The Billboard Rhythm & Blues DJ Spotlight

DJ Spotlight was a section in the Rhythm & Blues section of Billboard Magazine. Their Rhythm & Blues section itself goes back to at least July of 1952. It was a different era. Billboard still had both weekly Vaudeville and Burlesque sections.

It's original focus was on record reviews and charts as you'd expect. That same year, Bob Rolontz took over the "Rhythm & Blues Notes" column from Hal Webman. Mr. Kal Rudman was a contributing editor to the section starting in 1964. The column had been running since the middle of 1950, and addressed R&B more seriously as an industry. It was still full of record releases, and artist signings but it also covered R&B venue news, and both radio station and record label moves. Rolontz joined Billboard as a reporter in 1951, having grown up in radio. His father owned WCAU in Philadelphia. More here.

The Rhythm & Blues section fell under Music and Record news. But it didn't run in every issue. The spotlight ran irregularly. There was one spotlight it's first month, but three times in the following April. By March there was a spotlight every week. But back in the January 2nd issue there isn't a Rhythm & Blues section at all.  Because of that inconsistency I've broken out the below chart by week to indicate not just who is featured, but also if there was a DJ Spotlight at all. No DJ appeared more than once but some stations appeared multiple times. Out of 52 weeks only 37 DJs were spotlighted, and of those only one was a woman: Ruby "Lady Cool Breeze" Lewis of 890 KBYE-AM [More here].

Perhaps the most interesting discovery is that the spotlighted DJs are not all African-American. Both Charlie Brown of WLOU and the inimitable Porky Chedwick of WAMO were profiled. In a modern context it would be politically correct to see a race-agnostic chart or feature like that. I am not sure that's how it was intended or perceived way back in 1965.

Then suddenly in November, after the DJ Spotlight on Larry Daley, the feature just stopped. If it had been in December you might have expected it to re-start the following year.  But there were no Rhythm & Blues spotlights to come in January of 1966; and none ever again. It ended as abruptly as it began, without any explanation. The timing lines up with the departure of Rolontz for a VP job at Atlantic records but correlation is not causation. 

