One of my all-time favorite memories is called “American Graffiti.” It is a movie about life on a ‘drag’ in Southern California in the early 60s. Back in that time, if you lived in Brownwood, you knew what a ‘drag’ was. Dairy Maid on Coggin to Austin Avenue to Center, to the traffic circle, out West Commerce to Lyon’s Drive Inn and back. Nothing like that trip on a Friday or Saturday night when the streets were packed.
Nevertheless, one of my all-time favorite scenes in that movie in that movie was when the boy and girl go the radio station to get Wolfman Jack to play a request. Wolfman Jack was a real DJ, the most popular in America at that time. So these kids run into this guy at the back door who claims to be the janitor and he says, “I can’t let you in to see the Wolfman, but if you will write it down I will take your request to him.”
As they started to leave they heard Wolfman’s voice on the radio and they heard the song they requested. They turn around and look through a crack in the window and the janitor is talking on the radio and playing their song. They smile at each other, knowing they had been hoodwinked by the real Wolfman himself.
That’s the way it was back then. You didn’t have any idea what your favorite announcers looked like and that was one of the great qualities of radio. You had to use your imagination. With TV, there is nothing left to the imagination.
Jack Wallace was the first on-air personality that I ever met in radio. He was one unreal character. He had one of the great voices I have ever heard, and was the first request-type DJ we ever had in this area (Riney Jordan followed). I loved listening to Jack. Through the help of a friend, I actually got in the radio station one night and was introduced to him. I didn’t say it, but what I thought was, “You don’t look like what you’re supposed to look like.”
When I started in radio, I probably felt the same way as most of my peers did. I would have been totally satisfied to be in the control room by myself with the door locked, blacked out windows, and no phone access. I just wanted to be by myself and create my own personality without anybody knowing it.
Today, it is totally different. I’m not sure that the personnel in radio have changed all that much, but it’s social media that has changed. Now, the mystery of what people on the radio look like is gone. Is that good or bad? Depends on who you ask.
I, for one, am glad I lived in the era when I did and it still thrills my soul to go do a revival somewhere in this area of Texas and have someone come up to me and say, “You don’t look at all like I thought you did.”
Until next time, so long everybody.
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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].