CHAPTER 1
My earliest recollection of THE radio is of times spent with my grandfather listening to The Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, & Sgt. Preston. My imagination, already about two logs short of a bonfire, was fueled by these adventures. I sent off for the decoder rings and various other radio premiums offered on the shows. I imagined myself in these seemingly inescapable predicaments as I played alone. Then, there were the trips to radio stations with my dad when he preached ON THE radio. While he ministered I gaped at the massive cabinets filled with glowing tubes. The steady hum of the transmitter and the muted sound of the actual broadcast being attenuated by other equipment combined to create an eerie environment. I imagined that I was aboard Commando Cody's airship.
I believe this was the station I used to visit with my Dad. Of course it was AM only in the early late 40's.
Photo compliments of Steve Farrington
Radio took me places I'd only read about: New York, Chicago, Cleveland, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The first record I ever bought was "Teddy Bear" by Elvis. I'd heard it on WDXB in Chattanooga. The first record I ever won on the radio was something by Wink Martindale, a former Memphis DJ oddly enough. The first rock and roll concert I ever went to was at the Chattanooga Municipal Auditorium and featured Brenda Lee. I was about 13, she couldn't have been much older. I listened to Luther Masingill on WDEF in the mornings and even got my sister on his TV show, "Mr. Chicaroonie" for her birthday. I did it so I could see the inside of the radio-TV complex (sorry sis).
The Mr. Chicaroonie Show and Mr. Chattanooga radio, Luther Masingill.
Photos from WDEF website
Postcard with directions for making "Home" a puppet on another Chattanooga TV kids show.
In my dad's office at the church, there was a small booth covered with acoustic tile where he would record radio programs on a wire recorder. I loved going in there and pretending to be a DJ. At night I listened to Behind The Green Door, an imaginary visit to a blues club on WDXB. Thus began my lifelong love of rhythm & blues. At parties I was always in charge of the record player. In 1959, when I was about to enter high school, we moved to La Grange, Georgia.
I wasn't a jock. I was a preachers kid. In high school, I was more interested in girls and cars than anything else. I found that knowing what all the newest records were and who made them helped me with girls. At the Dallas Street teen club, I was the DJ. This meant that I knew when the slow songs would be played and that was usually when the guys were outside smoking. I had my choice of the girls and after dropping the needle on a particularly cuddly song, I was on the dance floor holding a girl far closer than most Baptist would approve. My interest in radio didn't escape my parents and on about my 15th birthday, they gave me an album title "You Be A Disc Jockey". It was my first training for the radio business. The next came the summer I graduated from high school.
In 2001 I had the pleasure of making friends with this guy. His name is Don Bruce.
Ed Mullinax, owner, General Manager, chief announcer, news director, and sports announcer gave me a chance to be on WLAG. He taught me how to run the control board and always end whatever I was saying with an up inflexion. WLAG was a variety station and played very little popular music.
WLAG in LaGrange, Georgia. I love the sign!
Cross-town station, WTRP, was a little more happening. I couldn't seem to get the attention of the owners, Byron, Frank, and Julian Hurst. They all did different things at the station off the air and all were on the air. That saved them a lot of money because WTRP was a day timer, operating sunrise to sunset, and they each took a four hour shift. On the weekends, part time announcers, usually local college students cover the air shifts. I wanted one of those shifts and I had to impress Byron, the oldest brother and technically, the boss.
"Everything's Coming Up Roses" was the theme song for that show he did daily from Randall's restaurant. Local politicians, business men, and his buddies stopped in to have coffee and chit-chat. Jerry Lewis was the premier comic in the world at that time. I did a pretty good imitation. I borrowed some painters overalls, ladder, brushes, and paint bucket which I filled with confetti. I stumbled into Randall's and the middle of the radio show. Byron, ever on the lookout for anything to fill time, bit. He interviewed me on air as if I were Jerry Lewis. Pretty soon people started pulling in to see the big movie star. One guy had a camera and took my picture. I got Byron's' attention and a one hour radio show," The Top Twenty On 620", Saturday mornings from 9-10AM. Of course I got no pay, just experience.
Byron Hurst and me (doing Jerry Lewis) on WTRP in La Grange. It was my big break!
