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Cookie Cutter DJ's

M

MsMusicRadio

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I read that back in the Sixties WQAM and WMCA required jocks to have short hair, be clean shaven, and wear matching blazers in public. Was this standard practice at most major TOP 40 stations? KQV in Pittsburgh dropped this requirement ,I think, to promote Jim Quinn as the rebel DJ. WCFL? CKLW? KHJ?
 
Back then at WLS, Chicago, Bob Hale, Sam Holman, and Dick Biondi had crew cuts, Bernie Allen and Clark Weber were bald. Don't remember blazers or beards at 'ls.

At 'cfl, I remember Joel Sebastian (a personal friend) , Jim Stagg, Jerry G Bishop and Ron Brittain had very modern Beatle type haircuts, Dick Williamson was quite bald. Not sure about Barney Pip. Everybody at 'cfl wore their blazer. No beards, except a few years later w/Paul Chisty.
 
MsMusicRadio said:
I read that back in the Sixties WQAM and WMCA required jocks to have short hair, be clean shaven, and wear matching blazers in public. Was this standard practice at most major TOP 40 stations? KQV in Pittsburgh dropped this requirement ,I think, to promote Jim Quinn as the rebel DJ. WCFL? CKLW? KHJ?
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The mid-'60s were a turbulent time. The country was divided over the Vietnam war and the music reflected that. If you remember, the Beatles started out wearing suits & ties and ended up looking pretty shaggy 5 years later when they split up. So I doesn't surprise me that DJs went through the same change.
 
Prais said:
Back then at WLS, Chicago, Bob Hale, Sam Holman, and Dick Biondi had crew cuts, Bernie Allen and Clark Weber were bald. Don't remember blazers or beards at 'ls.

At 'cfl, I remember Joel Sebastian (a personal friend) , Jim Stagg, Jerry G Bishop and Ron Brittain had very modern Beatle type haircuts, Dick Williamson was quite bald. Not sure about Barney Pip. Everybody at 'cfl wore their blazer. No beards, except a few years later w/Paul Chisty.
Click to expand...

You must be mixing up Dick Biondi with Gene Taylor. Biondi never had a crewcut, but Gene Taylor and Dex Card did.
 
Biondi looks like he has a crew cut on an old wls silver dollar survey. Gene Taylor certainly has one.
 
DavidEduardo said:
radioman148 said:
You must be mixing up Dick Biondi with Gene Taylor. Biondi never had a crewcut, but Gene Taylor and Dex Card did.
Click to expand...

http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive Cleveland/WLS Signatures and Verie.pdf has a WLS DJ card from the early 60's with all the jocks of the time on it... I managed to get a few of them to sign it by hanging out in the lobby for a while.
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As someone who listened to WLS from the beginning of their Rock & Roll years, very cool!
 
DavidEduardo said:
radioman148 said:
You must be mixing up Dick Biondi with Gene Taylor. Biondi never had a crewcut, but Gene Taylor and Dex Card did.
Click to expand...

http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive Cleveland/WLS Signatures and Verie.pdf has a WLS DJ card from the early 60's with all the jocks of the time on it... I managed to get a few of them to sign it by hanging out in the lobby for a while.
Click to expand...

Dick Biondi actually made a record back in the '60s called "The Pizza Song". It sold pretty well in the Chicago area. I have an autographed copy.
 
and on a short-haired and no beards note-----------the Yankees beat the Phillies. Yeccch! I yearn for the days of Kruk, McGraw, Rose, Dalton, Bake McBride, Mitch Williams and all the good ole boys when the Phillies were the Hippie team from South Street
 
Heck this continued up into the 80s. Station in Indiana I almost ended up working at required the on-air talent to wear a suit and tie because it would make them SOUND more professional! To bad they didn't take as much interest in the broadcasting facilities and equipment......most of which was one day older than God.
 
Yek,
I disagree.

In order to do well - you must LOOK the part and ACT the part.

If you sit there like a slob - you'll be a slob.

YOU need to read Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, etc.

It REALLY works!!
 
PS
If your "personal presentation" is a bad as your THEOLOGY (read; God comment) , it explains alot.

Just because the equipment is a few months old doesn't make the presentation any better.
 
YEKIMI said:
Heck this continued up into the 80s. Station in Indiana I almost ended up working at required the on-air talent to wear a suit and tie because it would make them SOUND more professional! To bad they didn't take as much interest in the broadcasting facilities and equipment......most of which was one day older than God.
Click to expand...
They had a silly stupid requirement like that at my last station, and we were (for the most part) only board ops, not djs. At least that policy (while it was in effect) only applied to the day shift. I worked mostly evenings and overnights. (They never explained to visitors to our station why they had to drive through a junkyard to get there!) Eventually, this policy was quietly dropped (or at least, no longer enforced) primarily because they didn't pay people enough to afford the types of clothes they wanted us to wear! I believe their policy actually interfered with their ability to find people to work for them!
 
Back in the 40s I believe the common standard was that ALL announcers who were to be heard on the air were to be married. I know the great late Paul Henning ( Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres TV shows ) and Jess Oppenhimer ( I Love Lucy ) both somewhat admitted to that. However as late as 1994, at least with the station I worked with at the time..married=full time employment while those are are single had to settle for part-time employment. Back in 1994 I asked my then-program director why the "marriage rule" he told me "..We just want to be safe". Safe from what? Figure that one out.

Never heard that hair and blazers were a factor though.
 
Saw atribute site to KYA 1260 and their jocks had long hair and no ties in the pictures taken at the studio. WIZX DJ's had varioius hair-cuts in the tribute site including Dick Kemp.
 
mleach said:
Back in the 40s I believe the common standard was that ALL announcers who were to be heard on the air were to be married. I know the great late Paul Henning ( Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres TV shows ) and Jess Oppenhimer ( I Love Lucy ) both somewhat admitted to that. However as late as 1994, at least with the station I worked with at the time..married=full time employment while those are are single had to settle for part-time employment. Back in 1994 I asked my then-program director why the "marriage rule" he told me "..We just want to be safe". Safe from what? Figure that one out.
Click to expand...
At one time, it was assumed that married guys had wives and kids to support (remember, women often didn't work outside the home in those days), while single guys did not. However, I don't think that would fly these days because of charges of "discrimination."
 
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