Little Lord Fauntleroy Bandy

Even the great Jerry Blavat called John Bandy an influence.  But before Bandy was in the Philadelphia area, he was a DJ in DC. In the book Divided Soul, by David Ritz, is a single reference to a certain leganday Washington D.C. area DJ:

"Among the black kids back in the neighborhood, the fifties in D.C. was an age of hot curlers, outrageous conks, and do rags.  The crowd was greasing up and straightening out their hair. It was a time when Little Lord Fauntleroy Bandy ruled the airwaves at WUST..."

In the fifties radio was about showman ship ans shtick. The Lord Fauntleroy shtick was genius. On 1120 WUST-AM, a 250 watt daytimer he needed it. He hammed it up and wore tailored suits with a waist coat and an ascot.  He brought hours of the hippest R&B to DC airwaves. As the Lord Fauntleroy Bandy, he spoke in a fake British accent on air. The accent was perfect, so perfect many people thought that he was white. But even off air Bandy didn't sound like he was from the Mid-Atlantic, he and his family were from Jamaica. Jet Magazine relished linking the dapper John Bandy to various singers and starlets. In 1954 it was Beauty Shop owner Meta Cardoza, before that TV singer June Gaskins. More here.

In 1960 Bob Klein hired Bandy at WDAS-FM in Philadelphia, where he became the assistant general manager. Multiple sources describe Bandy as adlib "rapping" over records at WDAS, which would be one of the earliest references to rapping in a hip-hop context. One of those sources was his fellow WDAS DJ and rapper,  Jocko Henderson. "The Lord of Rhyme bringin' the sound from out of the ground to your part of town!"

By 1963, Bandy was appointed a WDAS corporate vice president by station CEO Max M. Leon. Bandy later had a short-lived stint hosting TV talk show on Channel 5, WNEW-TV. It debuted in February of 1971 and lasted eight episodes. He didn't really need the job, he'd married Sun Oil heiress Roberta Pew in 1976. The book Voice Over by William Barlow claims he retired to a country estate in Bryn Mawr, outside Philadelphia. In retirement they funded a number of civic projects and organizations. Bandy died in the late 1990s.

I have often wondered if he or Sir Walter Raleigh (John Christian) on WAMO in Pittsburgh (and later WEEP) picked up the faux-British shtick first. Christian, who started out at WILY-AM, also liberally applied a British accent, and wore a English butler suit with tails and a monocle. Christian first hit the air in about 1955 so they were active more or less concurrently. But I suspect either may have gotten it from Lord Buckley in one way or another. Buckley was actually British, but his lordship too was self-enobled. Buckley claims he got his shtick from another DC area hipster... Cab Calloway.

WDAS Original Soul Sounds

If you are from Philly, or have lived in Philly, or near Philly, or even took a long-ish visit to Philly you probably know the call letters WDAS. The station sighed on in Ocean City, NJ in 1922 as 1200 WIAD-AM. The station was privately owned by Howard Miller. Yes, the Philly heritage station is secretly from New Jersey. They didn't move to Philadelphia until late in 1923. In 1929, calls changed to WELK, and in 1934 after Miller sold the station, the new owners Dannenbaum & Steppacher, adopted the WDAS call sign for their initials. Fast forward 80 years and the term "heritage call sign" is a bit of an understatement. More here and here.  Above you can see a list of their big name staff from the peak of the soul era from the 1960s. Below are some short notes on each of the names.

Jimmy Bishop
Not just on air talent but also the Program Director and later VP of programming. He came from KATZ-AM in St Louis and in Philly he started the “The Jimmy Bishop Go Show”and sometimes called himself the "Bishop of Soul." He did a short spin on WHAT before hitting WDAS.

Larry Daley (Robert Whitfield)
In 1969 and 1970 he had the 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM slot. He was also called "The Cincinnati Kid." He was also the Production Manager.

Lord Fauntelroy (John Bandy)
He left WUST in 1960 to join WDAS first a DJ, the "Lord of Rhyme" with a bogus a fake British accent and later the Assistant General Manager. In 1966 Kaiser Broadcasting recruited Bandy to host for a short-lived program which might have been the first TV talk show hosted by a black man.

Bill Adams
He has an unfortunately common name. I know he was on WDAS from about 1959 through 1964.  The rest is a mystery. Radiomen with the same name appears on dozens of stations before and after that time window.

Carl Helm
Carl worked at WDAS from the early 1960s to the mid 1990s, longer than anyone else on this list. In 1970 he was still doing overnights, even 2:00 AM to 5:00 AM Sundays. By the late 1970s he was the Operations Manager. More here.

Jocko Henderson 
Jocko was on WDAS from 1953 to 1959. his inclusion on the list almost looks accidental among the 60s DJs. but his style and presence was a part of the ear even if he was ahead of the curve. More here.

Donny Brooks
In 1967 Brooks was rated the #4 R&B DJ by Billboard beating out even Jocko himself. Also called "Agent 00-Soul,"and "Gold-finger" he also came from KATZ-A, and WBBR-AM in St. Louis following Jimmy Bishop but with a long stopover at WCHB-AM in Detroit. In 1968 he went back to St. Louis, to become music director and program director at KATZ and later DJ'd at KKSS.

Louise Williams
Also known as the Gospel Queen, Williams had a 25 year career in radio and became an ordained Baptist minister. She quit radio only after she was elected to the state legislature.

Mitch Thomas
Before WDAS he was on WILM, and was reputed to be the first black DJ in the state. He joined WDAS in 1955. Mitch was not a Philly boy, he took the train up from Wilmington to do his program. Which makes sense that he had a second job hosting a TV show on WPFH-TV also in Wilmington. In 1961 he went back to WDAS to replace the departing Hal Jackson.

Joseph H. Rainey
Not just the executive director, Joe also broadcast a political talk show at night called The Listening Post. He interviewed contenporaries like Malcolm X, MLK, and Jesse Jackson.