DJ Sam Phillips

Everyone knows Sam Phillips because everyone knows Elvis.  But the history of Elvis starts with Sam Philips, and Sam is pretty obscure in his career both pre and post Elvis. Since I'm writing about him here, you probably already guessed that some of that is in radioland. I wrote about one of his projects once before WHER-AM here.

It was not just musicians that came from radio. It was the promoters, the recoding engineers, the booking agents and every other money-grubbing, sleazy hanger-on as well. Nick Tosches mentions by name Sam Phillips as a former radio man in his book Country: the Twisted Roots of Rock n' Roll. I quote at length here:

"Sam Phillips got into the Record business by way of radio...Phillips began working as a radio announcer after dropping out of high school in 1941... In 1942 he was a disk jockey at WLAY in Muscle Shoals, and next year at WHSL in Decatur. In 1945 he worked at WLAC in Nashville, and from 1946 to 1949 he worked at WREC in Memphis where he also promoted shows at the Hotel Peabody."

It's a great book, and all of that was true so far as I can tell; except he means WMSL in Decatur. that and so much more. Phillips died quite recently , on July 30, 2003.  He sold Elvis to RCA in 1955 for the oft quoted sum of $35,000. Sam backed off recording after Elvis, tapering off to a trickle in the 1960s. In 1956 Sam opened WHER-AM the first all female-staffed radio station in America. The experimental station went on for seventeen years sticking with the format until 1971.

But that was not Sam's first foray into radio. He started out in radio. It's often cites that he dropped out of high school to announce at WLAY-AM and that much is true. What they skip is that he dropped out in his Senior year in 1941 to support his mom, deaf mute aunt and six younger siblings after his father died. He took night classes at Alabama Polytechnical Institute in Auburn, AL and studied audio engineering.

As the legend goes, Station Manger Jim Connolly the station manager at WLAY hired him based on his emceeing at a high school show.  I suspect he had a little sympathy for the kids family situation. In 1942 he moved on to 1400 WMSL-AM in Decatur, Alabama where he stayed for three years.  Then to 1510 WLAC-AM in Nashville, TN where he only stayed for one.

In June, 1946 he got a new gig at WREC-AM in Memphis.  There he hosted the program "Songs of the West" show daily at 4 PM with the on-air name 'Pardner.' He also began hosting a pop program called 'The Saturday Afternoon Tea Dance" which was broadcast live from the Skyway Room of the Peabody Hotel. There he spun records on a syndicated program carried on the CBS network. It was there he met a very hurried Art Mooney who wanted to cut a cover of the Pee Wee Hunt tune "Oh!"  Sam arranged to use the WMC-AM audios and recorded them in the stairwell for the echo. There it began, Sam began to transition out of radio and into the studio. He kept working at WREC and at the Peabody dogin sound even after he recorded Ike Turner's "Rocket 88" in 1951. He started Sun records in 1952, and released Elvis's first single in January 1954. He didn't really get back to radio (except promo) until his post-Elvis phase.

DJ Quin Ivy

I know the beginning of this story, but I don't know the end. He was born in 1937 in Oxford Mississippi, son of a share cropper just like James Brown. His rise to greatness was rapid, and his exit was sudden and unexpected. His retreat into obscurity was so thorough I don't know whether he's dead or alive.

In 1959 Ivy left 1210 WMPS-AM in Memphis, TN for WKDA-AM in Nashville. Some sources say that Ivy was at WMPS for 10 years. But for that to be true, he'd have to have started DJ'ing at the age of 12. Some sources also say he worked at an unnamed station in Oxford and another in Shreveport. Shreveport seems unlikely, but something in Oxford before WMPS seems probable.

For Quin radio was a great gig, and it was there that he met Rick Hall. Rick wasn't a big name at the time, but they became friends. And when Rick started Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, they stayed friends. They didn't even lose touch when Ivy moved to Nashville to work at 900 WKDA-AM. More here.

In 1961 Ivy moved to Muscle shoals to work at 1450 WLAY-AM and began working with Hall in earnest. They began writing songs together. Hall did so much business out of FAME that Ivy opened his own studio to pick up the crumbs, Norala Studios in 1965. It studio was built with spare parts and junk. The mixing board was used, bought from WLAY. His tenure at WLAY is usually cited as about 8 years. Shortly thereafter he started two record labels, Quinvy and South Camp Records respectively; one for ASCAP and one for BMI.

Norala and FAME used many of the same studio musicians, they used the same contacts, they both used connections through Ivys' record store, Tune Town. Everything was copacetic, until Ivy recorded Percy Sledge. The single "When a Man Loves a Woman" was a huge hit and a bone of contention. the receord needed re-recorded, over-dubbed, an engineer was fired.. it was a mess. More here.

Hall was the one that cut a deal with Jerry Wexler at Atlantic. Hall was the one that agreed to a 2% finders fee and hall owned the publishing on the B-side. The single went top 10 in 1966. Ultimately hall made more money on the record than anyone except Atlantic records and Percy Sledge. That rubbed some people the wrong way, session musicians, engineers and Quin Ivy. There was a little fighting, a little awkwardness and Ivy wasn't happy.

In 1970 he moved to a new studio space, selling the old one to Paradox studios. In 1973 Ivy quit completely. He was only 36 years old. He went back to college at Ole Miss and got an accounting degree. He taught at the University of North Alabama from 1980 to 1996. Did I mention he's white?