Page 55 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2022

auditory hand grenade that would ultimately tear down racial “You sent me your record, if I dug it, we would play it 10
barriers and open the ears of young Americans of all ages times and watch the phones. (The phones were the dozen
and races to soul music and the blues. 800 request lines in house that listeners could access). If the
phones lit up, we would keep on playing it and maybe talk
The Big Four about sweetening the deal. Then the artist could drop by the
The nighttime was indeed the right time, and belonged to station and let everyone know where the next show was.”
Gene Nobles, William “Hossman” Allen, Herman Grizzard, Airplay on ‘LAC meant you could work the Chitlin’
and John Richbourg (better known as John R.). They were Circuit. The Chitlin’ Circuit was the stream of clubs, dance
known collectively as “The 50,000-Watt Quartet.” They spoke halls, fraternal lodges and taverns that featured Black music
in jive, used lots and lots of double entendre (“from the heart throughout the South and Midwest. Airplay on this station
of my bottom”) and everyone assumed they were Black. alone could make a career.
They weren’t. Matter of fact, they were four middle-aged Blues superstar Bobby Rush explained it to me, “WLAC
white guys adopting mannerisms and on-air patter that was the MTV and YouTube of our day. You would listen every
bridged the gap so well they passed under the radar for years night to see who was hot, who was getting played and who
before listeners found out otherwise. John R. was especially was touring. It was vital to promoters, knowing who could put
known for his colorful intro rap every night; “Yeah! It’s the big butts in seats”.
John R., the blues man. Whoa! Have mercy, honey, have mercy, Franklin Williams, journeyman bass player added, “I
have mercy. I’m gonna spread a little joy, now you stand still came from a very religious family and blues and rock and roll
and take it like a man!” were not allowed in the house, I would listen to John R. and
Along with the records themselves, these DJs all read “live” then tape the songs I had to learn for gigs the next week. It
copy on the air for a wide variety of unusual and unique was all about that one station and what they were playing.”
products ranging from baby chicks to Royal Crown pomade, The list of white artists that have paid non-stop homage to
to a long-forgotten pre-Viagra male enhancement pill known the home of Slim Harpo, The Five Blind Boys and Stim-U-Aid
as Stim-U-Aid. speaks volumes. Among them include Tom Petty, Boz Scaggs,
Sunday nights got even wilder with radio preachers
buying blocks of time. These 15-minute blocks featured Johnny Winters, The Allman Brothers Band, John Hiatt, Gary
unhinged sermons, a gospel tune or two and then a pitch Stewart, Willie Nelson, The Band, Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd,
for prayer rugs, miracle-blessed holy water, lucky number Bonnie Raitt and ZZ Top. They all list John R. and Hossman as
books and, of course – “for fulfillment of the Christian some of THE most important influences on their music... Read
marriage” – Stim-U-Aid. However, the main sponsors on that list again!
all the shows were two mail order record stores owned by Historians of the Carolina Beach music scene point directly
Randy Wood and Ernie Young. Randy’s Record Shop was to WLAC as providing the first taste of all the great shag tunes
one of the first mail order music outlets in the world. You that have endured to this day.
could order the records you heard on the air and get on a
weekly mailing list. Wood would go on to sell millions of
records this way and eventually run his own record label,
Dot Records. Ernie Young would also go on to make a huge
impact on both gospel and secular music with the labels
Excello and Nashboro.

Home of the Hits
Over the past few years, the more I unearth the history of
soul and blues, the more this station becomes ground zero of
the entire narrative. James Brown, Albert King, Etta James and
Otis Redding were only a few of the artists whose careers took
off here, and the entire genre basically existed and grew due
to these four programmers.

Rewind to Summer 1954
Hossman Allen gets a hold of a song that he thinks is hit
material. A simple song with the singer pleading over and
over to his girl. The record company doesn’t like it all that
much, but “Please, Please, Please” becomes James Browns’
first big hit and his signature closing number. I got to know
Hossman in later years, and he shared a little inside info on
how it all worked: WLAC DJ Gene Nobles

Blues Festival Guide 2022 53