WOLFMAN IS BORN ON XERF
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| A 1964 publicity pic with dog, Oscar. |
Brooklyn-born Bob Smith aka Wolfman Jack first introduced his gravely voiced character in 1964 from super-powered border radio station, XERF 1570-AM. The station broadcast at 250,000 watts, five times the U.S. limit, which meant that their signal could be picked up all over North America and at night as far away as Europe and the Soviet Union. The "Border Blaster" located in Ciudad, Acuña, Mexico (across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas) propelled Wolfman Jack half way around the world from midnight to 4AM every night. The mysterious Wolfman enthralled young listeners with his howling, ghetto talk and hip play list that featured black artists rarely heard on West Coast radio. The first time Bob Smith introduced Wolfman Jack he had tremendous success. Smith once told an interviewer, "The first night I went on the air I know we ran mail order record spots and stuff and, I think two days later I collected like, 4,000 or 5,000 pieces of mail. And, that was the first night on the air. No promotion no nothing, ya know. The station had such a phenomenal signal it covered all those people," he said.
XERF Baby Chicks commercial.
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| Smith went through various Wolfman disguises before settling on one look |
Bob had moved from Shreveport, Louisiana to Del Rio, Texas to be radio personality Wolfman Jack in 1964 but, after eight months of living in the border town with it's hot semi-arid steppe climate he and his family moved back to Louisiana. The Wolfman Jack Show continued on XERF through taped broadcasts. He would record his shows in the Shreveport studios and mail them down to XERF in Ciudad, Acuña where they were broadcast at Wolfman's regular time, Midnight to 4 A.M. Soon after, he and his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he ran station KUXL 1540-AM for owner, Marvin Kosofsky. Incidentally, for some reason in Wolfman's biography, Kosofsky is referred to as "Mo Burton." If you ever have the chance to read Wolfman's 1995 biography, "Have Mercy! Confessions of the Original Rock 'N' Roll Animal," be aware there are embellishments, name changes and proven historical inaccuracies in the book. It's unfortunate, because in the process of telling his story, he and the co-author have made it difficult to put his life events in the correct historical perspective. After realizing that some of his biography is fabricated it makes one wonder about the truthfulness of the other parts. It can be difficult to know which statements are fabrications and which are fact. Luckily, there are other sources for fact-checking, so in addition to his own memoirs, I have used many other sources to put together the legendary DJ's history. For a comprehensive list of these sources please see the bibliography listed at the end of Part 2 of my Wolfman post.
XERF: Wolfman reads letters & laments stupidity.
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| A live 1965 performance sold by mail order on XERF |
The fascinating book, Border Radio gives a glimpse of what it was like back in Wolfman's early days on XERF, "Between the white-hot rhythm and blues of James Brown and Johnny Otis and the jazz of Count Basie, the Wolfman grunted, groaned, and howled an endless stream of exotic exhortations, such as, “Wherever ya are, and whatever ya doin', I wancha ta lay ya hands on da raydeeooo, lay back wid me, and squeeze ma knobs. We gonna feeel it ta-night!" Nobody contributed more to the Wolfman legend than Smith himself. In his biography, Smith says he took over station XERF from armed banditos. The story is now known as the "Border Radio Shoot-out Saga." The semi-mythical tale involves lawsuits, shootouts, and armed takeovers. How much is true we may never know. However, the anecdote is so intriguing that it makes Wolfman's memoirs worth reading just for the chapter where he recounts the story.
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| The wizard behind the curtain |
LOOKING GOOD
In the early days, Wolfman Jack made sporadic public appearances, usually as a MC. As the MC he would present performers, (such as Harmonica Fats, and other rhythm and blues acts), tell dirty jokes or anecdotes and generally keep the event moving. At each appearance he looked a little different because Smith hadn't decided on what "The Wolfman" should look like. Some rare early pictures on this page show him with a goatee straight hair combed forward and dark makeup added to obscure his Anglo/Saxon ethnicity. Other pictures show him with a big afro wig and large sunglasses. The uncertainty of his ethnicity lead some people to believe, at the time, that he was Black or Hispanic and thus added to the controversy and mystery of his radio show. By the early 1970s Smith had established a look for the Wolfman that remained fairly consistent for the rest of his career.
