First Black Female Radio DJ

When it comes to claims to historical firsts, I favor narrow claims over early claims.The earlier the claim the fewer print sources will be available to corroborate the claim. Furthermore, narrow claims are generally easier to confirm because of the delimited nature of the search. In short, narrow claims are more credible. Such is the case of Mary Dee Dudley the first female, African-American radio disc jockey. Her claim has so many references I consider it nearly indisputable. More here.

So I'll begin with the best evidence I have: her obituary printed in the Pittsburgh Press Newspaper March 18tg, 1964. The text plainly reads "is the first negro woman ever to have a daily radio show" It does not Plainly state that she is the first female, African-American radio disc jockey. But it's close. The Post-Gazette made a similar statement to Mary's title in October of 2013 describing that she " broke race and gender barriers..." In May of 1985 Ebony Jr. called her "the nations first black female DJ" and they put the year of that achievement as 1948.  The Pittsburgh History Journal agrees. More here. But my favorite source is an interview with her brother, Mal Goode with the Teaneck, NJ Public Library in 1984. [SOURCE]

"My sister, at that time, played records. She had a gospel program. They called it a gospel hour. No one was doing news on this program. She played records primarily and she, too, in no time, from 1948 until 1950, August of 48 until the beginning of 1950, she built a terrific following called the Mary D Program. Her name was Dudley, the Mary D Program and it became well known allover the country."

1948 was a key year as that was the year that 860 WHOD-AM signed on in Homestead, PA. It changed calls to WAMO-AM in 1956, where it eventually hosted the likes of Porky Chedwick. The station spend the better part of 5 decades at the heritage urban station of the Pittsburgh market. The station was sold to St. Joseph Ministries in 2009 and the calls flipped to WAOB-AM and the format has been religious talk ever since. But Dudley might have been OK with that.. she was hosting a gospel program after all.

She launched her daily 15-minute program “Movin’ Around” on WHOD.  The program was gradually expanded until it was two-hours long. In that format she brought in her brother Mal to do a new segment. He worked for the Courier News. Her fame and the rise of black oriented radio allowed her to interview now famous artists like Sarah Vaughan, Cab Calloway, and Jackie Robinson.  She attracted national attention when Ebony magazine spotlighted her show.  In 1954 her show was expanded to four hours, She left the station in 1956 with the change to WAMO.  She then hosted a gospel program on WSID in Baltimore and another on WHAT which she continued until her death at the age of 51.

I AM THE BRUCE!

Jet magazine called Ramon Bruce Philadelphia's first negro disk jockey. It was a damn shame when WHAT-AM later fired him for "flagrant neglect of duty" and "insubordination." Bruce claimed that they fired him for joining AFTRA because he was fired by telegram "55 minutes" after joining the union. For his part Bruce filed charges with the local labor board. It was a dirty public fight. Station Manager Dolly Banks even claimed that his absenteeism required that they hire Cal Williams and Jocko Henderson to fill in...and that they were the only staff that had joined any union.

Every biography says that Bruce was a former pro football player but they never say for what team. But, starting in December of 1945 on WHAT, Ramon Played Jazz and Rhythm and Blues all week then Gospel on Sunday. His show was initially called "Snap Club " and later "Ravin with Ramon."  He broadcast live from Club 421 and later Powelton's Cafe and Paul's Carnival Club. He was an amazingly popular DJ in a time when segregation was legal. He was receiving 1,000 letters a week by some reports and earning $50,000 dollars a year in an era when that was a CEO salary. He owned restaurants and a record store. He also released some very bad recordings that Billboard dismissed as the "delusions of Ronald Colman." People bought them anyway. In 1949 still on the upswing WHAT gave him an afternoon show as well.

The root cause of his firing is uncertain but in 1949 the FCC reported that Bruce "belongs to a number of negro and other organizations..." The language is vague but that sounds slightly accusatory. Ramon wrote a column for the paper the Philadelphia Afro-American. That kind of black pride was new and not welcome in all quarters. Maybe joining the union was the last straw for management.

Mr. Bruce went from WHAT to a new program 1230 WCMC-AM in Wildwood, NJ where he broadcast live from the Riptide Club. He was known as "The Bruce" which to my mind was the superior stage name anyway. He was making more money on the side booking R&B tours milking that growing audience for R&B in New Jersey. In 1954 he joined WNJR-AM, a bigger signal covering better parts of the Jersey market. He stayed there for about 3 years.

WAAT-AM in Newark, New Jersey, where he took off again. He continued to book theater tours Heartbeats, Cadillacs, Valentines, the Avalons, LaVern Baker, the Clovers and many others, they toured in the region playing shows in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.  He stayed on at WAAT until at least 1957 when he was listed in Sponsor magazine as having the best ratings of any program on the station. He was dead less than 5 years later after what the papers called "a long illness." He was only 39 years old. By 1968 Robert St. John was already describing Ramon Bruce in print as a "pioneer negro deejay." He certainly was that.

Jocko

Douglas "Jocko" Henderson was a legendary Philadelphia and New York disc jockey. Like a handful of mic pioneers he opened his show with a rap which was so well known in his time that children recited it to keep rhythm while jumping rope. That puts his work in a class with truly ancient clapping songs like "Miss Mary Mack." The rapping wasn't his whole deal... in a nutshell, his schtick was that his radio show was in space and he was an astronaut. ...but about that rap:

"From way up here in the stratosphere,we gotta holler mighty loud and clear

ee-tiddy-o, and a ho, And I'm back on the scene with the record machine,

Saying ooh-pap-doo and how do you do?"

Originally from Baltimore, it's unsurprising that his first gig was in his hometown in 1950 at 1010 WSID-AM. Some sources claim it was WBAL-AM. But those same sources can't decide if it was in1950 or 1952. Henderson was born in 1981, so he would have been 32 in 1950; a very late start for a radioman. I'll rely on the younger = more likely DJs, and smaller stations = more likely starts as a thesis. Regardless, it was there in Baltimore he heard the rapping schtick of fellow DJ Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert on WITH-AM. In 1952 Henderson moved to Philly, for a gig on WHAT-AM., which is actually where he picked up the name "Jocko"and started rapping himself. His program  ran for 2 hours on weekday afternoons.

He did so well on WHAT, that WDAS-AM poached him just a few months later. And Jocko ended up flipping 45s there until 1974. Not that he stood still. He began commuting to New York city to do a morning show on WLIB-AM starting in 1957. He moved to 1280 WOV-AM in 1959 and stayed there with a late night slot broadcasting from the Palm Cafe in Harlem.  He stayed on when it changed calls to WADO-AM and then to WWRL-AM. Hot Rod" Hulbert" found his way to WOV while he was still there making for some serendipity. Despite the fact that Jocko stole most of his act from Hotrod, he kept rolling with it. In fact in 1961 he sent a prank telegram to the Yuri Gargarin, the first cosmonaut "Congratulations.  I'm glad you made it. Now it's not so lonely up here."

In 1958 he got his own TV show in New York City on WNTA-TV. He retired in the 1980s and after that only made occasional appearances on WCBS. His son, Doug Henderson, Jr. followed in his footsteps and had a show on WDAS in the 1970s. Doug "Jocko" Henderson Sr. died in 2000 after a long struggle with cancer and diabetes. He was 82. In 2004 he was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall Of Fame.