Kenny Gamble & Georgie Woods, two Philadelphia legends!

In the early 1960s, Kenny Gamble, as a teenager, would hang around 1480 WDAS, Philly’s R&B Powerhouse. He would often join morning man, Georgie Woods, on the radio. He could have had a radio career, but had bigger things in mind. Kenny Gamble became a song writter & producer, along  with partner Leon Huff and collaborator Thom Bell, created the Sound of Philadelphia, a huge catalog of R&B hits from the 1970s, mostly recorded on Philadelphia International Records. Some of the artists he helped to produce include Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin, the O’Jays, Archie Bell & the Drells, Billy Paul, The Spinners, Patti LaBelle, Blue Magic, The Delfonics, Mcfadden & Whitehead, & many more. And some of the songs he helped to write & produce included “Expressway (to Your Heart),” “Love Train,” “Love I Lost,” “I’ll Always Love My Mama,” “Wake up Everybody,” “I Love Music,” “Cowboys to Girls,” “Me and Mrs. Jones,” “Only the Strong Survive,” “La-La (Means I Love You),” “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time),” “Livin’ for the Weekend” and many others. Even after all of these hits, Gamble & Huff never won a Grammy, until Simply Red re-recorded thier song, “If You Don’t Know Me By Now,” in the 1990s.

Georgie Woods… The man with the goods! A Philly legend. Georgie started on radio at WWRL in New York n 1952, and a year later moved down the turnpike to Philly, where stayed on the radio for over 50 years. First on 1340 WHAT, then then in 1956, over to his long term home, 1480 WDAS. He was also involved in the civil rights movement. During the hectic sixties, he led 21 buses of area residents southward to March with Dr. Martin Luther King in Alabama and later Washington, DC. Many people in the city have credited Georgie Woods, and other WDAS staffers with directly being responsible for preventing rioting in the streets of Philadelphia after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Woods eventually became Program Director of WDAS, and as he saw the radio landscape changing, with listeners moving to FM, he decided, in 1978, to change his show from being primarily a music show, to a talk show talking about the issues of the day. He hosted that talk show on WDAS-AM until he retired in 1990.

This aircheck was from WDAS Alumni Day 1984.  A yearly tradition at WDAS- AM & FM, when they would bring back WDAS personalities from the past, and each one would host a show for an hour. This includes the end of Kenny Gamble’s hour, and about half of Georgie Woods show.

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

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