My Rock And Roll-er Coaster Ride

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Santa Barbara, California

So, Paul McCartney is 64.

I'll bet he never thought he'd still be singing When I'm 64 when he hit that age himself. He was 25 when he wrote it. What 25 year-old thinks about what he will be doing when he's 64? I surely didn't. When the Beatles debuted that song on the Sgt. Pepper album, I was one year away from my first job in radio, at WSBR in Pensacola, Florida. I didn't for the life of me believe I would be in radio 38 years later, but here I am daily on Sirius 102. Have radio and rock & roll had a profound influence on my life? Well, I remember that the first record I ever played on the air was Respect, by Aretha Franklin, and I own three houses. What does that tell you?

Along my radio odyssey, I've made a lot of stops. I went to WKDA in Nashville, which was a quick jump to Memphis where I used to hide behind an open back door at Sam Phillips' Sun Records trying to convince guys to come on the air with me the next time they were in Nashville. It worked once. I got Carl Perkins.

For columnist Jay Thomas, Elvis had fringe benefits.

Then it was on to WAPE, The Big Ape, in Jacksonville, Florida. There my career and the careers of a few other locals met up. As the top jock in town, I've always emceed a lot of concerts. Any battle of the bands was a big draw back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jacksonville was no different. From Jacksonville University, where I was a student, to the local high schools, to a county fair, if there were a battle somewhere I was there.

Those local Jacksonville battles mostly came down to two groups, Mouse the Boys and Brass – which was kind of a pre-Chicago Chicago – vs. The Second Coming. Mouse and the Boys almost always won, but I thought the The Second Coming, with their two drummers, was a more interesting band. The Second Coming later changed its name to The Allman Brothers. Maybe you heard of them.

There was another terrific group in Jacksonville cutting their musical chops during my days at WAPE. I got to introduce them too. A run in with their high school gym teacher Leonard Skinner inspired the band's name, Lynard Skynard.

From Jacksonville, it was off to one of America's most important rock & roll stations, WAYS in Charlotte, North Carolina. There, not only did I do morning drive, I was program director as well. Now, that was a job that came with a few fringe benefits – not to mention a future ex-wife.

WAYS sponsored Elvis when his comeback was in full stride. It was after the NBC special and shortly before Aloha, From Hawaii. Not only did I have access to Elvis, more importantly, I controlled the show tickets. Women would line up in the lobby, some with babies in bassinets, willing to do anything to get their hands on tickets. Ah, the good times. By the way, I liked Elvis. Thought he was a good guy. We never got to be pals, and he never gave me one of those TCB lightning bolt necklaces the Memphis Mafia wore, but come on. I knew Elvis. Thank you, thank you, very much.

My loud mouth took me from Charlotte to WKTU in New York City, and then on to Power 106 in Los Angeles. We would win morning drive in both cities, making me the first jock to be the number one radio personality in New York and then Los Angeles. Howard Stern swears he used to listen to me in New York, and has credited me with influencing his style. I think Howard is just being nice, but if he wants to keep the compliments coming I'll take them.