Don Williams Song Question

[landtuna]

His "Good Old Boys Like Me" song contains the lyric:

John R. and the Wolfman kept me company
By the light of the radio by my bed

These were obviously DJ's or radio personalities. I know who the Wolfman was but have no idea who "John R." might have been.

Can anyone shed a light?

TIA

 

[ClarkKent]

John R. was a jock on WLAC in Nashville. So says Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R.

 

[radioboy]

The R stood for Richbourg, his legal name.

He had a lively, entertaining career at WLAC.

 

[landtuna]

Thanks guys. I had never heard of him before. Makes sense that his style and that of the Wolfman were somewhat alike but curious that a country artist like Williams would have followed that style earlier in his life.

 

[drded]

Don Williams started his career as a singer with the Pozo-Seco singers, not a country act, but folk. The group had 1 hit with "Time". After the Pozo-Seco folded Williams returned to his pop-country roots.

And I would not call John R.'s style even close to Wolfman's. John R. played the hits, both R&B and rock, and actually kept his chatter to a minimum. The only thing he and Wolfman shared the was their great talent as hucksters. They promoted almost any product you can imagine. A young kid wanting to hear the hits late at night in the late 1950's would tune to WLAC for John R., KOMA, XERF for Wolfman, and from 1960 on WLS in Chicago.

Dave

 

[landtuna]

And I would not call John R.'s style even close to Wolfman's. John R. played the hits, both R&B and rock, and actually kept his chatter to a minimum. The only thing he and Wolfman shared the was their great talent as hucksters. They promoted almost any product you can imagine. A young kid wanting to hear the hits late at night in the late 1950's would tune to WLAC for John R., KOMA, XERF for Wolfman, and from 1960 on WLS in Chicago.

Dave

I obviously never listened to John R. but did listen to the Wolfman on occasion in the late 60's. Judging from nothing more than the Wikipedia article describing their relative performances they did sound as if they had similar traits.

 

[Nick Gerard]

John R airchecks

Here's a link to 2 very good John R airchecks. (Scroll down to the 3rd entry). These are .ram files, so you'll need Real Player to hear them.

http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/air1967.html


John R may seem unpolished by today's standards, but he has a real style that shines through.

From what I've read, many listeners thought he was black.

Nick Summers