This week’s open threads are dedicated the hard-working black radio disc jockeys of the past and present.
Douglas “Jocko” Henderson (March 8, 1918, -July 15, 2000) was a legendary disc jockey on the airwaves of Philadelphia and New York in the 1950s and 1960s. Douglas Wendell “Jocko” Henderson was a pioneer of the slick-talking, rapid-fire radio patter that influenced Black and White jockeys nationwide and laid a cultural foundation for “rap” music.
Henderson began his broadcast career in 1952 at Baltimore station WSID, and in 1953 began broadcasting in Philadelphia on WHAT. He hosted a show called “Rocket Ship” out of New York radio stations WOV and WADO from 1954 to 1964, which was an early conduit for rock & roll.He was known for a distinctive style of rhythmic patter in his radio voice, which he had learned from a Baltimore deejay, Maurice “Hot Rod” Hulbert.Henderson continued on the stations WDAS and WHAT until 1974, deejaying in Philadelphia and New York as well as hosting concerts in both cities and a TV music program in New York. In addition to Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore, Henderson was also broadcast on stations in St. Louis, Detroit, Miami, and Boston.
In 1978, Henderson made an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s 2nd congressional district. He also made some early rap records, recording 12″ singles for Philadelphia International and Sugar Hill Records. He continued deejaying on oldies stations into the 1990s.
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Henderson into their Hall of Fame in 2004.
In a 2013 interview, Questlove described Jocko Henderson as “unofficially the first MC” (adapting a jazz style of scat singing in the late disco era), and stated that he was a major influence on the earliest rap and hip-hop in Philadelphia in the late 1970s.
Melvin Lindsey (July 8, 1955 – March 26, 1992) was an American radio and television personality in the Washington, D.C. area. He is widely known for originating the “Quiet Storm” late-night music programming format.
Lindsey began his broadcast career as an intern at Howard University radio station WHUR-FM. In 1976, he brought the “Quiet Storm” to the station’s late-night lineup, titled after a romantic hit single by tenor crooner Smokey Robinson. The show’s soulfully melodic and moody musical fare made it a phenomenal success and the ‘love song’-heavy format was quickly replicated at stations across the country that served an urban, African-American adult demographic. Lindsey’s show also gave rise to a category of music of the same name.
After a nine-year run on WHUR, Lindsey took his format to another local radio station, WKYS-FM, for five more years and later hosted Screen Scene for Black Entertainment Television (BET). He also worked for Washington, D.C. television stations WTTG-TV and WFTY-TV and for WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland.
Lindsey died of AIDS in 1992 at the age of 36, but the Quiet Storm format he originated remains a popular staple in radio programming today, three decades after its inception, across the nation, especially in evening and late-night radio programs. Many artists continue to create songs targeted towards Quiet Storm stations and shows.