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 Major Robinson

It starts on page 23 of the 33⅓ book, Live At The Apollo by Douglas Wolk. The historic arguably epic James Brown album was ostensibly recorded the night of October 24th, 1962. But in reality it is definitely edited, and probably contains takes form different shows that week. Brown rented the venue for the week for the purpose of recording the live record. This stretched from Friday October 19th through Thursday October 25th in 1962.  Thursday October 18th was spent rehearsing in New York. They played 4 to 5 shows per day that week. So When a little-known DJ pops up in the story, you know it's arcane.

"Traditionally, the the outgoing and incoming shows would have a Thursday-night "wrap-party" at the Palm Cafe, a bar and restaurant down the street from the Apollo; between Midnight and 3 AM, Major Robinson would broadcast over WWRL from the Palm, although the 18th was his final night there." 

So there was a live broadcast at the Palm the night of their rehearsal. Major Joseph Robinson was there on the 18th, but not the 25th. The question becomes.. did James Brown appear on WWRL-AM that night? It seems unlikely, the man did coin the phrase "kill 'em and leave." But Major Robinson remains an interesting radio personality.

The caption on the image is from February of 1962, and Interestingly The North Carolina Times called Robinson a "Nationally known columnist" in March of 1962. Notice that he stands taking notes beside WWIN disc jockey Maurice "Hotrod" Hulbert. Clearly, Hotrod is the news, Robinson reports it. So notwithstanding that national renown,  Robinson's radio show ran nightly from midnight to 3 AM, so this is more of a "night mayor" kind of renown. But Robinson was also writing for Jet Magazine and Ebony Magazine from 1953 to 1962.

Born in New York, his most high profile writing appeared in the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier Newspapers back to at least 1941. (These were both black-oriented papers of that era.) Robinson crossed color lines early. In 1948 he landed a weekly radio column with NBC. A Billboard article at the time noted that Robinson was already syndicated by Carter-Johnson to papers in 74 cities.

Robinson continued to write for the Courier through at least 1967. But for the Courier he wrote mostly celebrity gossip. The Defender was real news. But he began diversifying his career before 1960.  Sheldon Music signed him as a talent scout in 1958. In 1968 he was appointed director of Community Relations for Atlantic Records.

That was probably his career peak. He became involved in politics in the 1970s. Robinson worked on U.S. Senator Jacob Javits’ [R] Advisory Citizens Comittee, and had was a PR advisor for Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr. [D]. Robinson.  He was still active in music as late as 1978, managing the Pilgrim Jubilee Singers. In 1981 he attended the Jack the Rapper convention in Atlanta listed by Billboard as working in Public Relations. When he died in 1988 at the age of 70, he was still working in PR, and still writing a column for the Amsterdam News.