Davy Jones today

Davy Jones came to WPGC in 1968 by way of WBZ / Boston and held down nights through 1972 when he left for WMAL-FM. He was also the station's Music Director during this time and co-produced the Rockumentary, 'The Rock & Roll Generation' with big Wilson. Today he is with Read Street Sound in Baltimore.

'Good Guy' Davy Jones is aptly named, being a real friend of this site.

 

What can one say, being part of a legend is totally nuts to begin with. Any thoughts I might have are insignificant. This was a time in the industry when being creative was part of the "job". I was part of what is considered by many the beginnning and end of "rock radio". The late 60's and early 70's were a war of formatic radio versus "from the hip, creative radio. Any airchecks from that time frame are really just exciting, ad-lib, adrenaline pumping, off the cuff, have a good time radio, all condoned by the management, and bringing massive ratings to WPGC..thanks Charlie Scheu, and Bob Howard.

On the 'Rock & Roll Generation'

As for the 'Rock and Roll Generation', that was a highly researched in depth chronological on air over-view of the music of the 50's through the 70's. big Wilson and I spent hours researching the music, the styles, the ethnic aspects of the music, and came up with what we considered one of the most in depth overviews of the music industry ever put together for a radio station presention.

I have no idea where "Big" is today, but it was a dynamic and truly entertaining presentation, and should forever be a part of really creative radio. Deep in my heart I truly believe there will never be a time in the industry where so much was put into the presentation of a radio station, as was put together by the great staff of WPGC. I'm extremely proud to have been apart of the best moments of radio that ever existed.

On the 'Magic Carpet Ride' Show

The 'Magic Carpet Ride' underground show made it on to the airwaves in the Fall of '68 because Giant Music BOUGHT the time for 13 weeks, and that's how long it lasted. Thank God. It was Bob Howard's idea..."cutting edge"??? It ran for one hour on Friday nights at 11PM only. It was horrible.

On 'Roscoe P. Mutterbag'

It's still a firm memory. It seems all the daytime jocks flipped shifts. Bob Howard didn't consider the fact that maybe, just maybe I'd like a night off, so he left me in the night slot...was I pissed? No, but I decided to create a character and act like I had no idea how to operate equipment, let alone do an air shift.

As for Bob Raleigh Jr. (Dewitt Robert Raleigh), he played right along with me. The funny thing is the timing; for example, when he shouted, "turn off the microphone, turn off the mic".......just plain funny. I don't know how long I was on the air as Roscoe P Mudderbag. But I do know the next April 1st, I didn't do the night show, I did PM drive. Bob Howard was soooooo pissed, Charlie Scheu thought it was funny and so did the rest of the crew. And that's the rest of the story!

On the 'Together Gold' album

The concept for the WPGC Together Gold album was born in an elevator in NYC at the Billboard Convention in 1969. I was heading to one of the suites for a bit of “partying” There was a guy on the elevator, his name was Walt Davison, he was a small time promoter with a record label out of Philly. The label was DAVCO. At the time I was Music Director of WPGC. We got to the party, started talking, drinking, drinking, talking..I mentioned we (WPGC) needed a promotion and maybe, just maybe a collection of “hits” would do the trick.

Once back in DC, Walt came to town, we sold Bob Howard on the idea and we started putting together a list of potential songs. Once we decided on the titles, Walt started contacting the labels. That collection is what we scored on at almost no cost to WPGC. One sidelight to this, I was pretty good friends with Tommy James, so I called and asked for “Crystal Blue Persuasion” or “Crimson and Clover”. Tommy said “sure” take your pick. We did. Once the album came out Walt got a call from NYC, Red Schwartz, the Promo guy for Roulette wanted to see him. Walt went to New York…Schwartz had two goons waiting for Walt, they beat the shit out of him. He told me, I called a guy I knew from Philly and told him. He visited Red, and kicked the shit out of him (paybacks are hell.) Walt remained a good friend of mine up until his untimely death due to a heart attack in the mid 90’s!

The album was not available in stores, we sold it on the air. We gave away very few of them and it was a real MONEY MAKER. There was a jock contest to see who could sell the most albums during their shift. I THINK Jim Madison (Joel Denver) won it. As for the logo, Davco owned it, soooo, WPGC’s was not used. The photos used at the time were probably 2 or three years old; mine was fairly recent. One other thing, Bob Howard did not want to pay a graphic artist to design the cover, so I did the art-work. There was not a Volume 2.

See the 'Together Gold' album from 1970

 

 

BD Howard writes:

I remember Davy Jones as a nice guy who invited me into the control room until my Dad (General Manager, Bob Howard) forbade it (none of the other jocks allowed me in but for a moment or two). As I became a teenager, my taste grew more towards what was at first called album rock and then progressive. WPGC was a 'strictly commercial' station (get the Zappa reference?) and my dad hated that I listened to WMAL-FM. When Davy Jones moved to that station, I called him once or twice there to say hello.

 

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