Rock Radio Scrapbook

AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of June 1, 2008
Weekly issue #481

Talent: HUNTER HANCOCK
Station: WNJR Newark, N.Y.
Date: Early 1952
Time: 24:06

By his count Hunter Hancock had 22 different jobs, including salesman, chauffeur, bank clerk, drummer - even a singer in a vaudeville troupe. But we remember him as one of rock radio's greatest pioneering disc jockeys.

Born April 21, 1916 in Uvalde, Texas and raised in San Antonio, Hancock got his first radio job in 1942 when he walked into KMAC San Antonio, read some commercial copy and was hired on the spot. He moved to KPAB Laredo, Texas four months later as program director and chief announcer. In 1943, he was hired at KFVD Los Angeles where the legend of Hunter Hancock really began.

It was at KFVD Hancock started a weekly jazz show called "Harlem Holiday" aimed at the black community. In 1947 it was expanded to a daily half-hour show called "Harlematinee". He started playing jazz on that show too, but the suggestion of a record company salesman, began playing what were then known as "race" records. In doing so, the man who became known as "Ol' H.H." became widely regarded as the first white deejay in the U.S. west known to have play rhythm and blues records.

The show became hugely popular and was soon expanded to three-and-a-half hours a day, six days a week (he also continued to do "Harlem Holiday" on Sundays). Many fledgling R&B artists got their first radio spins on his show in those pre-rock 'n' roll days. In the mid-'50s, he also picked up a female radio sidekick - Marjorie "Margie" Williams, later known in L.A. radio as Morgan Williams. He also started a weekly TV show in 1955, "Rhythm and Bluesville" on KCBS-TV, which during its 17-week run featured artists such as Fats Domino, Little Richard, The Platters and Duke Ellington.

Hancock left KFVD in 1951 for a three-year stint at KFOX in San Jose, Calif. He returned to KFVD in 1954. In 1957, Hancock brought his "Huntin' With Hunter" nightly Top-20 show to KGFJ while still doing his daytime show at KPOP, which had changed its call letters from KFVD in 1955. He also had a Sunday gospel show called "Songs of Soul and Spirit" on yet another station, KGER. Hunter left KPOP in 1957 but continued his show at KGFJ until 1966. Hancock also started a record label, "Swingin' Records", whose first release was Jay McNeeley's smash hit "There Is Something On Your Mind."

By 1968, Hancock had grown disenchanted with the radio biz and retired from the medium after a final stop at KBLA. He never returned to the airwaves again, though he did recreate his KGFJ role on the "CRUISIN' 1959" album released in the early '70s. He died, aged 88, of natural causes in Claremont, Calif., on August 4, 2004.

Hancock syndicated his "Huntin' With Hunter" show on several stations. On the following aircheck, he interviews singing star Johnny Otis on WNJR Newark, N.J., in early 1952.

Hear Hunter Hancock here.

(The Don Shuttleworth Collection)

Enjoy more pre-1955 airchecks here!

RETURN TO ROCK RADIO SCRAPBOOK