DYKYC?: The Birth of Rock and Roll In Charleston

About four blocks away from where this is written is the husk of WQSN, its once regal tower now rusting in the pluff mud. The remarkable sounds of three WZ no longer waft from those boss Pioneer speakers. Buzz no longer regales us with stories of little known information of very little use save to chuckle on the way to work.
WTMA –AM (Tiger Radio) is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Today Richard Todd and Rocky-D rule the local talk radio scene from fancy studios off 526, but I remember when one of the Swanson boys threw a firecracker through the open window of the studio at the Dock Street Theatre. Doug Randall and Booby Nash were fixtures as prevalent as the Shirelles and Curtis Mayfield.
I was fortunate enough to be the last local boy to have a show on drive-time local talk radio. I was on TMA when NAACP boycott story broke. Later when writing this column seven or eight years ago, I began to compile people’s memories of the media.
John Quincy, an institution of Charleston radio since 1981, began to scour the ether for all things TMA. Go to http://www.wtmamemories.com/. Take the time to do it. The site is an absolute gem. There is a special place in heaven for John.
I was humbled to find my columns about radio memories amid the cooler stuff. I had occasion to peruse them and came across one from my friend, the late, great Walker Coleman.
Walker wrote, “One day in the spring of ‘55, I overheard some older schoolmates whispering and snickering about the audacious new “Hound Dog” show on radio station WTMA which played music so raunchy that you had to listen on the sneak. I vicariously tuned in the following Saturday evening at 10:00 pm and was both surprised and delighted to experience the joyous, uplifting Rhythm and Blues music I had heard earlier in my childhood on station WDIA in Memphis, Tennessee. Here it was prominently accompanied by a hoarse voiced disk jockey, Jack Gale, screaming in at the top of his lungs while drums furiously pounded and a hound dog periodically let loose horny howls and moans at the moon. Many of the songs definitely were raunchy-especially the Annie series and almost anything else by the Midnighters as well as “Baby Don’t Drop It”, “Rocket 69″ as well as others. These tunes were interspersed with some of the most outrageous commercials imaginable, many in jive rhymes. One I recall, even today, was for a shoe store where you could get your basic ‘leopard skin shoes with purple lizard gizzard laces that glowed in the dark.’
“Hound Dog exuded an irreverent attitude that every red-blooded wannabe teenage rebel could adopt as their own since it was guaranteed to totally repulse their parental units. The show quickly became mandatory for many of my contemporaries–and, yes, most of us had to keep the radio volume way down or use other subterfuges such as overnights with friends to fake out disapproving parents, many of whom actually forbade offspring from listening to this “crude music”. Often we even managed to stay awake all the way until 2:00 am sign off. I later learned that Gale was the overall WTMA Station Manager and experimenting at the time with several different broadcast formats to improve ratings. I can remember Gale telling us one night that the music he played would henceforth be called ‘Rock and Roll’ by him and many of his fellow DJs.
“I joined the official Hound Dog fan club and still have a square bumper sticker with its black border encompassing a bright orange circle in which a crudely rendered white canine with black spots musically howls; ‘I’m a Rock & Roll Hound Dog’. This was secured at Carolina Instrument Service on upper King which sold the records played on the show, and which we called the ‘Hound Dog Record Shop.”
“The Hound Dog show experiment on WTMA was over by year’s end, however. Other local stations had started regularly programming the music and I would listen each evening and morning to “A Train” on WUSN and then spend the afternoons and Saturday mornings at WPAL with Big Bob Nichols’ “Blues and Boogie Show” as he would sophisticatedly articulate “I can see you out there”. In fact, for the next several years the radio at East Bay Playground was tuned to this show every afternoon and Nichols himself often broadcast live on Saturday mornings from the front window of Fox Music House on upper King where one day he was visited by none other than Augusta, Georgia, neighbor James Brown and his Famous Flames who arrived in their equipment saturated, eight-door, stretch white Chevy limousine with bright flames painted all along the sides. By now there was even a local television show playing some R & B, the late evening Talent Parade hosted by eloquent D. Jack Moses.
“Later we expanded our “must-listen” list with station WAPE (“Big Ape”) received directly over the Atlantic from Jacksonville, Florida. This list was finally rounded off in the late ’50s with pirate Station WXERF beamed illegally from the Mexican border side of Del Rio, Texas where Wolfman Jack was just getting started, and had the most outrageous of all the shows ever heard prior to the current day array of crude radio morning personalities.”
As they are wont to say on Facebook, I’d like to continue this thread. What are your memories?

