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.

DJ Cat Olsen

A version of this story even appears in the Hank Harrison book The Dead. In their October 23, 1975 issue, Jet magazine published an article as well.  I have read three versions and the three are so different that they could be taken to be different events. 

So what was the truth about the Cat Olsen incident? What really happened at 1130 WNEW-AM in 1975? So let's start with the evidence.  In the archives at the Paley Center for Media is a 30-minute tape made in September 14th, 1975 at WNEW-AM. They list a summary that understates the unusual nature of this tape.

"This radio program features an on-air telephone conversation between disc jockey Scott Muni and a man named Cat Olson, who is in the process of holding up a bank. Olson called the radio station during Muni's regular program and demanded to talk to the disc jockey about the robbery and the hostages he is holding. Topics discussed include the following: the reason the bank alarms are not being turned off, despite Olson's request for peace and quiet; the reason he released some of the hostages; the number of people that are still being held inside the bank; Olson's other requests; the reason he has withdrawn from society and refuses to trust anyone; Olson's greetings to people via radio; whether the bank robber wants Muni to be a negotiator between the police and other officials at the scene; Olson's desire to speak with a woman named Mouse; Muni's decision to go down to the bank to meet Olson and try to talk him out of the hostage situation; Mouse's insistence that Olson give himself up; and Muni's departure from the radio station before the end of his shift so he can meet the bank robber face to face. The program concludes with a news, weather, traffic, and sports report. Includes a commercial."

All of the above is true but incomplete. A man named Ray "Cat" Olson (spelled Olsen in the Harrison version and NY times) took hostages at a bank and demanded airtime on WNEW with DJ Scott Muni. Jet magazine identifies the bank as Bankers Trust Bank in Greenwich Village, in New York City.

Hostage situations aren't covered in broadcasting school. And nothing in his resume at WAKR, WMCA, WOR, WABC or Radio Guam prepared him for this. But much to his credit, Muni kept his cool. In his 2004 New York Times obituary, they summarized the incident in one sentence. "In the early 1970's, a bank robber named Cat Olsen, who was holding hostages at a bank, demanded to speak to Mr. Muni and hear some Grateful Dead. He helped defuse the situation." The Grateful Dead?  Well yes. This reference largely corroborates the Harrison version of events. Published in 1980, some five years after the incident, Harrison wrote:

"Naturally, the police, when they finally arrived on the scene, asked this rather disheveled man wearing bright floral pattered shirt, sneakers, and an army jacket, what his demands might be. He replied, not money, not power, not any of the normal things a normal bank robber asks for; instead good old Cat wanted only to hear three consecutive hours of Grateful Dead music played on the AM radio with an additional three minutes allocated to he, himself, for his message."

Against all odds, the demands were met. Olsen spoke at length with Scott Muni on air about the Grateful Dead, about Jerry Garcia, Patty Hearst, the Symbionese Liberation Army and also about the plight of blacks in America and about James Brown. The Harrison version skips this part but Jet was all over it. Olsen asked to speak with James Brown. Brown was contacted and he did offer to fly from Los Angeles to help the police. But before Muni, or Brown, or Jerry Garcia ever spoke with Olsen, the police fulfilled another demand. More here.

Olsen swapped 10 hostages for a six-pack of beer. He drank it all, and took a nap and was then easily subdued by his captives. After 31 years on WNEW, Muni was fired in 1998 as part of a veteran DJ purge. Brown cancelled his New York flight and instead appeared on the Johnny Carson show that night as scheduled. Olsen went directly to Rikers.

**UPDATE**

It has been said that either Cat Olsen inspired Dog Day Afternoon, or that he was inspired by the film. The movie debuted September 21st, 1975.  Oddly that's exactly one week before Cat Olsen walked into WNEW. It's certainly possible. It's also possible that Olsen was inspired by the 1972 Brooklyn bank robbery that inspired the film. But it may also just be that the events occurred near each other and people just connect the events. Something that might be amplified by the Press making the comparison as Time did in 1977. There is a great word for that phenomenon: Apophenia.

Fidelipac Fun #2

This is the intro to a funk radio program that ran on 88.7 WPSC in Wayne, NJ in the late 1990s. I know for a fact that host Josh Dion had previously done the same program under the same name at 90.1 WECS in Windham CT. Lou at Rollin' Recording in Boerne, TX dubbed this for me and he did great work, even replaced the felt pads inside the cart. He really did great work, and the price was excellent. I highly recommend them.
This short intro includes a little voice over but also in the bed music a sample of a classic funk song. James Brown "Make It Funky" actually has four parts making this tiny snippet not much of a sample, but already knowing the greatness that is the godfather of soul I can only hope that you assume the best. parts one and two were released as a single in 1971, which reached #1 on the U.S. R&B chart. The 3rd and 4th parts were released on the 1972 album There It Is. These days Josh is more in music than radio. A great DJ and a great drummer. You can check out his music here.

James Brown is the JB in WJBE

In November 1967 James Brown purchased 1430 WGYW-AM in Knoxville, TN. It was his first radio station and the validation of himself as a radioman. It was certainly not his intention to be a radio man, by all reports he was a bit of an absentee landlord. But he did change the call letters to WJBE to reflect his initials cementing the link forever. It was the start to "Brown Family Broadcasting."

In January of 1968 he changed the format of WJBE to Rhythm & Blues. It's new brand name was "Raw Soul." He bought more stations 1480 WRDW-AM in Augusta, GA; and 1360 WEBB-AM in Baltimore, MD. He was a big fan of radio, he was the ban that convinced Bob Bailey to found WZZA-AM in Tuscumbia, AL.

WEBB-AM also went the R&B route with DJs like Kitty Holdman Broady, Robert Dell Pinkney, and Rockin' Robin. Robin had been at WEBB in the 50s and left for WWIN-AM in 1967. He came back for the godfather of soul. It was after all now the first black-owned radio station in Baltimore.

Brown bought WRDW in his home town, Augusta GA in 1969. It was there he hired DJ Marion Cook who was still broadcasting in Augusta until 2003, almost 80 years old. On air he was known as "Mal your pal." In 1970 the murder of a black man by police at a Augusta jail set off riots. It was at WRDW that Brown took to the airwaves with the segregationist Governor Lester Maddox to cool out rioters. Rioters trusted Brown and the fires and looting stopped, the national guard got to home home. He sold off WGUS in the late 1970s. 1480 in Augusta is now WGUS and plays Southern Gospel these days under Beasley Broadcasting. The WRDW calls moved to 1630.The man that was all business in the 1960s was all booze and speed in the 1970s. By 1977 he was in debt and had racked up contempt of court charges in Baltimore. the station wasn't doing well and James wasn't covering the bills. WEBB went into receivership under the former owner Lean Back who sold it to Dorothy Brunson. She had been a controller at WWRL-AM in New York. WEBB stayed on air and black-owned.

His legacy lived on a couple decades longer though. His daughter continued to run Brown Family Broadcasting. She bought the CP for 94.7 WAAW-FM from bay Communications in Williston, SC. In 1995 it launched with a classic R&B format called "Boss." She sold it in 2002 and new owner Franky Neely changed the format to Gospel.