Most of my friends went away to college. I decide to attend La Grange College, a local Methodist co-ed school. I joined the staff of the radio club; that gave me more access to the radio station. By the spring of my freshman year, I had graduated to a longer shift on WTRP on weekends and a couple of hours a day on the air. I was being paid, as best I remember $1.25 an hour. I cared less about the money. I was a DJ. As an off-shoot of my top twenty countdown show, I became unofficial music director at the station. I talked Byron into giving me $5.00 a week for gas to drive to Atlanta and make the rounds at the record distributors to get the new 45's. The trip was about two and a half hours (no interstates) and Atlanta had no perimeter highway. It did have a great Top 40 station that every one listened during the day, WQXI. At night, it was WLS in Chicago, WLAC in Nashville, and WABC in New York. Shortly after starting to work at WTRP, I went to North Carolina to see my grandmother. As usual I was listening to the radio, an AM in Canton (NC) in particular. I decided to stop by the station. What caught my attention were jingles which I recognized as the same logo or musical signature for WQXI in Atlanta. The DJ was playing them between records; they were just music, no call letters. When I went in the station and talked to the DJ, I asked about them and he said he didn't know where they had obtained them and offer to give me a dub. I eagerly accepted. When I returned from my trip I stated using the musical sigs on my show. Julian Hurst asked me where I go them and I told him. A few weeks later Byron called me in his office. I sat down and he handed me a letter from PAMS. First, they threatened legal action against the station; second they wanted WTRP to pay several thousand dollars for the use of copyrighted material. I felt like an idiot. Byron asked for the tape of the jingles. I knew I was going to get fired. I left the station that afternoon trying to figure how long I would have to work for free to pay back the money. A few days later, Byron called me into his office again and told me the matter had been resolved. He had called the President of The Georgia Association Of Broadcasters and asked him to intervene. As it turned out the GM of WQXI, a guy named Kent Burkhart, had been passing through La Grange and heard me playing THEIR jingles on WTRP; he then called PAMS. Burkhart called PAMS and explained that the infraction had been committed by a dumb kid DJ. PAMS dropped the matter and I learned a valuable lesson. Kent and I would cross paths again. Then the Beatles happened.
My first Beatles LP
Not far from LaGrange is a resort called Callaway Gardens. Every year they host a world class water ski tournament. It was 1963, and I went down to the tournament to do news reports for WTRP. In the course of my reporting duties, I met the President of the British Water Ski Association. The topic of the Beatles came up and he mentioned that they had been to the BWA's resort and had given him a copy of their new album which he pulled out of a brief case. Now, I was an unabashed Beatle fanatic and instantly recognized it as an album that had not been released in the US. I asked to borrow it so I could take it back to the station and make a taped copy. He agreed, and then I started thinking about the fact that I, a lowly small-town DJ had possession of one of the most sought after albums in the country.
Backstage with Chad & Jeremy at Callaway Auditorium in Lagrange, 1964
At WQXI in Atlanta, like all big Top 40 stations, there was a DJ who was "Mr. Beatles". Paul Drew was the 7PM-Midnight DJ or "the fifth Beatle" as he was promoted. He traveled with them, knew every minute detail about them, and always had "exclusives" of their songs. I called him and told him about the album. I read off the songs on the album and he said that I had an album yet to be released in the States. Paul asked me to bring the album to Atlanta that night so he could tape it. I asked for two tickets to the Jacksonville Beatles concert. He agreed and I got my first glimpse of the station I had been listening to for so long. I was in awe as I peered through the studio glass at Drew on the air. Later we became friends and he would have a profound influence on my radio career.
On September 10, 1964 I drove to Jacksonville from LaGrange in my trusty '55 Chevrolet. I hadn't told my parents that the National Weather Service was predicting hurricane Dora was headed to Jacksonville along with the Beatles. I made it to a little town outside Jacksonville that night, checked into a motel with the winds gusting near hurricane strength. I admit that I was scared, especially when the owner of the motel told me to push all the furniture in the room against the window and door. I slept little as Dora churned to land, thru Jacksonville, and very near where I huddled in the dark. The next morning at daybreak I headed for Jacksonville witnessing the path of the storm along the way. I was listening to WAPE, the legendary Big Ape. I decided to pay a visit to the station. Orange Park is south of Jacksonville on Highway 17. When I pulled into the station parking lot the first thing I saw was a swimming pool in front of the station. As I walked in the front door of the station I was shocked to see that the pool was also in the lobby. This was the coolest radio station I had ever seen. The guy on the air waved for me to come over to the studio window and spoke to me over an intercom. I told him that I was in Jacksonville representing WQXI (I lied) at the Beatles concert. Instant credibility is what I got. He was falling all over himself to help me in any way. He asked me if I was going to the press conference. I didn't even know there was going to be a press conference, but recognizing the opportunity to interview the Beatles, I lied again and said yes. Now I had to find out where it the press conference was going to be held. I asked him for directions to the hotel, banking on the possibility it would be held at the hotel where they would be staying. He gave me directions. I asked him what time I should leave to arrive on time. This gave me the time of the press conference. He said he had to leave in shortly to go to the naval air station for President Johnson's arrival to inspect the hurricane damage. He invited me to go along. Since I had the rest of the day free I said yes. We arrived at the base and he flashed his press credentials and told the mp I was from an Atlanta station. No problem, the next thing I know were on the press bus on the way to Jax beach. When we arrived I joined the throng of reporters around the President with my trusty Sunbeam tape recorder. At the right moment, I shook hands with him. He was bigger than life very tall and looked like the president. I wish I had a picture of me shaking his hand. On the bus ride back to the naval air station the guy from WAPE asked me what it was like to work at a big station like WQXI. I managed to bullshit my way around his question by asking him questions about WAPE and the swimming pool. He told me the owner was a rich playboy who often entertained in a private apartment off the lobby of the radio station. He told me about the girls who came out to the station to swim in the pool at all hours of the day and night. Little did I know that eleven years later I would be program director of WAPE. Of course by then, the pool had been filled with dirt. Just my luck!
