Tom Donahue

This article is about the American DJ, see Donahue for other meanings .

Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue (* 21st May 1928 , South Bend , Indiana ; † 28. April 1975 ) was a pioneer of rock and roll 'n' in radio as a disc jockey , producer and concert promoter.

Life

youth

Donahue was born Thomas Coman in South Bend, Indiana. He started working as a radio presenter in 1949. First he worked on the east coast of the United States at WTIP in West Virginia and later at WIBG in Philadelphia and WINX in Maryland . In the course of the Payola scandal with Alan Freed , Dick Clark and others, he moved to San Francisco in 1961 . He was from Les Crane, the former program director of WIBG, who should bring the ailing station KYA back into shape. Crane also brought in Peter Tripp from WMGM in New York and Bobby Mitchell from WIBG.

Career

As a disc jockey at Top Forty from KYA Radio (today: KOIT-FM ) in San Francisco , Donahue founded the music label Autumn Records with Mitchell, with which he was able to land some hits with Bobby Freeman and The Mojo Men . Sly Stone was the producer during this period, but Autumn's greatest success was the band The Beau Brummels , discovered, produced, recorded and managed by Donahue , which he later sold to Warner Bros. Records . He opened a psychedelic nightclub ( Mothers on Broadway ) in San Francisco and gave concerts in Cow Palace , Oakland Auditorium and Candlestick Park with his partner Mitchell (later known as "Bobby Tripp", real name Michael Guerra, † 1968). Together they gave The Beatles' last public concert on August 29, 1966 in Candlestick Park.

Donahue penned an article in Rolling Stone in 1967 entitled "AM Radio Is Dead and Its Rotting Corpse Is Stinking Up the Airwaves," which also included the top- ranked "AM Radio is dead and its rotting corpse stinks from the airwaves." Forty format torn apart. As a result, he took over the programming of a foreign language radio broadcast ( KMPX ) and transformed it into America's first alternative “free-form radio station”. The station played pieces of music on the largely neglected FM band . This made him the pioneer of progressive radio in the United States.

In 1969, in addition to his numerous tasks, he also managed the musicians Leigh Stephens (guitarist of the rock group Blue Cheer ), Micky Waller (drummer with Steampacket , Brian Auger , Julie Driscoll & The Trinity , Jeff Beck Group 1968-69) and Pete Sears ( Silver Meter ) and in 1970 also the band Stoneground . Donahue and his wife Raechel , who was a DJ herself, also did the programming for the free-form radio stations KMET and KPPC-FM in Los Angeles . In 1972 he became General Manager at KSAN , where he encouraged DJs to play music from different styles and genres and provide interesting commentary.

A restored example of Donahue's DJ show can be found on the album The Golden Age Of Underground Radio .

Death & legacy

Donahue died of a heart attack in 1975 . He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-musician in 1996 . An honor that was bestowed only on two more disc jockeys. In 2006 he was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame . and 2014 in the Rock Radio Hall of Fame in the category "Legends of Rock Radio-Programming" for his work at KSAN and KMPX.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Radio Rock Scrapbook: Rock Radio Heaven
2. ↑ Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame: The Class of 2006 ( Memento of the original from October 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• Tom Donahue . Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• jive95.com website honoring KSAN-FM in its glory days