Here in the UK we’ve never had the great DJs that all you lucky people have had the pleasure of listening to in the States (perhaps apart from a brief period in the mid 60s on the pirate radio ships).
So, the only American DJs I’ve had to fuel my dreams have been from films; and three that have always stood out have been Wolfman Jack from American Graffiti, Adrian Cronauer from Good Morning Vietnam and Super Soul from* Vanishing Point*. They all had a passion and an involvement with their listeners that is unforgettable. They had style.
I know Wolfman Jack was a real DJ; was he as good as his legend? Are the best American DJs that good?
I was a baby when Bob “Wolfman Jack” Smith was in his prime, so I never heard him then. As I understand it, he worked from outlaw radio stations located just over the Mexican border. That meant the radio stations could violate FCC regulations and broadcast all over Southern California. He also had the freedom to play all kinds of rock and roll records that mainstream American radio stations wouldn’t.
By the time I actually heard the Wolfman (when I was a teen in the Seventies), he was almost exclusively a nostalgia act.
I can’t link to IMDB at the moment, but 3 of the best movies about D Js are:
American Hot Wax
The Idolmaker
and one I’m not sure of the name and can’t look up because I have to go back to work, but it stars Don Cheadle. Talk To Me maybe??
KHJ in LA seemed to have all the legends working there when I was a kid: Wolfman Jack (American Graffiti), The Real Don Steele (Death Race 2000 (1975), Rock ‘n’ Roll High School), Casey Kasem (Saturday morning cartoons galore), and Charlie Tuna (Rollercoaster).
And for the bottom of the barrel in personality and the top in song selection: Rodney Bingenheimer.
PRIVATE PARTS featured three identifiably real DJs: Howard Stern, Symphony Sid and Don Imus. Of the three, I’d say Symphony Sid was the greatest, as he promoted the music over himself (although the movie does not make this very clear).
I’m sure there was a movie about Alan Freed at some point, but I’m blanking on it.
Yes. I remember listening to his Perfumed Garden from late at night to the early hours. He was quietly spoken and his style really was the ‘I love you all’ mode that was popular at the time. I’ve still got recordings and it’s hard to believe that people really did talk like that. It was wonderful.
We did have some DJs in the Wolfman Jack style: Emperor Rosko on Radio Caroline for example, and others who had their own individual style, like Kenny Everett on Radio London.
Yes, “American Hot Wax” which came out in the late 1970s and never has been released on VHS or DVD. Interesting Jay Leno appears as an actor in it, before he became a late night talk show host. Great scene… some time after hearing that Jerry Lee Lewis has cancelled his appearance at a Freed-sponsored concert, there is a shot of a Cadillac with Louisiana plates making a quick stop in the parking lot. The Killer has arrived
In New York City Vin Scelsa has appeared on a lot of different radio stations (fired) and combines great musical taste with a tendency to ramble on and on. He gets a mention in the Ramones song “It’s not my place in the 9 to 5 world”.
Actually the only thing that distinguished him from a lot of other DJs at the time was the gravelly sound of his voice and that goofy wolf howl. It was easy to find other DJs (perhaps inspired by Jack) on the dial using that exaggerated hipster schtick up until around 1975. That was when the “mellow” DJs like Jim Ladd started to become more prevalent.
For a real taste of Alan Freed you don’t have to settle for the Tim McIntire impersonation in American Hot Wax. Freed played himself in at least a half dozen films in the late '50s.
Talk To Me, yep. Good flick!
My favorite radio-based movie lately has been Pirate Radio, which is a GREAT flick, but I dont’ think it’s based on real events. And I don’t think Talk To Me is, either. ETA: I was wrong, it is. Talk To Me, that is.
I came into the thread expecting Daft Punk to be listed due to their spectacular contribution to the Tron: Legacy film <would NOT have been the same movie without them> but I’m not quite sure that’s what is being asked for.
In Chicago, there was WLS DJ, Uncle Larry Lujack Larry Lujack - Wikipedia for an IRL DJ. I’m not sure if he has ever been immortalized in film, but damn, he was funny back in the day.
Pirate Radio (aka The Boat That Rocked) is sort of based on real life: the aforementioned Radios Caroline was the inspiration. Most of the DJs were based on real pirate radio DJs. And, as in the movie, Radio Caroline sank. Ah! Happy days!
Like you, I was too young to have heard Wolfman Jack in his prime, and too far away as well. But I remember listening to his syndicated “oldies” show in the mid-1970s. It was a good show, as I recall.
He did describe his experiences on the Mexican “border blaster” stations in his autobiography: Have Mercy!: Confessions of the Original Rock ‘N’ Roll Animal. They are interesting (500,000 watt transmitters, when the strongest allowed by the FCC was 50,000); but perhaps even more interesting are his experiences in radio in general. Well worth reading if you want to get a feel for what radio was like back in the 1950s and 60s.
Talk To Me, that is.