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(1) WAPE COVERAGE MAP (2) WAPE STUDIOS AND TOWER ON HWY 17 IN ORANGE PARK
(3) THE FAMOUS WAPE POOL (4) THE HOMEMADE 50KW WAPE TRANSMITTER (5) WAPE SIGN
(6) WAPE STUDIO (7) THE POOL (8) WAPE BEATLES PLAQUE (9) WAPE PROMOTIONAL TRANSISTOR
I walked into the ballroom at the hotel where the Beatles press conference was to be held and Derek Taylor asked who I was and what station I represented. I figured that I had better be truthful since he probably knew Paul Drew and besides I had typed up official looking credential on WTRP stationery just in case I needed them. He handed me a card identifying me as press, and told me to use that to get backstage at the Gator Bowl. I had died and gone to heaven. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever thought I'd be able to get backstage at a Beatles concert. I had been successful getting backstage at a couple of Dick Clark Cavalcade Of Stars shows in Montgomery, Alabama and Columbus, Georgia, but this was unbelievable.
Backstage with Peter Noone (Herman's Hermits) in Columbus, Ga. 1964
Taylor called the room to order and in marched the Beatles. I was on the front row as the newspaper and TV people asked questions. Then it was radio's turn and due to the hurricane, the number of stations there was small. I moved right in and started asking questions. When I got to John, he said "you're no radio DJ, that's not a tape recorder it's a shaver". I froze; he laughed. I realized he was kidding me and asked him a question. I have the tape. There was a teenage girl with a Polaroid camera taking pictures and I offered her five bucks to take mine in front of the table with the Beatles in the background. She did and handed it to me but refused the money. I stood starring at the picture as it developed. After a few minutes I remembered that Polaroid pictures had to have a chemical wipe after they the image fully emerged. I looked around for the girl with the camera but he was nowhere to be found. The picture eventually turned brown, but I have it hermetically sealed in plastic.
September 11th 1964, me at the Beatles Press conference in Jacksonville, Florida
UPDATE: 10/15/07
I received an email with "LOOKING FOR JOHN LONG" in the subject line. Not uncommon since I get an average of two or three a week from people around the world who: are former co workers, long lost acquaintances or total strangers who stumbled across my web sit. This one was different. Here’s a condensed version of the email:
"I am looking to make contact with John Long. I read your online account of your extraordinary life and I believe you can help me. Like you, my sister (16 years old at the time) attended the Beatles press conference in Gainesville Florida in September, 1964 and the subsequent "Hurricane concert" at the Gator Bowl. My mother drove her and a friend from Miami to Gainesville. Also like you, she kind of "fudged" her way into the press conference with some sort of North Miami Senior High school newspaper reporter's credentials! At one point in the press conference, my sister must have been virtually right next to you, because she was taking pictures of the Beatles with her Polaroid camera and you are in one of those pictures! When I saw the picture you have online of you with the Beatles in the background I almost fell over. You are the boy in one of my sister's pictures. Anyway, she went up and had the Beatles sign some of her Polaroid’s of them. I remember her calling me back home in Miami long distance from a Howard Johnsons I think, to tell me she had just met the Beatles at the press conference and gotten their autographs. After the concert at the Gator Bowl, my mother, sister and her friend came back to Miami with the worst colds of their lives from the wind at the concert and told me that they had to have a guy onstage to "hold Ringo down" because he was ready to blow away".
HERE'S THE PICTURE SHE SENT ME:
In loving memory of "Debbie", who took this picture.
Special thanks to her sister Ruth, who found me 43 years later.
That evening I arrived at the Gator Bowl early and took up my position under the stage. The wind was blowing like crazy. When the Beatles took the stage, a wall of sound rolled in and when they started playing, it intensified. There I was right under the front of the stage with my Sunbeam rolling and recording the concert. It seemed to last only a few minutes. Later in my motel room as I listened to my tape of the concert I sadly discovered that in my enthusiasm, I had sung along with the Beatles and the only thing louder than thousands of screaming girls was me. I have the tape.
In just two years I had been exposed to just enough of the "big time" to make me start dreaming about getting there. When I was offered a job as promotion man for Mercury records at their distributorship in Atlanta, I quit college, packed up my '60 Dodge and moved to Atlanta. It was in the fall of 1964. I was embarking on a journey to be filled with triumph and failure, personally and professionally. I had stars in my eyes. I knew I was going somewhere; I had no idea where. I was sure I didn't want to be sitting in La Grange, Georgia making $1.25 an hour at a daytime radio station, going to college and failing. I was on my way, $75.00 a week, a brand new Diner's Club card in my wallet, and a new pair of wingtips. I was about to start puttin' on the hits.
From my postcard collection.
©OIDAR PRODUCTIONS, LTD., 2008