Elizabeth: Happy Monday!?

I am so sour this morning. No, I don’t just have ‘a case of the Mondays.’ I am simply feeling cynical, impatient and generally irritable (and NO, it’s not ‘that time of the month,’ either, thank you very much!) It’ll pass, I am sure, but what bothers me is the fact that, in my mind, I think how I really don’t have much of a right to feel that way today. I am not a widower this morning. I did not just lose my father unexpectedly. I am not embroiled in a scandal of international proportions. No one in my family has cancer. When you break it down, today is an amazingly good day.

I take a deep breath after saying that to myself, and there is a tiny shift. I feel a little lighter, my ‘problems’ seem a bit more inconsequential.

The news media can be overwhelming sometimes—inescapable, almost; but it is a wonderful tool in gaining a little perspective on my own life. Is that wrong? The fact that I look at the stories of people passing on, leaving children and spouses devastated in the wake and then think, “ok, she’s got it way worse than I do.” It seems sort of terrible to make myself feel better through the misery of others, but I bet I’m not the only one. It’s not a case of schadenfreude—I don’t derive pleasure from their misery, just a notion that maybe I can get through whatever my current challenge is if they can. Really, that my current challenge isn’t a challenge at all, just an annoyance that must be handled. As a friend of mine said to me this morning, “hell, we ALL have problems!”

I suppose that is the truth. So, for all of us that are feeling less than stellar about our own current affairs—let us turn on the news today and I guarantee something on there will make you feel better.

Billy, We Hardly Knew Ye

Where were you when Billy Mays died?
The cable news people are already trotting out the commercials. In a week that lost Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, Billy’s death at 50 has left a mournful nation stunned, numb. Could it get worse?
The incessant videos of Jacko’s “Moonwalking” ™ have been replaced. Billy’s dulcet tones exhorting us to buy Oxyclean, and OrangGlo now dominate the airwaves (without permission?).
According to Fox News, Deborah Mays, Bill’s widow released a statement, “Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times,”
One wonders where a country already insecure will turn when looking for inexpensive value furniture polish. Rumor has it that commemorations are being held at Wal-Marts and CVS stores all over the world. In loud imprecations they are reported to be chanting, “”Long live your laundry!”
The Huffington Post reports, Mays liked to tell the story of giving bottles of OxiClean to the 300 guests at his wedding, and doing his ad spiel (“powered by the air we breathe!”) on the dance floor at the reception. Visitors to his house typically got bottles of cleaner and housekeeping tips.
The Post reveals, Discovery Channel spokeswoman Elizabeth Hillman released a statement “Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth,” Hillman’s statement said. “Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend.”
Anyone who has insomnia knows who Billy Mays was. Although there are no reports of people gathering at their Pittsburg home weeping and holding up clean laundry, one has to wonder who will soon awake them with that loud, lovable infectious tone at three in the am selling us financial services or furniture polish.

Life… or at least our collars will seem a little bit darker.

Here’s the reaction from one disraught fan:

Elizabeth: Farrah vs. Michael

Boy, Farrah sure had her thunder stolen yesterday! Brian Williams even said that Farrah was the lead story on ‘NBC News’ until Mr. Jackson’s demise was reported—that they would get to her story a “little later.” I mean, which death is more dramatic, more newsworthy? The long, drawn out struggle of a beautiful woman battling cancer who finally, sadly succombs or the amazingly sudden expiration of a pop icon? (Personally, I’d rather drop quick like lightning than suffer the agony of poor Farrah, but I digress.)

