Comments on: John R. on 1510 WLAC Nashville | Early 70s

By: Doug Hadley

Doug Hadley — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:24:58 +0000

I was in the air force in the early 60s,station at Albrook in Panama Canal Zone.On clear nights we could recevie John Rs broadcast . We sure looked forward to it.

By: Dewey Vandiver

Dewey Vandiver — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:59:46 +0000

John R was the “Greatest” DJ to ever live and was also a Great person, I know because I was under contract to John R for a number of years as a Producer for Charles Smith & Jeff Cooper (“Ashes To Ashes”), this was for his Seventy Seven Record Label. John was always positive about life, but was as nervous as a cat the last week he was at WLAC. All I can say is “John R The Greatest Of All Time”

By: Wayne Fox

Wayne Fox — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:44:58 +0000

When I was in Vietnam in 1970 my good buddy Larry Badon’s Sister would record WLAC and send him the tapes. We spent many a nite enjoying the sound of “the world”. Larry was an accomplished Base Guitarist, and he would play along with the music. This audio brings back a flood of memories.

By: Jingles

Jingles — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:18:48 +0000

John R. and the Hossman were the greatest. I wish I had a C.D. with hours of their voices/radio shows instead of just hearing a few minutes of their programs that I have found on the internet. Hoss Allen’s voice is a haunting statement of our lives when he says ” well, it looks like time just caught up with us”. (I hope that I quoted him correctly). And another truth that he told-”don’t wait for the hurst, to take you to church.” Time is catching up with many of us and we’d better not “wait for the hurst, to take us to church”.

By: Jimmy Conner

Jimmy Conner — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:43:18 +0000

Sid, I agree!!
John was “through” with it before alot of us knew what to “do” with it!!!
One of my heros next to The late jesse Coopwood and “Tghe barron of Bounce”, Lucky Cordell and the Wvon good guys!!

By: THEMOJOMAN aka SID GRUBBS

THEMOJOMAN aka SID GRUBBS — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:57:53 +0000

As many of you know on the many stations I worked for almost 25 years JOHN R was one of my heroes. Many times I would include in one of my RAPS ( I was doing it before it had a name) little lines that the hip kittys in the audience would REALLY UNDERSTAND. Like “WAY DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE” etc etc. By the way as far as I am concerned NIPSY RUSSELL was the very first rapper. I miss the REAL PERSONALITY PART of RockRadio. It’s just a machine now. STERILE,,BLAND,,ZERO

By: mollyoday

mollyoday — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:10:05 +0000

I am another woman who grew up listening, like the guy who commented he listened late at night while his parents assumed he was fast asleep. When the station was coming in clearly I couldn’t make myself go to sleep. This was in a small town about 55 miles from Nashville — later, as an adult I moved to Nashville and was fortunate enough to meet and hear Earl Gaines and the recently deceased Ted Jarrett sing a song or two, two performers who often were played, and of course, Ted Jarrett produced many of the early R&B artists in Nashville. But I loved the DJs too! Listening to that station changed my life — I learned a lifelong appreciation of R&B, and then later, I loved and still love the rock steady version of reggae, which was based on this early R&B. I read somewhere — on liner notes for an early reggae recording I think — that WLAC’s signal made it all the way to Jamaica! It’s a part of Nashville history that a lot of people don’t really know about, or didn’t, until the “Night Train to Nashville” exhibit appeared at the Country Music Hall of Fame a few years ago. Great to hear WLAC again — thank you for this website!!

By: Dredsel

Dredsel — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:13:33 +0000

In southeast Ga in the 50s and 60s everyone listened to John R. at night. WLAC and WCKY were about the only stations we could get at night. Many hours were spent parking or partying with John R. and the R&B music we loved. We always thought the DJs were black and it didn’t matter even though things were segregated back then. I want to thank you for your efforts to preserve this part of radio history.

By: Ron Ford

Ron Ford — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:17:10 +0000

I just watched the new movie “Cadillac Records” about the history of the legendary Chess record label and it got me to thinking about WLAC and Randy’s Record Shop. I started listening to WLAC while attending Purdue University about 1959. It opened up a whole new world of music to me and I loved it all. Still do. Like someone else commented, I never gave much thought to whether John R. was black or white, I just thought of him as “Southern”. What fun this has been to listen to this broadcast! Thanks so very much to those of you responsible for making it available. Some of the double entendres about White Rose Petroleum Jelly were hilarious: “One in the glove compartment is worth two in the medicine cabinet!” My roommate and I spent much of what little money we had on beer and records from Randy’s. We also would walk about five miles fromm campus, across the Wabash River, and into Lafayette (Indiana) to a little hole in the wall shop that sold used jukebox records. They were just stacked on wood shelves, not sorted, and we would spend hours looking for a Jimmy Reed or Little Walter or Muddy Waters. Thanks for the memories.

By: Linda Conner

Linda Conner — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:30:10 +0000

Hey, aren’t there any other women who listened to this WLAC programming? I was WAY in northern Ohio – usual story – it would come in just BARELY when local stations went off the air. I remember John R’s show very well – not the others so much – I was not even of “teenage years” as yet and was listening to the radio after I was supposed to be in bed asleep. The town I grew up in had very few black people, and my friends and I who were listening to John R. did not even realize this was music being performed by (and mostly for) black people. I am serious – at some point, somebody realized, or it grew on us, or whatever. We just knew it was something different and electrifying. (This is a twist on all the people who thought John R. WAS black – we just thought he was “Southern”) Anyway if you can believe the biographers it is perfectly true that a lot of rock musicians who became popular in the late 60s and 70s listened early on to John R and other DJs like him—and the British musicians (such as the Stones – I could early on recognize where a lot of THEIR influence came from) who got hold of the records somehow – the ones John R (and his fellow WLACers) had played. It is pleasant to run into this website, still occasionally being commented—-