Date	Issue	Name	Call sign	City
01/02/1965	Vol. 77, No. 1	none
01/09/1965	Vol. 77, No.2	none
01/16/1965	Vol. 77, No. 3	none
01/23/1965	Vol. 77, No. 4	none
01/30/1965	Vol. 77, No. 5	Paul "Fat Daddy" Johnson	WSID	Baltimore, MD
02/06/1965	Vol. 77, No.6	George Hudson	WNJR	Newark, NJ
02/13/1965	Vol. 77, No. 7	none
02/20/1965	Vol. 77, No. 8	none
02/27/1965	Vol. 77, No. 9	E. Rodney Jones	WVON	Chicago, IL
03/06/1965	Vol. 77, No.10	George Woods	WDAS	Philadelphia, PA
03/13/1965	Vol. 77, No. 11	Jimmy Byrd	WILD	Boston, MA
03/20/1965	Vol. 77, No. 12	Charlie Brown	WLOU	Louisville, KY
03/27/1965	Vol. 77, No. 13	Porky Chedwick	WAMO	Pittsburgh, PA
04/03/1965	Vol. 77, No. 14	Bill Curtis	WUFO	Buffalo, NY
04/10/1965	Vol. 77, No. 15	Milton "Butterball" Smith	WMBM	Miami, FL
04/17/1965	Vol. 77, No. 16	Ruby "Lady Cool Breeze" Lewis	KBYE	Oklahoma, City
04/24/1965	Vol. 77, No. 17	George Truehart	WDAO	Dayton, OH
05/01/1965	Vol. 77, No. 18	Eugene Potts	WGIV	Charlotte, NC
05/08/1965	Vol. 77, No. 19	Chuck Moore	KPRS	Kansas City, MO
05/15/1965	Vol. 77, No. 20	Eddie Castleberry	WVKO	Columbus, OH
05/22/1965	Vol. 77, No. 21	Al Jefferson	WWIN	Baltimore, MD
05/29/1965	Vol. 77, No. 22	Edward "Pee Wee" Harris	WXKW	Troy, NY
06/05/1965	Vol. 77, No. 23	Sir Walter (Raleigh)	WAMO	Pittsburgh, PA
06/12/1965	Vol. 77, No. 24	Jerry Thomas	KNOK	Dallas, TX
06/19/1965	Vol. 77, No. 25	William Johnson	WUST	Washington, DC
06/26/1965	Vol. 77, No. 26	Bob Hudson	WCIN	Cinncinatti, OH
07/03/1965	Vol. 77, No. 27	Chet McDowell	KYOK	Houston, TX
07/10/1965	Vol. 77, No. 28	Chuck Cunningham	WLOU	Louiville, KY
07/17/1965	Vol. 77, No. 29	none
07/24/1965	Vol. 77, No. 30	Tom Reed	KPRS	Kansas City, MO
07/31/1965	Vol. 77, No. 31	William "Boy" Brown	KJET	Beaumont, TX
08/07/1965	Vol. 77, No. 32	"Big" Ben Tipton	KBYE	Oklahoma, City
08/14/1965	Vol. 77, No. 33	Bill Williams	WCHB	Detroit, MI
08/21/1965	Vol. 77, No. 34	Bill Moss	WVKO	Columbus, OH
08/28/1965	Vol. 77, No. 35	Dr. Bop (Hoyt Locke)	WAWA	Milwaukee, WI
09/04/1965	Vol. 77, No. 36	none
09/11/1965	Vol. 77, No. 37	"Cousin" Herb Lance	WERD	Atlanta, GA
09/18/1965	Vol. 77, No. 38	"Skipper" Lee Frasier	KCOH	Houston, TX
09/25/1965	Vol. 77, No. 39	Larry Dean	WWIN	Baltimore, MD
10/02/1965	Vol. 77, No. 40	Clifton "King Bee" Smith	KCOH	Houston, TX
10/09/1965	Vol. 77, No. 41	Ben Miles	WANT	Richmond, VA
10/16/1965	Vol. 77, No. 42	Rick Darnell	KPRS	Kansas City, MO
10/23/1965	Vol. 77, No. 43	Ruben T. Washington	KNOK	Dallas, TX
10/30/1965	Vol. 77, No. 44	Kelson "Chop-Chop" Fisher	WWIN	Baltimore, MD
11/06/1965	Vol. 77, No. 45	Larry Daley	WCIN	Cinncinatti, OH
11/13/1965	Vol. 77, No. 46	none
11/20/1965	Vol. 77, No. 47	none
11/27/1965	Vol. 77, No. 48	none
12/04/1965	Vol. 77, No. 49	none
12/11/1965	Vol. 77, No. 50	none
12/18/1965	Vol. 77, No. 51	none
12/25/1965	Vol. 77, No. 52	none

DJ Mad Mike Metrovich

The LA Times called Mad Mike an iconoclast. That's pretty accurate. Mad Mike was on the air in Pittsburgh at the same time as Porky Chedwick but was an entirely different sort of eccentric. There were plenty of other DJs in the pantheon of early rock n' roll. But it was rare that they championed the obscure.  It made Porky and Mad Mike quite a mismatched pair. Porky was zany and wholesome. Mike just wasn't. Mike was more manic than mad, more paranoid than poetic, and more private than public. He rarely identified the sides he spun on air and sometimes went as far as to scratch off the band names on the 45rpm labels. He once wrote “I walk through stacks of records and I hear voices. The records are calling out to me, ‘Play me! Play me!’ These things haunt me and I have nightmares.”  

Metrovich was born in PA but wasn't exposed to rock n' roll until he joined the Navy.  While in the stationed at the Brooklyn Naval Yards, Metrovich was turned on to early rock n' roll music. Like Porky Chedwick he hosted record hops. That led to his first disc-jockey gig at 730 WPIT-AM in 1964. At the time Michael Komichak, who also built the station back in 1947 was still running things. He ran the station well into the 1970s. (It was sold to Salem in 1993)   Back then, WPIT's studios were located on Smithfield Street, in downtown Pittsburgh. At the time KQV-AM and KDKA-AM were playing the Beatles. Mad Mike wanted none of that. He made his own picks.

