Rock Radio Scrapbook
AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of
August 16, 2015
Edition #847
Talent: AL
BENSON
Station: WGES
Chicago
Date: August 5,
1955
Time: 28:18
(unscoped)
9:36 (scoped)
Al Benson came to the microphone by way of the pulpit.
The man born Arthur Leaner in 1908 in Jackson, Mississippi, was 15 years old when he moved to Chicago where he became a Christian preacher in the '30s and '40s. Leaner also worked as a concert promoter, probation officer, railroad cook, interviewer for the Works Progress Administration and Democratic precinct captain. He started in radio under the name Al Benson with a religious show at WGES Chicago in 1945.
Since advertising wasn't allowed on religious shows, Benson soon branched out to jazz and rhythm and blues programming on WGES. His almost incoherent fast patter, ground-breaking use of street slang, and playing of artists like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters made him the Windy City's most popular deejay, according to the Chicago Tribune, by 1948. By the late '40s, The Old Swingmaster was on the air 10 hours a day on a number of stations with his shows Swoon, Swing and Sway, Spinning the Shellacs and Five O'Clock Jump.
A master pitchman, Benson plugged countless products on his shows. Advertisers lined up to buy time. At his height in the late '50s, Benson employed 33 assistants, and made a million dollars over one three-year period. A strong supporter of black acts (he refused to play white cover versions of songs by black artists) Benson would push records and promote the artists and their appearances at local clubs. He was also involved in recording with his Parrot, Blue Lake, Crash and Blues Labels while promoting R&B concerts, and publishing a bi-monthly tip sheet of the top-selling records called Musically Speaking.
The popular Benson earned the Chicago Defender newspaper's nod as Mayor of Bronzeville every year from 1946 to 1954 (Bronzeville was a name given in the '30s to a black area seven miles from the Chicago Loop and centred on the crossroads of State Street and 35th). An early supporter the civil rights movement, Benson hired two men to drop 5,000 copies of the U.S. Constitution on his hometown of Jackson, in 1956 to protest an anti-segregation ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
After 18 years on the air, Benson left radio in 1963 to return to the pulpit. The Godfather of Black Radio in Chicago died September 6, 1978 at the age of 70.
Enjoy Al Benson on WGES (UNSCOPED) here.
Enjoy Al Benson on WGES (SCOPED) here.
(The Don Shuttleworth Collection)
More 1955 airchecks here!
|
We're previewing the Aircheck of the Week on Facebook. Every Friday, we post the audio link to the Aircheck of the Week on Facebook with the full feature to follow on Sunday as usual. |
Click here for
technical help |