[IRCA] WLAC

["Ira Elbert New, III" <ien3@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's an article some of you might be interested in. It was printed in the 
Flagpole, a weekly music and entertainment paper in Athens, GA.

John R.
Had The Magic Touch

DeeJay's Voice
Brought Music Through The Night



Last column, I left y'all at the beach in South Carolina, listening to an 
off-in-the-distance jukebox thump away. By now your conetopped can of 
Atlantic Ale has gotten just as warm as our story line has grown cold. Let 
me refresh you.

I was writing about the legendary John R. of Radio Station WLAC in 
Nashville, TN. Although he was not the first deejay to popularize rhythm and 
blues music on a 50,000-watt station, John R. became one of the most famous. 
His career spanned nearly 30 years. He received 250,000 pieces of mail a 
year, which clearly shows his popularity.

By the early 1950s, John Richbourg had earned himself a comfortable niche. 
Promoters often dropped dubs of new records by the station so that he could 
be the first to play them - before they were released. He was thus the first 
deejay to air B. B. King's 1952 debut hit "Three O'Clock Blues" and 
uncountable other discs that went on to become smash hits. He had to believe 
in a record for it to gain continued airplay on his show, which was 
sponsored by Ernie's Record Mart in Nashville.

One night in 1955 (or was it 1956?), John found a pile of new releases on 
hand. Before his show, he auditioned several, looking for suitable material. 
One absolutely blew him away. He had met the artist once before; the man had 
released a gospel record which went nowhere. This one, John thought, was a 
real winner.

That night, on the air it went. "PLEEEEEASE, PLEEEASE, PLEEASE, baby, please 
don't go," the singer fairly screamed. The phone lines lit up. Nobody had 
ever heard such a sound before. At the end of the record, the totally 
knocked-out John R. announced, "From down Augusta, Georgia way - that's 
James Brown And His Famous Flames doing Â?Please, Please, Please.' Somebody 
have mercy!"

Syd Nathan, the owner of Federal Records (Brown's label), didn't like the 45 
and almost refused to release it. Imagine his surprise when orders for 
250,000 copies of the record quickly rolled in. John R. may not have been 
the first person to play the disc, but he was the one who "kept on it," to 
use the radio parlance of the day.

Brown is said to have remarked that John R. was responsible for starting his 
career because the deejay stayed on "Please, Please, Please" until he made 
it a hit. He was to pay John R. back, bigtime.

Brown wasn't the only performer who felt that way. Joe Simon was signed to 
Vee-Jay Records and was barely denting the charts with titles like "My 
Adorable One" when John suggested that he go with Monument Records' Sound 
Stage 7 R&B subsidiary when Vee-Jay went belly-up in 1965. "I'll produce 
you," John offered. The deal was sealed with a handshake. Hit after hit 
resulted; Joe Simon was a hot property for many years. He continued this 
success later on Spring Records. "John R. was the first man I met who could 
swing that much weight, yet be that nice," Simon asserted.

Rev. Jackey Beavers, now Georgia State Chaplain, was a pop recording artist 
in those days. "John R. was too good a man for the record industry," Rev. 
Beavers revealed. "He was one of the most kind-hearted fellas you ever met. 
He loved black music even more than I did."

John's influence went beyond this level. He started a radio school in 
Nashville, The Tennessee School Of Broadcasting. A large number of students 
benefited from his hands-on teaching.

Visitors to the station often popped in from the very periphery of the 
30-state directional night coverage pattern. A young fellow named Bob Smith 
journeyed down to Nashville from Brooklyn just to shake John R.'s hand. "I 
listen to you in the basement. We rigged up a hundred-foot wire antenna to 
bring you in," Smith said. WLAC's night coverage was directionalized to 
protect co-channel stations in Spokane, Washington and Boston, 
Massachusetts, so this fluke of reception was a minor miracle. Bob Smith 
ventured into radio afterward; some years later, he created the persona of 
Wolfman Jack, howling from a Mexican station. He freely credited John R. as 
his major influence.

