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1970s Black DJs in CHR

C.K. Thomson said:
(...not sure if this is the place)

Is there a list of the 1970s Black DJs in CHR Radio?

Who were they?

😎
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Back in the mid-70's when I managed the leading AM and FM in Puerto Rico, I looked at the employment report required by the FCC for license renewal. Then I considered our staff.

There was no way I could fairly, reasonable and humanely draw a line to determine who was Black and who was not. Puerto Rico has a full and beautiful spectrum ranging from people as white as I am to people who were of deep African heritage.

With our FCC attorney, we presented an opposition to the racial classification being used in Puerto Rico, giving them the absurd option of presenting licensees with a color chart to hold up to each employee to determine if they were over the line either way.

Of course, the Commission did not want to judge "how black do you have to be to be Black" and so they suspended that table from the license renewal application*. That held in 1975, and was also accepted in 1978. By 1980, the Census had created the "Hispanic" category for ethnicity/cultural heritage, and we were able to mark "Hispanic" for just about every person.

In the 1978 renewal (I think I remember the years correctly) under "minorities" of my staff, we checked "1" as I was the only white gringo at the stations.

* Of course, that was just applied to Puerto Rico.
 
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Walt "Baby" Love, who once worked at CKLW and after The Big 8 was sold, moved on with the Drake organization at WOR-FM (also 99X) and KHJ. He was the Urban Editor for R&R, and still syndicates Gospel music shows.
Pat Holiday conducted an interview with him as part of his Musicom Academy.
 
I believe Chuck Woodson was at WRVQ, Q-94 in Richmond, VA in the early '70s, possibly at the beginning. Woodson would later be heard on urban contemporary stations WMYK, K-94 and WMYA, Touch 96 in the Norfolk, VA market.
 
One of the best was Dickie Doo Edwards who worked at WHBQ in Memphis in the late 1970s doing the teen heavy 6-10 pm slot. I think he later worked for RKO in Boston and maybe briefly at KHJ.

JB Stone also worked at WHBQ and then KHJ.
 
C.K. Thomson said:
(...not sure if this is the place)

Is there a list of the 1970s Black DJs in CHR Radio?

Who were they?

😎
Click to expand...
From here in California:

J.J. Johnson at KFRC (1971-73)

Walt “Baby” Love at KHJ (1972)

Don Sainte-Johnn at KFRC (1974-1986)

J.B. Stone at KHJ (1974-77)

If you go back before the 70s, there was Rosko at KBLA in 1965 and Larry McCormick at KFWB from 1964-67.
 
Tibbs4 said:
Spider Harrison @ 1510 WLAC in Nashville
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I'll never forget back in the 70s, I DXed Mr. Harrison doing a soul music countdown on a station from Tennessee. I never forgot his name, but I can't remember the station, so I suppose this is it. I had always listed to AT40, so I thought it was cool for someone to do the same thing for soul music.
 
Cordelia Chase said:
I'll never forget back in the 70s, I DXed Mr. Harrison doing a soul music countdown on a station from Tennessee. I never forgot his name, but I can't remember the station, so I suppose this is it. I had always listed to AT40, so I thought it was cool for someone to do the same thing for soul music.
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WLAC was the station. I remember listening to Mr. Harrison in Frisco City, Alabama. A true pro.
 
michael hagerty said:
From here in California:

J.J. Johnson at KFRC (1971-73)

Walt “Baby” Love at KHJ (1972)

Don Sainte-Johnn at KFRC (1974-1993+)

J.B. Stone at KHJ (1974-77)

If you go back before the 70s, there was Rosko at KBLA in 1965 and Larry McCormick at KFWB from 1964-67.
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Don St. John was with KFRC until Bedford purchased the facility in 1993 and later they brought him back from KYA to The New KFRC.

(The History of KFRC Radio, San Franciscohttps://bayarearadio.org › sf-radio-history › kfrc1
Bedford had acquired KXXX-FM (X-100) two weeks earlier; it would soon become 99.7 KFRC-FM. KFRC AM and FM were sold again in August 1993 to John P. Hayes and ...)

(https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Archive-RandR/1990s/1993/RR-1993-11-26.pdf)
 
chuckmcmillan said:
Don St. John was with KFRC until Bedford purchased the facility in 1993 and later they brought him back from KYA to The New KFRC.

(The History of KFRC Radio, San Franciscohttps://bayarearadio.org › sf-radio-history › kfrc1
Bedford had acquired KXXX-FM (X-100) two weeks earlier; it would soon become 99.7 KFRC-FM. KFRC AM and FM were sold again in August 1993 to John P. Hayes and ...)

(https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Archive-RandR/1990s/1993/RR-1993-11-26.pdf)
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Yes, but KFRC stopped being a CHR (part of the original question) in 1986.
 
Al Gee went from WWRL to WPIX-FM.
Jojo aka Lee Michaels did late nights at 99X NY. He went on to become a very successful programmer.
Frankie Crocker worked evenings playing top 40 on WMCA before becoming a legend at WBLS.
In Boston JJ Wright late nights on WRKO.
 
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