I have to admit that I was truly saddened by Farrah Fawcett’s passing yesterday. I didn’t really know that much about her—I never watched Charlie’s Angels, and I did not have “that poster” on my bedroom wall, but I felt like I had a highly personal glimpse into her life when I watched her documentary, “Farrah’s Story.”

I can hear it now: “you actually watched that thing?” Well, I did because my next door neighbor, Larry, is battling liver cancer much the same as Farrah’s. Larry is a big ol’ bear of a man (or was, I should say) and I wanted to learn more about what he is experiencing—to have some questions answered that I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking, but am curious to know. He is 56 years old and has maybe six more months to live. I felt better after watching that documentary; I felt like he had a fighting chance to make it a little longer. I learned a lot about the disease, and I like being informed. (But, I digress again!)

The passing of Michael Jackson is tragic—he is gone way before his time, as well. He was a legend. As much as it changed through the years, probably one of the most recognized faces in the world. I could never figure him out, though. I would like to believe that he was simply a “troubled soul,” a child trapped in a man’s body, but I’m just not sure. What always horrified me was the possibility that he had used his unfathomable fame and fortune to take advantage of young boys (and their families, for that matter.) The first instinct, I think, is to give the guy the benefit of the doubt—that all that fame had made him a target. Plausible, to be sure, until that boy took the witness stand; until that day he dangled his infant over a balcony. The story started to fall apart for me then. In his passing, though, we shall celebrate his victories, his musical genius and remember the strange behavior, but leave it on the back burner where it probably belongs.

No one can argue that popular culture lost two icons yesterday and one earlier in the week in Ed McMahon. They say these things come in threes, so maybe we will have a reprieve on the sadness for a bit; at least we can hope.

The Day After The Day After

Last night (June 25th) according to the cable news stations, it was going to be all-Mark Sanford, all the time. Indeed, there were pictures of him at his beach house after a visit with his family. There were interviews with Jenny Sanford as she was about to go on a family boat outing to see the tall ships. She pretty much said Mark was on his own.
Photographs were released of the Argentine paramour. Most men understood. They probably didn’t tell their wives, but deep down in the limbic brain they left what they felt was the cold wife and the kids who hated them for a quick romp before they were shaken to reality as they chased the garbage truck down the street.
There will be a Cabinet meeting at 12:30. Governor Sanford says he won’t resign, but that’s yesterday’s quote. The man is under more pressure than most humans ever experience in a lifetime. There are those speculating he use that time to leave. Andre Baur has to be having heart palpitations.
Still, the world is no longer interested in our governor’s peccadilloes. Just as the world media was sharpening their knives for Mark Sanford, Michael Jackson died.
The cable news people (and even the network news divisions) dropped their regular programming which featured even more focus on the South Carolina governor’s woes for the salacious details of the “King of Pop’s” death.
Indeed, so much attention is being devoted to Michael Jackson’s death that many didn’t realize Farah Fawcett died as well. To tell you the truth the aforementioned husbands are a lot more bummed about that than they are about Jacko.
Jackson’s death wiped Sanford off the international television screens – but not off the local radar screen. Indeed as 12:30 looms, the state holds its collective breath. Will he stay or will he fight on?
It should be noted that both the Sanford and Jackson stories are allowing the House of Representatives to pass the cap and trade “Climate Bill” which the Wall Street Journal is claiming to be the “biggest tax in American history.”
No story be it about an iconic star’s untimely demise or a governor who has lost way, should overshadow this because the financial consequences for every man , woman and child in this country will be devastating.
Yet it has. This weekend, be prepared to wallow in Jackson speculation, videos, interviews and the like 24/7.
This weekend, if the governor is still in power, he should stay under wraps and watch some Thriller retrospectives, and thank his lucky stars that Jackson’s mistakes are a super-nova.
I say Sanford stays. I want this restructuring business finished. God knows, he has nothing left to lose. This might be a way to finally win this battle. He can take it the people in a way he never could.
That’s his trademark. Let’s hope he can use it.
Please take our poll below.
What to do think?

Elizabeth: It won’t happen to me!

