Rock Radio Scrapbook

AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of January 29, 2012
Weekly issue #666

Talent: JOHN R. (RICHBOURG)
Station: WLAC Nashville, Tenn.
Date: April, 1969
Time: 16:42

"Hey, John R., whatcha gonna do..."

It's hard to imagine a more unlikely champion of R&B.

Mild-mannered and white, John Richbourg had the looks and bearing of an accountant. But few did more to promote African-American music as Richbourg - a.k.a. John R. - did at WLAC.

Richbourg got his start in radio in 1941 at WTMA Charleston, S.C. He moved to WLAC in 1942 but a year later was off to a three-year hitch in the U.S. Navy. After the Second World War ended, he returned to WLAC in 1946. A newsman at the time, Richbourg filled in for vacationing deejay Gene Nobles and started gaining a following of his own playing leading R&B artists like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, who weren't getting airplay on mainstream radio. Richbourg wound up with his own late-night shift, part of a legendary WLAC quartet of program hosts that included Nobles, Herm Grizzard and Bill "Hoss" Allen.

John R. - he started using the short form after his name was misspelled in fan mail - was a popular late-night presence at WLAC for 27 years. What he did would make a radio consultant of today wince: he programmed his own music ... he ad-libbed commercials "down-home" style, a white announcer sounding black ... he sold exotic and unusual items like baby chicks, hot-rod mufflers and soul medallions (many of which turned out to be scams). But his show was wildly popular, thanks in part that it could be heard throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada thanks to WLAC's 50,000-watt clear channel signal.

Richbourg was also a record promoter, producer and manager. Bobby Hebb was one of the early artists he produced, but Richbourg  had his greatest success with Joe Simon, whose 17 Hot 100 charters with Richbourg included the #1 1969 R&B smash "The Chokin' Kind." John R. even recorded a few tunes himself, with two blues-based singles that he half-talked, half-sang through.

Balking at corporate pressure to play songs from a playlist, Richbourg left WLAC in 1973. In retirement, he gave financial help to needy artists, and the music community reciprocated with a benefit concert for the lung cancer-stricken Richbourg in 1985 at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry House. When John R. died of the disease February 15, 1986 at the age of 75, R&B music and radio lost one of its greatest friends.

Enjoy John R. on WLAC from April, 1969 here.

(The Don Shuttleworth Collection)

More 1969 airchecks here!

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