DJ George Klein

When people interview George Klein, it's usually about Elvis, and not about George Klein. When he's mentioned in print it's usually in the middle of a reference to Elvis too. It's really a damn shame. Writer Bill E. Burke called him "America's Oldest Teenager."  Burke meant that DJ GK, (as he also called him) was the real rock n' roll deal compared to Dick Clark. There's also a George Klein at WEMU, a fine jazz man but that's a Klein of a different color. Writer Mitch McCracken also noted Klein's position squarely in Elvis's shadow. More Here. In the Memphis Examiner he wrote:

"George Klein ... was one of the first DJ’s in Memphis to play rock and roll on the radio, before Elvis. That was just the beginning of what George would do for Memphis music wise He became one of the most famous disc jockeys in Memphis history. He had the RKO “Boss” jock sound down when he was at WHBQ. You can’t mention those call letters without thinking of George Klein or GK as Elvis called him."

Yes, Klein  happened to be friends with Elvis since they were 14 years old. But Klein was big in Memphis radio, and Memphis was the epicenter of rock n roll at the time.  In short, Elvis Presley isn't the only big name in his career. Yes, in 1954 Klein was the second DJ in the country to play Elvis’s Sun Records debut “That’s All Right.” (Dewey Phillips, was the first)  When Klein was on KWEM he was the first DJ to host Johnny Cash live. At the time they were still just Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two.  They as yet had no drummer, and no record deal. A few months later Cash got signed to Sun Records and Klein obligingly played that record too.

He began at WHHM-AM doing high school football broadcasts. then he worked for Harvey Stegman at WHBQ-AM working on their baseball broadcasts for the Memphis Chicks. Klein became the WHBQ-AM gopher.  Dewey Phillips sent him out to pick up barbecue, and coffee, wrangle fans and answer the phone. Klein even came in early to clean up the studio after Dewey. Dewey was renowned for trashing the joint as he tossed records around the room. He frequently yanked 45s off the turntable and threw them toward the trash can.In his own words "I...made sure he didn't burn the station down." In the book Dewey and Elvis writer Louis Cantor called him a "baby sitter" and a "radio groupie."  

He finished college and he went over to KOSE-AM in Osceola, AR and came back to host a rock n roll show at KWAM-AM.   His afternoon show was so hot that he was soon poached by WMC-AM. Some sources say he quit, others say he was fired, but they all say he left to tour with Elvis in 1957.  But Elvis was drafted in 1958 stopping the tour bus indefinitely. Klein went back to radio and got a gig offered by Sam Phillips at 1220 WHEY-AM radio station. He was doign afternoons in the slot next to his old pal Dewey Phillips. He left Sam for a gig at WHBQ-AM in 1960.  He started pulling double duty on the TV side with show on WHBQ-TV Channel 13 called ".Talent Party.." It ran for 12 years and 500 episodes. It was like American Bandstand but better, it was more rock and more local. He later hosted the TV show Memphis Sounds which was produced at WYPL.

Late in life he did an easy listening show on the Sam Phillips-owned WLVS.  I thought at first this was the present WLVS 106.5 but that station only launched in 1999. It's actually what was once called 94-LVS.  Sam changed the call letters in 1979 to honor the then recently deceased Elvis himself. It was originally licensed in 1976 as 94.3 WGTG.  It flipped to Beautiful music as WEZI in 1983. In 1992 they shifted frequencies to 94.1. In 2008 they went classic hits changing calls to WKQK. the first song they played was Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll."  It's owned by Entercom, but so is WMC.

Klein wasn't immune to the fame and money available in the shadow of Elvis. Almost exactly a year ago he published his own personal account of life with Elvis “Elvis: My Best Man” ISBN-10: 0307452743.  I've gone out of my way not to read any of it out of solidarity for the fame George should have had.

Red Hot and Blue

There have been a few Deejays to use the on air name "Daddy-O." Dewey Phillips may well have been the greatest. Dewey Phillips was the host of Red, Hot & Blue on 560 WHBQ-AM in Memphis. And in connection to that program he is reputed to have been the first DJ to play Elvis Presley. In July 1954, he spun Presley's first single: "That's All Right/Blue Moon Of Kentucky." Sam Phillips hand-delivered him an acetate to spin. But Dewey wasn't all about Elvis. Sun records didn't even exist until 1952. Dewey made Elvis, not the other way around. Red, Hot & Blue debuted October 10th 1949.

1070 WDIA-AM was already playing Rhythm & Blues in 1947 but it was black owned. Dewey was white and he was playing Rhythm & Blues singles ostensibly for a largely black audience. While WHBQ was only playing R&B at night, Dewey's show managed to create a biracial following even in 1949. He was born May 13,1926 which made him only 22 when his show debuted. He was playing rock n' roll 2 years before Alan Freed. And Dewey's style was high-speed, almost frantic, his humor a little wacky and even kind of crazy. He mispronounced words on purpose as a sort of rhyming slang. What later we might have called jive-talk. He didn't just sing along, he screamed over the broadcast sometimes like a madman. More.
His Radio show was so big, it also became a TV show which was simulcast live on AM. And on TV he got even crazier. His co-host was as mute as Harpo Marx but wore a gorilla mask. In 1950 he started a record label with Sam Phillips. The first record was "Boogie in the Park" by Joe Hill Louis. But the growing problem was that Dewey actually was kind of crazy. The constant drinking didn't help. Then it turned out that the high-speed came from actual speed. He was popping amphetamines. He was hospitalized twice for drunkenly crashing his car. He got strung out, behaving erratically even for him. In his defense.. so was Johnny Cash at the time. He was fired in 1959 supposedly for shooting up morphine and talking about it on air. He was still the #1 DJ in Memphis at the time.

Phillips died of heart failure at age 42 in 1968.

Elvis Banned on xmas!

Elvis got a rough shake at radio. He was banned a few times for his hip-shaking in a time that was so uptight you'd think Jedediah Bush was president too. Thankfully Elvis overcame adversity got fat and has a successful career complete with the comeback tour. What you didn't know was that among all his trouble was that even one of his Christmas songs got banned. It was that famous year that Ed Sullivan cut off Elvis at the hips...

The hubub went down even later than you might expect. In 1957 Elvis was recording his first of several Christmas-themed releases. But it was released at the peak of Elvis's renegade status. Some stations in a fit of wholesomeness banned the album. WCFL-AM in Chicago banned all records by Elvis entirely. KMPC-AM and KEX-AM in Portland followed suit. But at KEX, DJ Al Priddy played his version of "White Christmas." anyway and was fired. In response DJ Allen Brooks of CKWS in Kingston, Ontario, played the entire LP.

The problem was that a secular and sex-crazed rock n' roller was playing sacred music. Fanning the flames was none other than Irving Berliner. Irving ran amok writing letters to radio stations. Elvis had recorded a version of his "White Christmas" a song that Berliner had written. Royalties be damned, it was too much for him to bear. I'm sure his estate has no problem depositing the checks today.