Wolfman Jack

Wolfman Jack 1977

Wolfman Jack (born January 21, 1938 in Brooklyn , New York , † July 1, 1995 in Belvidere , North Carolina ; real name Robert Weston Smith ) was an American disc jockey of the 1960s and 1970s. A memorial is dedicated to him in Del Rio, Texas . He became known to German listeners in the 1960s and 1970s through the broadcaster AFN . In keeping with his peculiar appearance, there was wolf-like howling (here he obviously took the legendary blues musician Howlin 'Wolf as a model, who also inspired him to his stage name) between his hoarse announcements, richly peppered with gags and typically rhythm-and-blues, jazz or soul and funk songs.

Life

Robert Weston Smith became famous in 1962 when he broadcast live under the stage name "The Howling Wolfman" from the studios of radio station XERF in Ciudad Acuña , Coahuila , Mexico . XERF was one of the Mexican Border Blasters who worked with far higher transmission powers than the licensed commercial North American broadcasters allowed.

Early career

Bob Smith was a fan of disc jockey Alan Freed , who supported the advancement of African-American rhythm and blues music into rock and roll . Freed originally called himself The Moondog after hearing the name on someone else. Not only did he adopt the name, but he used a recorded howl to give his early broadcasts a distinctive character. Bob Smith adopted the Moondog theme song, called himself Wolfman Jack, and added his own sound effects. After gaining some notoriety, he stuck to the Wolfman Jack name and tried to hide his true identity in order to get audiences interested in his radio character. The hip, erotic charisma of the Wolfman Jack character allowed Smith to cover up the prevailing racial segregation on American radio.

Radio career

According to former disc jockey Don Logan , Bob Smith's career began with the radio station KCIJ-AM in Shreveport , Louisiana . In Shreveport, Gordon McLendon owned the KEEL-AM station as part of his very successful group of radio stations that competed with KREB-AM, a new radio station founded by Larry Brandon that came from the former KENT-AM radio. The result was a “radio war” for the same audience that Brandon and his KREB lost.

Larry Brandon then made a deal with Arturo Gonzalez, a Del Rio, Texas attorney who ran Inter-American Radio Advertising, Inc. , a sales agency for XERF , from his legal office . XERF was one of the Mexican border blasters who worked with far higher transmission powers than the licensed commercial broadcasters allowed; the transmission power was limited to 50 kW on medium wave. XERF had a 250 kW transmitter that broadcast on an undisturbed frequency from Ciudad Acuña , Coahuila , on the other bank of the Rio Grande , across from Del Rio.

Larry Brandon booked all of the available nightly airtime and began broadcasting pre-recorded radio shows with Don Logan, Buddy Blake and Bob Smith. The broadcasts were recorded on 10 inch tapes and sent by Brandon of Shreveport to Gonzalez in Del Rio, who then took them to Ciudad Acuña, from where they were broadcast. According to Logan, these programs replaced the prayers and ran from 6 in the evening until 6 in the morning. But Logan also said that only six hours of programming were recorded and he felt that the tapes were being repeated.

Brandon's broadcasts on XERF reached Shreveport and, according to Logan, presented a conflict of interest with the people who produced them. In any case, it was these recorded programs that prompted Bob Smith to transform into Wolfman Jack in order to hide his true identity from the XERF listeners, as well as from his "day employers" at KCIJ-AM in Shreveport. Logan mentioned that when Smith created his grave voices character Wolfman Jack, which he added with a howl, he said to Bob Smith:

That howl of yours would wake a dead man and that dead man might be Hank Williams and he, sure as hell, doesn't want you "Howling at the Moon."
( Your howl might wake a dead man and that might be Hank Williams and who the hell doesn't want you howling at the moon )

According to Logan, the recording stopped after Brandon began offering an autograph picture of Jesus to XERF listeners. Bob Smith then went to see Arturo Gonzalez in Del Rio, who sent him across the border every day to broadcast live programs from XERF's studios in Ciudad Acuña for Inter-American Radio Advertising, Inc., which Gonzalez ran in his legal office.

Wolfman Jack's program has aired in many parts of the United States and Canada . He is known to German listeners for his show, which was broadcast on AFN for a long time, especially in the 1970s. He played any music he liked, regardless of the artist's ethnicity . Every night you could hear blues , rockabilly , doo-wop , zydeco , rock and roll , jump blues , rhythm and blues or jazz as well as soul and funk.

He often underlined his broadcast with wolf-like howls between his gags-riddled announcement and the following piece of music, in keeping with his peculiar appearance. That made him immediately recognizable, together with his husky, full grave voice. His style was borrowed from Alan Freed and bluesman Howlin 'Wolf . Many listeners said that Bob Smith was African American when he was actually of European descent.

His career in Ciudad Acuña from 1962 to 1964 was not without incident, as he was twice embroiled in shootings in which victims died. Because of the lawlessness in this area, Bob Smith and his character Wolfman Jack, after a brief interlude with a radio station in Minneapolis, went to the west coast to XERB , another Border Blaster that could reach Los Angeles , California .

Guest appearance in American Graffiti

Only in 1973 did Wolfman Jack appear to the public through his appearance in George Lucas ' film American Graffiti . Its broadcasts bind the film together. How a lead actor gets a glimpse of the mysterious Wolfman is a key scene in the film.

Television career

Bob Smith later appeared in several films and television shows as Wolfman Jack such as B. The Midnight Special or The Wolfman Jack Show . He also took part in the 1980 science fiction series Galactica , in which extraterrestrial robots called Cylons want to hijack his radio station. He also gave his voice to the 1974 Guess Who hit single Clap for the Wolfman . The DJ also made a guest appearance in the ninth season of A Terribly Nice Family . A parody can also be found in the Simpsons .

Radio Caroline

After the second ship of the former pirate station Radio Caroline sank in 1980, the search for a replacement began. Due to the laws passed in Great Britain in 1967, it became necessary for the sales organization to have a presence in the USA. For a time, Wolfman Jack's manager was the West Coast agent for planned Radio Caroline.

As part of this development, it was planned that Wolfman Jack would deliver the morning shows for the new radio station. To this end, Wolfman Jack recorded a number of programs that were never broadcast because the broadcaster never managed to go on air as planned. Today these tapes are traded among collectors of his shipments.

death

Wolfman Jack died of an acute heart attack in Belvedere , North Carolina , on July 1, 1995 at the age of 57. A memorial was dedicated to him in Del Rio, Texas at the place where his Wolfman Jack career began. In 1996 Wolfman Jack was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame .

Web links

Commons : Wolfman Jack  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• The Wolfman Jack Online Museum