But he didn't stay at WPIT for even a whole year. In August of 1964 he moved to 1590 WZUM-AM in Carnegie PA. It was a rhythm & blues station from the very beginning, a perfect fit.  Well perfect except that Polka bandleader Jimmy Pol (aka James Psihoulis) owned the station and only ran Rhythm & Blues in the day, and Polka every morning from sunrise until 10:00 AM. that morning show was hosted by Jimmy Pol (of course) and his dog, Polka Pete. Jimmy had a much bigger career in writing football fight songs for the Steelers than he had in radio. Jimmy's goal was to attract a large black audience. Even though it was a daytimer competing with

KQV and KDKA the station took off. Quickly Jimmy realized that the appeal of rock n' roll went beyond race.  He was quoted in Billboard in 1967: "There's no such thing as a Negro or white station anymore."  By 1968 he wasn't even bothering to mention race.  He was quoted in Billboard as saying: "According to the last ARB (Oct-Nov), WZUM had the third largest number of Teens after  KQV and KDKA and that was before KDKA switched to a softer format and WZUM expanded it's music list to include contemporary as well as R&B."

Even though there was polka in his heart, Jimmy was foursquare behind the rockn' roll format. The records that Mike played wee obscure. Obscure, hard to find, out of print.  He relished their unavailability, it was part of his own uniqueness.  He spun records you couldn't hear anywhere else.  So when one of his singles took off, demand instantly outstripped supply. Because of that he was able to release released a six-record series of oldies compilations called Mad Mike's Moldies."The collect-ability of these cannot be overstated. They've been issued on Supreme Teen Enterprises, re-issued, issued on colored vinyl, then reissued again on Norton Records. Two double CD sets are also planned in the near future.  More here.

 Mike stayed with WZUM-AM into 1972.  Jimmy Pol sold the station in 1974 to Robert Hicklin who changed the calls to WPLW and the format to religious talk. The station still runs religious talk and has no ratings to speak of. It's been dead for over 30 years. After leaving WZUM the winning streak was sort of over.  Mike had an oldies show on WYEP-FM in the 1980s, also worked at 810 WEDO-AM and 540 WWCS-AM. Mad Mike died on Halloween in 2000. How utterly appropriate. More here and here.

Porky Chedwick

Porky Chedwick, was a big Rock n' roll DJ in Pittsburgh, he called himself"The Daddio of the Raddio, " "The Platter Pushin' Papa, " "The Bosshoss," among other things. Chedwick did much of what Alan Freed got credit for. He was one of the earliest white DJs to play race records. (he called them dusty discs) Many credit Chedwick with being the father of "Oldies" radio....And he's got a schnoz like Jimmy Durante.

Porky Chedwick was born George Chedwick in 1918, 8th of ten children to a steel working father. Is there a more quinnesential Start for a pennsylvanian? the nickname "Porky" predates his radio tenure. He claims it was given to him by his own mother. Harsh woman if that be the case. More here.

He began his career at 860 WHOD-AM in Homestead (now WAMO-AM) in 1948. He started off doing play-by-play and eventually segued to music. His program became massively popular. Once in 1961 he did a broadcast from the Stanley Theater. An estimated 10,000 teens flooded the streets, and the police had to put an end to the broadcast so that traffic could move through Pittsburgh. He left WAMO for KQV in 1972, and passed through WNRZ and WWSW before ending up at WLSW in 2000.

By the early 1950s, R&B labels had herd of Porky. They didn't much care that he was white. They figured that Porky who was so good to their old R&B material might be interested in new releases. Porky went for it, but he stayed true to oldies and rock & Roll, and unlike Freed, never went the payola route. Forty years later he told the Tribune-Review "I wouldn’t even play Elvis Presley’s version of Hound Dog. I played Big Mama Thornton’s." He took a lot of heat in his day for corrupting white kids with naughty naughty black music.

Porky Chedwick has been recognized on the floor of the Senate for his pioneering contributions to radio and rock and roll (and countless times around Pittsburgh, including a day-long 50th anniversary oldies concert called "Porkstock." He is 88 years old today and still broadcasting, he has a program Sunday nights on 103.9 WLSW in Scottdale, Pennsylvania.