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DJ Who First Played Tommy James - Hanky Panky

J

jasper933

This morning on Howard, Tommy James stated his song "Hanky Panky" was made a hit by a DJ on station in Pittsburgh. Who was the DJ and what station? The DJ and station was not mentioned.

I guess in the 60's it would of been KQV.
 
Mad Mike was the guy who got Tommy James to come to Pittsburgh, where he picked up a bar band to become the Shondells. Don't know if he broke the record. I thought the story was that a DJ doing dances, and Mike did a lot of them, found the 45 in an odds and ends bin and started playing it at his gigs.
 
I highly recommend the book "Me, The Mob and The Music" by Tommy James. A nightclub DJ in Pittsburgh found the record as previously posted. Chuck Brinkman is quoted in the book, along with Clarke Race, as the two that broke it on air.
 
I'm pretty sure Bob Liviorio was the one who "discovered" the record and played it at dances. KDKA got the word it was big at dances, got a copy and Clark Race started playing it. KQV was late on "Hanky Panky."
 
Jeeze - oh - man! This is bringing back the memories! I attended Fox Chapel HS through the 60's ('67 Grad) and although I'm not the one to tell you who played Hanky Panky first - it was listening to Chuck Brinkman that influenced me to get into radio. I've hosted many Tommy James concerts through my career (Houston, L.A.)and it's great to talk with him about Pittsburgh. And anyone will tell you how special the '60's were in the radio industry in Pittsburgh. For us radio lovers, I/we were in the right place at the right time!
 
I researched this for a "History of Rock & Roll" outline I'd helped develop.

Tommy James and the Shondells were actually from Niles, MI. They recorded “Hanky Panky” in late ’63, then split up when record didn’t chart.

In ’65, WZUM-AM/Carnegie personality “Mad Mike” Metro began playing “Hanky Panky” to immediate positive reaction. This led to Metro’s contacting Tommy James to come to Pgh and perform. James put together a new group of Shondells and resumed his career.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08283/918405-42.stm see bottom paragraphs.

http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20001108madmike3.asp
 
Really dubious source on the first P-G link. She makes this statement: "Meanwhile, the Beatles were charting with their million sellers and no one in Pittsburgh seemed to care, at least not the ones who were following Mad Mike as the Pied Piper."

That's ridiculous.

No one in Pittsburgh cared about the Beatles? KQV and Clark Race were getting killer ratings playing every track as soon as a new Beatles album came out. I'm sure Mad Mike had his folowers, and I'm just as certain KQV listeners outnumbered them at least 100-to-1.

The suburban and dance DJs had their place, but to suggest what they were doing was bigger than the Beatles in '64 and '65 is just revisionist history at its worst.

And I still think Bob Livorio was responsible for "Hanky Panky" becoming a hit.
 
Boss Radio said:
She makes this statement: "Meanwhile, the Beatles were charting with their million sellers and no one in Pittsburgh seemed to care, at least not the ones who were following Mad Mike as the Pied Piper."

The suburban and dance DJs had their place, but to suggest what they were doing was bigger than the Beatles in '64 and '65 is just revisionist history at its worst.
Click to expand...

I agree, but I suspect it's true that many of the Mad Mike followers didn't care about the Beatles. Same reason you won't hear
the Beatles on the radio shows that cater to "Pittsburgh oldies" (Frankie Day, et. al.)

C.
 
I'm sure Mad Mike still had his followers who had no use for the Beatles. The Beatles weren't especially popular with a segment of 20-something males who thought they were the latest Ricky Nelson-like fad for teen girls.

But that was a very small segment of the market.
 
I thought they were the ginchiest until the Stones and Mick . I've been a Stones fan for life
 
not a clue who first played "hanky panky " first in the burg..but anyone know what ever happened to Terry Lee ( from WIXY) . Last I knew of thim he was doing a gig on an oldies station in Arizona.
 
Boss Radio said:
You've always gone for the bad boys.
Click to expand...

Fogerty, Thorogood, Willie, Waylon, Johnny, and Bosephus.----------yummmy! Throw in Jerry Lee and Chuck Berry! Add some Merle, Pancho, and Lefty!
 
Thanks all...I've updated the History of Rock & Roll outline mentioned several posts ago to work in the information about Bob Liviorio. This explanation for Hanky Panky's revival makes much more sense anyway, not to mention it was sourced from Tommy James' book.
 
Some years ago, when Chuck Brinkman was still with us here at 98.7 K*LUV, Dallas/Ft. Worth, we brought Tommy James in for a free show during which, while onstage, he thanked Chuck for starting his career by making sure Hanky Panky got played on KQV.....Chuck was the music director at that time and, the way he tells it, he, literally, stood on the PD's (John Rook) desk and begged him to add "Hanky Panky". Tommy says that, without that exposure on a major ABC O&O Top 40 like KQV, he. likely would have no career and "Hanky Panky" would have been, at best, a regional hit.
 
Ed Salamon's Book "Pittsburgh's Golden Age of Radio". Credits Bob Livorio of WKPA 1150 For Being the First to Play It.
 
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