WOLFMAN JACK RECORD SURVEYS & AIR-CHECKS Pt. 2 - GONNA BLOW YOUR MIND, BABY!

Awright, baby, welcome to another edition of Kip's American Graffiti Blog.  This time we gonna continue where we left off awhile back on Part 1 and drop some more Wolfman Jack record surveys on ya.  In the mid-1960s Wolfman broadcast over XERB with it’s 50,000-watt, Tijuana directional transmitter covering 13 Western U.S. states and Canada. He was both an executive and air personality at XERB’s Los Angeles offices, and according to a 1971 Billboard magazine article, ultimately he bought the station but Mexican nationals always owned the transmitter. Unfortunately for Wolfman, sometime in 1971 he lost control of the station when the Mexican government no longer permitted him to broadcast the various gospel and race track result features which had provided the majority of income for the station. The station's call letters were changed to X-E-P-R-S and broadcast a 24-hr soul-rock format. Wolfy sold the exclusive U.S. sales rights to XEPRS to a company called Radio House Communications but he still retained ownership of XERB, Inc. However, without a transmitting tower from which to broadcast, the call letters were practically useless.  For about a year afterwards, Wolfman continued to have one 3hr show a night under the new XEPRS management.  Ya understand what I mean? Never mind the talkin', forget walkin' we gonna get going and do it to it. So have at it... Have moicy, baby!  

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Here's a border blastin', oldie but a goodie: XERB Super Soul 21 record survey from May 1969. At the time, Wolfman had a 3hr. pre-recorded show that was re-broadcast three times a day.

Wolfman will be the final judge as to whether Tony Randall's song is any good.

   

By sometime in 1971 Wolfman had lost control of station XERB and had to hand the controls back over to the Mexican owners. With Wolfman's management out of the way, the station owners tried to duplicate his successful formula.  They changed the call letters to X-E-P-R-S and programmed soul music, calling the station “The Soul Express.” Wolfy still broadcast for about a year under the new ownership before finally leaving for local Los Angeles station, K-R-L-A and going into syndicated markets all over the world..

Wolfman got to keep the call letters, X-E-R-B but the Mexican owners kept the station's frequency and facilities and renamed it X-E-P-R-S. This survey is from 8/20/1971.

X-PRS Funky Forty for the week of 2/19/1972. Two months later Wolfman left "The Mighty 10-90" forever and began a new phase of his career as an international superstar. To hear a recording of his voice on his final night on XEPRS click this link: WOLFMAN SAYS GOODBYE

 Soon I will be posting an update on XERB & XEPRS as the station(s) look today. Well, that's it for another groovy, groovy post. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. 'Till next time, keep your ears clean. Bye!

- 30 -

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NOTES: 

• Freedland, Nat. November 27, 1971. Wolfman Jack Creates Jesus Rock Show. Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.
• L.A. Baby Boomer's Rewind Den. Station Record Surveys. Retrieved 2/13/2014: http://lababyboomersrewind.blogspot.com/p/hodge-podge-of-stuff.html
• The Odd Couple TV series. (1973) [Screenshots of Wolfman Jack]