(112) PERSONALITY DJ'S : CLIFF GLEAVES TO WOLFMAN JACK

Today most people have heard of Wolfman Jack. He seems to have been the personality D.J. who made his show last a long long time. He became a spokesman.

But in the late 1950's the Personality D.J. - usually a man - but sometimes a woman - was a Disk Jockey who not only had to be fast and witty and knowledgeable but they ran their own show. THEY SELECTED THE RECORDS THEY WOULD PLAY, and in what order, and how many times, so they could "break" a record that they sort of discovered, and they could "make" a record by giving it a lot of air time, while other records sat. D.J. Dewey Phillips (who we blogged on earlier and provided a LINK to) broke Elvis' first record, a demo.

Personality D.J. were respected by their own audiences and fans in the way that some movie critics are today. If you seem to agree with a critic when he or she hates a film, you'll respect their ideas and go see the films they love. Well, when a Personality D.J., loved a record, his or her fans ran out to the record stores to buy a copy of it. When Cliff Gleaves got the invitation from Elvis personally to travel with him, he abruptly left his job as a well respected D.J. on a high powered station. He took his witt with him...

By the early 1960's the era of the Personality D.J. was fading out, being replaced by what was called THE TOP FORTY format. In this case record sales were to propel the record to airplay and what would be played over and over again were the TOP FORTY sellers. The Power of the Personality D.J. waned and marketing changed the way a record was sold.

We'll be talking about this significant change in radio play and the Personality DJ's in our next few blocks.