Paul Drew
DOB Unknown – May 16, 2013
Paul Drew was a radio disc jockey and programmer who is often cited for helping create what we now know as the Top 40 radio format. Drew was just out of college when he launched his radio career in 1961. Starting as a DJ at WAKE in Atlanta, Drew soon graduated to programming. Drew worked at such stations as Windsor, Onatario’s CKLW, Philadelphia’s WIBG, San Francisco’s KFRC, and ultimately, KHJ in Los Angeles, arguably the most popular Top 40 station in the country at the time. During the ’70s, Drew was VP of Programming for RKO who owned several key stations around the U.S. He also consulted the likes of Guy Zapoleon, Rick Dees and Jay Thomas. Paul Drew was 78 when he passed away on May 16, 2013.
Thanks to Harold Lepidus of Bob Dylan Examiner for the assist.
Known as the Godfather of Black Radio, Hal Jackson was an African-American broadcaster whose career stretched all the way back to the 1930s. Jackson started his radio career at Howard University where he announced the school’s home games along with those of the local Negro Baseball League, making him the first African-American sports commentator in U.S. history. In 1939, he became the first Black host at Washington DC’s WNIX where he hosted an interview show and later, a jazz program. By the mid ’50s, Jackson was living in New York City where he was employed by three radio stations where he hosted a nightly shows dedicated to jazz and celebrity interviews. He eventually became the Vice President and General Manager of Inner City Broadcasting, owners of WLIB and WBLS where he hosted Sunday Classics until the time of his passing. Hal Jackson was 96 when he passed away on May 23, 2012.
Dick Clark was a world-famous radio and television pioneer who, because of his longtime championing of pop music, along with his youthful good looks, was dubbed “America’s Oldest Teenager.” Clark was just 17 when he took his first job in the music business – as a sales rep for a New York radio station. By the early ’50s, he was hosting his own radio program, Caravan of Music at WFIL in Philadelphia. In 1956, he took over the station’s TV affiliate’s teen music program, Bob Horn’s Bandstand. Within a year, ABC brought the show, now American Bandstand, into living rooms across the United States. Over the next four decades, American Bandstand, with Clark as host, presented new records and “live” performances by hundreds if not thousands of famous and not-so-famous pop acts the world has ever known. The program, which aired until 1989, became the blueprint for teen music television programming, but none of its followers (except perhaps Soul Train) were ever able to come close to matching its cultural impact. Despite Clark’s clean-cut persona, he was a tireless supporter of the music he presented – whether he was speaking out against censorship, or choosing to play the original R&B records by their Black performers over the “sanitized” versions by White artists which were popular in his early days of radio. In 1972, Clark launched Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve which rang in the new year from Times Square in New York City with a program filled with performances from popular music acts of that particular year. Even after suffering a significant stroke in 2004, Clark returned in 2006, albeit with less screen time, as co-host of the program with Ryan Seacrest. Over the years, Clark ran several other ventures as well – game shows, award shows, restaurants, and live theaters. On April 18, 2012, Dick Clark died after suffering a heart attack. He was 82.
Jody Rainwater was a bluegrass pioneer who found his calling as a teenager, at first playing the mandolin. Before long, he and is brother were performing as Chuck and Slim, the Johnson Brothers. The boys built a local following thanks in part to their comical on stage banter. In 1937, they were hired by High Point, North Carolina radio station, WMFR to perform live every Thursday evening. By 1945, the duo were no longer together, so Rainwater enlisted in the Marines and served during WWII. Upon his discharge, he formed the Blue Ridge Mountain Boys with Woody Hauser and developed an onstage persona known as Little Jody. By the late ’40s, they disbanded, and Rainwater was soon playing bass alongside 
Known as “Mama Jazz” to fans throughout Southwest Ohio, Phyllis Campbell was a longtime on-air personality at WMUB-FM out of Miami University. A lifelong fan of jazz, Campbell was working at the school as a secretary when she dropped by the station during a fund raiser to talk music. Within a few hours, she was offered a job. Since 1979, Campbell has built a legion of fans thanks in part to her eclectic playlists on such programs as “Traditional Jazz Night” and “The Gospel According to Mama.” All the while, Campbell retained her “day job” at the University, often putting in over 60 hours a week between the two gigs. She retired from her administrative job in 1994 but continued on air until health issues brought that to a close in 2006. Phyllis Campbell was 89 when she passed away on November 26, 2011.