The station's longtime owners Life & Casualty Insurance Co. (hence the call 
sign WLAC) sold the station in 1973. The format was to change to top 40. 
John R. could have stayed on, but he refused to be dictated to. He chose to 
retire on August 1, 1973 at age 62.

I listened to that last show on the first little piece of what is now GA 316 
while en route to Atlanta. "You don't know what these years on the air have 
meant to me," John R. humbly stated. "It's time for me to go on to something 
else. Your letters have meant so much to me over the years; I'll try to 
answer every one of them in due time. Goodbye and God bless you all." And 
like that, he was done with his career. He still continued to receive mail 
at the station a decade after his departure.

He continued to record artists and manage performers. When Sound Stage 7 
Records folded up, John started his own label, Seventy Seven. He continued 
to produce decent records under his JR Enterprises banner, but without the 
airplay outlet of WLAC, sales lagged. It turned out to be more a labor of 
love than a profitable venture. Quite a few of these later records command 
considerable prices now, especially in Europe.

In the mid-1980s, John's health began to fail. He suffered from lung cancer; 
his booming voice was reduced to a whisper. Bills were mounting up, and his 
savings were rapidly becoming depleted.

The people whom he had helped so selflessly did not forget him. On March 26, 
1985, a benefit concert entitled The Roots Of Rhythm & Rock: A Tribute To 
The Legendary John R. was held at Grand Ole Opry Hall. On hand were James 
Brown, B. B. King, Rufus Thomas, Charlie Daniels, Joe Simon, Ella 
Washington, Jackey Beavers, and dozens more who had benefited from John R.'s 
assistance. At the finale, he was rolled out onto the stage in a wheelchair 
to deliver an emotional, whispered thanks to these people. Later John 
tearfully told his wife Margaret that he had never thought that he meant 
anything at all to them as a person. He was wrong this time, something he 
never had been about a record.

John Richbourg died of cancer on February 15, 1986 at the age of 75. Ella 
Washington, whose career he had helped manage in her years with Sound Stage 
7 Records, sang "Amazing Grace" and "Because He Lives" at the funeral. Rev. 
Jackey Beavers performed "His Eye Is On The Sparrow," just as John had 
requested. He also delivered the eulogy.

John R.'s influence persists to this day. American rhythm and blues records 
are quite the rage in Europe, and Ace Records in England has released a CD 
of titles that were made hits by continued airplay on WLAC.




This central control panel for a 1940s Continental Electronics 500KW 
transmitter is similar to the one beloved by John R.
image credit: James P. Hawkins

Imagine my glee when I was able to help "read" the WLAC directional when I 
lived in Nashville in 1986. Chief Engineer William Berry even showed me 
around the transmitter building on Dickerson Pike, next to the three towers 
that bring WLAC's night signal to 30 states. I paused in front of the backup 
transmitter, an obviously ancient unit. "That's our original 1942 
Continental," Berry told me. "When we bought this," he pointed to a newer, 
mid-'60s Continental, "John R. hated it. Said it didn't sound true; it 
didn't reproduce bass. So when we ran rhythm and blues at night, we fired up 
the old unit at his insistence. It still works perfectly."

My mind traveled back in time, back to days of baby chick commercials, ads 
for Royal Crown Hair Dressing ("with Simethicone"), Hoyt Sullivan products, 
White Rose Petroleum Jelly, Randy's Record Shop, Ernie's Record Mart; to 
on-air names like Herman Grizzard, William "Hoss Man" Allen, Hugh "Big Hugh 
Baby" Jarrett, Gene Nobles, the latter-day ubiquitous newsman, Don 
Whitehead, and, of course, John "R." Richbourg.

"You really made some history here," I mused. I gently patted the old 
Continental transmitter in homage.

"If that old Continental could talk, it could really tell some tales," Berry 
admitted.

"It already has," I answered.


William Orten Carlton



William Orten Carlton = ORT, Special Correspondent For Flagpole.


And here's the link...


http://www.flagpole.com/articles.php?fp=5495


Enjoy!

Bert New
Watkinsville, Georgia
Proudly Serving You Since 1964!


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