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XERB 1090
While working at KUXL Wolfman approached the US representative for XERB and sold him on the idea of a R&B format to replace its then, music staple of Country & Western.
Two of the radio personalities at KUXL; Art Hoehn a.k.a. Fat Daddy Washington, (1/23/1939 - 3/12/2011), and Ralph Hull a.k.a. The Nazz helped Wolfman take over station XERB 1090, located across the border on Mexico's Baja peninsula, at Rosarito Beach, near Tijuana. They operated the "Big X" from Minneapolis initially, then relocated to Southern California in 1966. The first XERB office was a pink stucco building at 8228 Sunset Blvd. They soon found a better location and moved everything to a building he and Marvin Kosofsky bought on 6th Street near Western Ave. Wolfman converted the downstairs into a 16-track recording studio. He'd record his shows a day ahead of time on several reel-to-reel tapes. One tape had commercials on it, another had music with Wolfman introductions, while another tape had recordings of phone calls. The tapes were transported by bus, across the border to Rosarito, Mexico with directions on how to put the show together. Mexican engineers/operators such as Gabriel Esquivel, Adolfo Tejeda, & Ernesto Madueno would blend the tapes of music, commercials, phone calls, etc. and broadcast the assembled show from the XERB, 50,000-watt transmitter, giving listeners the impression that they were hearing a live show.
In 1966 XERB was initially advertised as exclusively an R & B station but eventually the station's format became more inclusive of mainstream rock. Regardless, Wolfman's show was always an awesome roller-coaster ride as he snarled, cackled, and blasted Soul, R&B, Oldies, and whatever he felt like playing on the spur of the moment. Part of the fun of the Wolfman Jack Show on XERB included his interactions with listeners who would call in. Usually before they could make a record request the Wolfman would tease them. Often times he'd interrupt them by growling, or by making kissing or farting noises. Other times he'd speak in romantic tones:
WOLFMAN: Hello?
CALLER: Is this Wolfman?
WOLFMAN: This is the Wolfman. This is yer one and only baby. This is the Wolfman, ya understand?
CALLER: Yeah, man.
WOLFMAN: I love you. Who is this?
CALLER: This is Nancy.
WOLFMAN: I love you Nancy with the passion of my heart. I know that I can walk through the green fields and see the little sunlight breakin' through the trees. And, love will be all around us. Ya understand?
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| Original music event handbill for California State University, Chico. |
BOOGALOO, XERB Phone call from Ginger
PAYOLA, PILLS, & PREACHERS
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| One of many mega-oldies record packages sold over the air |
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| (Click picture for larger image) |
Although the station did accept payola it was not a large source of income. Big money was generated in other ways. Bob Smith was thriving as a salesman. In addition to selling commercial spots to LA-based night clubs and retail shops, he made 50 percent commission on every mail order item he sold over the radio including cosmetics, potency drugs, diet pills, and Wolfman Jack t-shirts, roach clip, and calendars. With a hoarse-voiced dialect that sounded like a mixture of a hippie, beat-nick and Pentecostal preacher, Wolfman Jack would say,
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| A headband wearing Wolfman |
Although he got an enormous response for these items, it was selling airtime to preachers that made the most money for XERB. Smith, (who from here on out will be referred to as his alias, Wolfman Jack), sold programming to the radio proselytizers in 15-30 minute blocks. Some preachers like Brother Henderson paid for a regular spot that was thinly disguised as a gospel music show. His program called "Glory Bound Train" was typically on Monday thru Saturday from 6:00 am to 10:00 am and again for another two hours before Wolfman's show at 9:00 pm. Brother Henderson and other radio proselytizers like Reverend A.A. Allen were real hustlers making enormous amounts of money selling salvation through bibles and anything from "The Lord's Last Supper" tablecloths to "Lord's Prayer Coins" with the likeness of Jesus on them. Wolfman once joked that the radio preachers were selling Jesus all day while he was selling sin at night. "Hallelujah!" Because they had such a large following and made so much money, the radio evangelists were never too hesitant about paying huge fees for airtime. Some eccentric preachers like Reverend Ike would pay for their spots a year in advance. He would drive up to the XERB office in his Cadillac and walk in with a brown paper bag filled with one hundred dollar bills to pay for his airtime. |
