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Man Out of Time: Mad Daddy

BY DAVID HINCKLEY artists they played, a MAN OUT boiled over. stature traceable in large Others say he had been N THE radio, Pete Myers called himself Mad part to black rhythm- developing the character for 0 Daddy, advertising. which by all evidence was truth in Jocko and-blues Henderson, jocks like Hot years. worked. By However January it 1958, happened, he'd it rock 'n' roll record or perhaps the next ad spot he had was picked up by white hired him away. Soon he He spoke in maniacal rhymes over the sound of a Rod Hulbert, Dr. Jive and been hired by WJW in Cleveland. bubbling cauldron, cackling as he raced to the next Willie Bryant. Their style OF TIME Six months later, rival WHK taken the liberty of personally rewriting into a Mad jocks right alongside the was the biggest thing in Daddy-style rhyme. records they played. Cleveland, with a line of Did you ever see a Martian beard? That Pete Myers was shoes called "Batty Bucks" The whiskers are purple and curly and weird a descendant of Jocko and fans lining the streets And two faces are harder than just one to shave was hardly surprising. MAD DADDY as he drove around in a pink So two-headed Martians just naturally rave The San Francisco-born Pontiac wearing a black cape. For the cooler more comfortable shavin' they get Myers had studied acting Now he smelled the big time. With push-button lather and blade by Gillette as a young man at the Alas, by the time Mad Daddy got to New York, 1959, Royal London Academy AND IN June 1959 he got the time was running out for his kind of radio. of Dramatic Art, and he knew all about learning from offer to work at WHK's sister station WNEW in New the best. York, with the chance of a TV show on the side. BETWEEN THE unfolding payola scandals After London, Myers migrated to New He leapt. But there was one problem. WNEW was and a general fear this rock 'n' roll thing York. But he found himself on the not a rock 'n' roll station. had gone far enough, radio stations second tier, a character actor WNEW played popular standards and featured were pulling in the reins on who worked regularly on hosts like William B. Williams, who hated rock 'n' their disk jockeys. For one TV but never got any roll. WNEW didn't want Mad Daddy, rock 'n' roll Pied thing, most of them could indication producers Piper. It wanted Pete Myers, radio announcer. no longer choose their saw leading man Myers knew this. own records, which potential. But somehow he persuaded management to let him in Mad Daddy's case One too many do Mad Daddy in his evening slot, 8 to midnight. It will meant growling shifts in the toy bring you a whole new audience, he argued. rhythm-and-blues department at Mad Daddy debuted on July 4, and response was and the more than Macy's sent immediate. The station received hundreds of calls, occasional novelty him back to with letters to follow, asking who had lost his mind. tune. San Diego, Come July 5, then, Mad Daddy was gone. In his Jocks also were where he place, 8 to midnight, was Pete Myers, radio announcer. encouraged to landed a Frustrated but helpless, he spent the next four years play more music radio gig. introducing Sinatra records. and spend less The time talking, work was THEN, FINALLY, in 1963, he was offered a spot at which diluted the routine. But rock 'n' roll WINS, where the station manager was personality appeal a new wind Neil McIntyre, a friend from Cleveland. on which much of was blowing Myers revved up Mad Daddy, and some of the spark postwar radio was through radio returned. based. now, as rhythm- Jet speed, saucer blasts, smoke and fire On many and-blues Mad Daddy flies up higher and higher stations, the jocks started plowing But things weren't the same. Rock 'n' roll radio had were bigger stars the ground for mellowed, or at least changed. While he could still slip than the rock 'n' roll. in LaVern Baker songs, and he would like this new Ohio became an band called the Beatles, he could no longer segue from epicenter of this new Howlin' Wolf to Link Wray. He had to play Herman's sound, and Myers got Hermits and Lesley Gore, who weren't exactly wavy a gig in Akron, where gravy. he played a wild mix Despite a brief run in syndication, he was of rhythm-and-blues increasingly seen as a novelty act, and in April 1965, he called "wavy gravy" when WINS dropped rock 'n' roll for news, Myers many years before the hung up his cape for good. term resurfaced in San He went back to WNEW as "Lovable, laughable Francisco. Pete Myers," playing pop music every afternoon for Myers would later say workplace listeners. the "Mad Daddy" idea He divorced and remarried, and old friends said he came to him all at once, seemed to be trying to make the best of things even as on a night when his he realized the pink Pontiac days were over. desperation for a career- NEW SHIFTED him to evenings in October making W 1968. The turf Mad Daddy once ruled now was splash On a Friday, step out Oct. to 4, his pasture. first scheduled night on his new shift, he put on a nice outfit, picked up one of the His shotguns wife, he Lisa, collected heard and a blast walked - and into the the last bathroom. maniac on commercial rock 'n' roll radio was gone. He was 40. All right here in the land of the rhyme We've shot the wad It's The wiggy closing light time goes out Brush your teeth and say your prayers And cha-cha softly up the stairs ...
Article from 07 Apr 2005Daily News(New York, NY)
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CLIPPED BY
nathanobral

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