I wish someone could explain to me how this keeps happening. I mean, when the whole Eliott Spitzer thing went down, did Mr. Sanford stop for just a minute and think, “damn-I’d really hate for that to happen to me!”

How can you witness the national (international, even?) humiliation of a man and then walk down the exact same path thinking, “it will be different for me—I won’t get caught!”

If we have learned anything, it is that you WILL get caught. There is no privacy anymore. There is no hiding anymore. A public figure in a position of such power is subject to invasion beyond our wildest imaginings. So, answer me this; can the pull of another woman be so intense, so heady that it simply cannot be resisted? Or is it that these men wielding such power are so completely engaged in their own egos they become blind to anything but what makes them feel good? I’m not sure anyone knows except for them. It’s always been said that we want most what we cannot have—is this just a case of that sentiment gone wild?

When the shoe drops, though, then what?

These towering men in these high posts crumble to whimpering, sobbing little boys in an instant. This 180 is amazing to witness—we can’t look away. We sit back and say, “My how the mighty have fallen.”

We feel a little less terrible about our own mistakes—at least the whole world doesn’t know! We might even feel a little self-righteous, “well, I may not be governor, but at least I’ve been a faithful spouse—so I’m better than him!” If anything, it is humanizing. None of us, no matter our post in life, is exempt from temptation, from terrible judgment, or from a mistake that will be regretted for the rest of a lifetime.

Sad, really, that in this case, we, as South Carolina citizens, must now wait and wonder what becomes of us. A little more instability for our fair state—thanks a lot, Mark.

Should Mark Sanford Resign?

What you’ve said:

“And, he hasn’t lied to the public about his affair, as President Clinton did. On the contrary, he has been more than forthright about his failing. Nevertheless, he should take his own advice and resign, as Bill Clinton should have done. Too bad, though.”

“David, he hasn’t lied to the public about his affair? HAHAHAHA. What do you think he’s been doing for the last year? He lied to his wife, lied to his kids, lied to his friends, lied to his aides, lied to his supporters, lied to the press, lied to everyone in this state. You know this.

Next up: the investigation into whether he also lied to us by using state money to see his mistress.”

T”he guy is just human – he would make a GREAT CEO ,
but for our state , a suck ass governor . Perhaps , he is just freakin worn out
- worn out with the political process , worn out with a looney GA , worn out
with small short termed thinking in general ( a SC special talent ) , and worn
out with his witched out wife . So… I am on his side on this one … Governor
, you fought the battle , you’ve sacrificed your life for two terms , get your
head on staright , move on with your life … good luck …”

What do you think?

The end of the day

The moon begins her stately ride
Across the summer sky;
The happy wavelets lash the shore,
The tide is rising high.

Beneath some friendly blade of grass
The lazy beetle cowers;
The coffers of the air are filled
With offerings from the flowers.

And slowly buzzing o’er my head
A swallow wings her flight;
I hear the weary plowman sing
As falls the restful night.

Anonymous

The e-mails have been reduced to enlargement ads combined with the promise of two hot chicks that are waiting for me in Mount Pleasant. I’m tired and disheartened.

Will Governor Sanford get through this? Will he stay in office?

God, I hope so.

We all have insurmountable problems — we all have long dark nights of the soul, times where life is insurmountable.

I say quit apologizing, Governor. You are human. You will not go onto higher political office very soon. I’d bet the farm you will never be president.

You are, however, still governor. Remember that. You had a spectacularly bad day, you are not a spectacualrly bad person. You were elected twice by the people of the sovereign state of South Carolina. Despite your detractors, you did not let them down.

I respect your decision, whatever that might be, but remember this: there are fewer and fewer people willing to stand up against the federal tsunami throttling our citizens. You never went along to get along.

This is no time to start now.