| A map of the border between California & Mexico |
XERB PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Early XERB program schedules show that there were only three other radio shows besides Wolfman's 9:00 pm to 3:00 am show that broadcast from the station. They were: Fat "Daddy" Washington from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, The Nazz from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, and Ol' Joe Soul who took over after Wolfman's show, in the early morning hours of 3:00 am to 6:00 am. The fate of these DJs at XERB was not good. After a couple of years they either left or were fired. For example, program director, Ralph Hall (The Nazz) was fired in 1967 over programming conflicts with Wolfman. Lonnie Napier recalls that by the time he had begun to work for Wolfman in 1970, the only real radio show at the station was Wolfman's show. "He was on during the day from 3:00 to 6:00, and then again at night from around 10:00 pm to 1:00 am. The rest of it was all sold block programming," he said. The time was sold to a lot of preachers and a company called Turffcraft who would buy [horse] racing results from across the country and then a radio personality such as, Leo Herbert or Polo Hawkez would announce them by recreating certain races.
Above: Both sides of a book of matches advertising that the station announced racing results.
ANYWHERE, ANYTIME
As if being on one border blaster wasn't enough, Wolfman began broadcasting pre-recorded shows on three different Mexican stations at different times of the day, XERB, XERF, & XEG (1050 in Monterrey, Mexico). Wolfman created different programming for each station with frequent mention of the station's call letters in the middle of his wild patter. With powerful clear-channel (not the company) stations, broadcasting his show, Wolfman could be heard almost anytime, anywhere in the world. He was the undisputed king of night time border radio. with no consultants, no rating books, no focus groups, no audience research, no tests, he re-invented night time radio. Former XERB station manager and disc jockey, Ralph Hull, "The Nazz" remembers almost the entire continent being covered by the Wolfman. "We were just slightly ahead of Ted Turner, " he said. "With XERB we covered from the Rockies-west. XERF covered from the Rockies to the Appalachians, and all of Central America, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. all on one station. And then, XEG beamed to the East. So, with those three Mexican stations we had the entire North American continent covered. Anybody could listen to us. [Laughs] And, they did."
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ALL GOOD THINGS GOT TO COME TO AN END
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| XERB studio & transmitter site in Rosarito, B.C., (Mexico). |
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| Comic Book drawn by Dan Koffman, 1970 |
With Wolfman out of the way, the station owners tried to duplicate his successful formula. They changed the call letters to XEPRS and programmed soul music, calling the station “The Soul Express.” Wolfy still broadcast for a little while under the new ownership, but left soon afterwards. April 14, 1972 was the last day Wolfman ever held sway over the Mexican border airwaves. [Please see post from May 2012 to hear Wolfman say goodbye on his last day on the border blaster] Soon the government repealed their own law and put the preachers back on the air. But, without the Wolfman howling over the airwaves, the station never even remotely saw the success that Wolfman Jack had achieved.
Thus, the door of success for the mysterious man who broadcast from Mexico was closed like a coffin lid. But, as the saying goes- when one door closes, another one opens. And, the doors of International super stardom were about to swing wide open for Wolman Jack.
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| The sign on the XEPRS entrance as it looks today. |
END OF WOLFMAN JACK: EN EL AIRE, Parte I
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After reading this you're probably all pumped up and wanna hear some of The Wolfman in his prime. Since I first wrote this article, I've gotten a lot of e-mail from people asking where they can hear Wolfman from back in the day. Below are some links where you can find FREE vintage Wolfman airchecks.
If you do a Search for "Wolfman Jack" on Archive.org you'll find some fantastic airchecks:
Doug Allen who painstakingly mixes all the "new" Wolfman shows for syndication has a nice site called Wolfman Jack.Org.:
A $15.00 donation will give you unlimited access to tons of airchecks featuring celebrity DJs including Wolfman Jack:
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