" performed by the Blackberries. It was originally written by Burt Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David and originally performed by Jackie DeShannon. Over this Clay interspersed a narrative made of sound clips from speeches by John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. It was a little schlocky but so was that 7 o'clock News/Silent Night song that Simon and Garfunkel did in 1966 and it's considered a classic protest song.

The single "What the World Needs Now Is Love" went to #8 on the Billboard chart. A follow-up album had respectable sales, but his second single single, "Whatever Happened To Love" tanked and he ended up collecting unemployment checks. Tom did a show on 1490 KBLA-AM. But his time in radio came to and end and Tom finished his career doing voice over. Cancer got him in 1995. If his discography interests you, his hit single was originally part of an LP. It's track listing is as follows:

     (Side 1)
      1. What the World Needs Now (Abraham, Martin & John) - 6:19
      2. Whatever Happened To Love (Butler, Tom Clay) - 3:13
      3. What's Going On (Cleveland, Gaye, Benson) - 3:07
      4. For Years? (Tom Clay) - 1:58
      5. The Victors (Tom Clay) - 4:35

      (Side 2)
      1. MacArthur Park (Webb) - 1:32
      2. This Guy's In Love with You - 4:13
      3. Baby I Need Your Loving (Holland, Dozier& Holland) - 2:30
      4. Both Sides Now (Mitchell) - 3:50
      5. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon) - 2:30

Stupid DJ Tricks Part 5

Naked DJs on the highway, DJs parachuting, Djs leveling death threats.. where does it all end? It never does end, DJs are continually crying out for more attention. Installment five is not the topper; it just has the best nicknames.

It was in Jacksonville, North Carolina on the Northern edge of the Wilmington market. On August 1, 2003 this Dj went door to door... naked. (I dont know about you, but I'd call the cops)

Shock Jock "Fat Boy" from WXQR 105.5 sent his sidekick, a show member known as "Waffleman" covered in mud to ring doorsbells at the homes of rich folks, requesting permission to use their shower. as you might expect, the cops were called numerous times and residents complained a lot.

WXQR did make the gesture of offering to suspend Fat Boy and Waffleman, but Fat Boy opted to resign. The fate of Waffleman is currently unknown.