From the State: E-Mails From Argentina

“I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before – so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know… In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul.”
Mark Sanford e-mail

Read the whole story here:
http://www.thestate.com/sanford/story/839350.html

Breaking News: Statements by Jennie Sanford and others

Statement from First Lady Jenny Sanford:

I would like to start by saying I love my husband and I believe I have put forth
every effort possible to be the best wife I can be during our almost twenty
years of marriage. As well, for the last fifteen years my husband has been fully
engaged in public service to the citizens and taxpayers of this state and I have
faithfully supported him in those efforts to the best of my ability. I have
been and remain proud of his accomplishments and his service to this state.

I personally believe that the greatest legacy I will leave behind in this world
is not the job I held on Wall Street, or the campaigns I managed for Mark, or
the work I have done as First Lady or even the philanthropic activities in which
I have been routinely engaged. Instead, the greatest legacy I will leave in this
world is the character of the children I, or we, leave behind. It is for that
reason that I deeply regret the recent actions of my husband Mark, and their
potential damage to our children.

I believe wholeheartedly in the sanctity, dignity and importance of the
institution of marriage. I believe that has been consistently reflected in my
actions. When I found out about my husband’s infidelity I worked immediately to
first seek reconciliation through forgiveness, and then to work diligently to
repair our marriage. We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my
sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of
right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago.

This trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening
our marriage. During this short separation it was agreed that Mark would not
contact us. I kept this separation quiet out of respect of his public office and
reputation, and in hopes of keeping our children from just this type of public
exposure. Because of this separation, I did not know where he was in the past
week.

I believe enduring love is primarily a commitment and an act of will, and for a
marriage to be successful, that commitment must be reciprocal. I believe Mark
has earned a chance to resurrect our marriage.

Psalm 127 states that sons are a gift from the Lord and children a reward from
Him. I will continue to pour my energy into raising our sons to be honorable
young men. I remain willing to forgive Mark completely for his indiscretions and
to welcome him back, in time, if he continues to work toward reconciliation with
a true spirit of humility and repentance.

This is a very painful time for us and I would humbly request now that members
of the media respect the privacy of my boys and me as we struggle together to
continue on with our lives and as I seek the wisdom of Solomon, the strength and
patience of Job and the grace of God in helping to heal my family.

Representative Nikki Haley (R-Lexington) released the following statement regarding Governor Sanford’s press conference:

“While Governor Sanford and I have long shared a political philosophy, today’s revelations go well beyond politics. This is a tragic situation for the Sanford family and for our state. My prayers are with the Sanfords, and in particular with Jenny and the boys, and I will do anything I can to help them through this ordeal.

“My work in the General Assembly and in my campaign for governor has always been centered on bringing trust and accountability back to government. One component of that is treating taxpayer dollars responsibly and changing the structure of state government so it is accountable to taxpayers. Governor Sanford has been a champion of those principles, and I admire his efforts in those areas. However, another component is behaving in a manner that allows people to trust in their public officials and feel good about their government. Obviously, the Governor has fallen far short in that regard and that is extremely unfortunate.

“I will continue to bring my message of trust and accountability to the people of our state over the weeks and months ahead. More importantly, I hope to be able to help heal the wounds that have been created in South Carolina by today’s news.”

STATEMENT BY SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARVEY PEELER

Columbia, SC – June 24, 2009 – South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler (R-Cherokee) issued the following statement today:

“I’m deeply disturbed that NO ONE knew where Governor Sanford was over the last five days. He left the country and deliberately made himself unavailable without delegating power to the Lt. Governor. In the process he misled his staff who unknowingly misled the public. These actions could have had drastic consequences in the case of an emergency. We cannot let the Governor’s personal life overshadow his public responsibility, or in this case, his negligence of gubernatorial authority.”

STATEMENT BY SENATE MAJORITY LEADER HARVEY PEELER

Columbia, SC – June 24, 2009 – South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler (R-Cherokee) issued the following statement today:

“I’m deeply disturbed that NO ONE knew where Governor Sanford was over the last five days. He left the country and deliberately made himself unavailable without delegating power to the Lt. Governor. In the process he misled his staff who unknowingly misled the public. These actions could have had drastic consequences in the case of an emergency. We cannot let the Governor’s personal life overshadow his public responsibility, or in this case, his negligence of gubernatorial authority.”