Richard Clark
November 30, 1929 – April 18, 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.
Thanks to Craig Rosen at Number 1 Albums for the assist.
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.
Joe Gracey was an Austin, Texas radio disc jockey who, since the early ’70s, championed what was then called progressive country on KOKE-FM. Also referred to as alt country, Americana, outlaw country, redneck rock, or simply Texas music, this hybrid of country, blues, rock, and folk found its home outside the mainstream. And it was Gracey who helped make many of its practitioners – like Willie Nelson, 
Jimmy Savile was an English disc jockey and pioneering television personality who, since the dawn of the 1960s, was a familiar face on such music related television programs as Top Of The Pops, Pop Go The Sixties, and New Music Express. He, in fact, hosted the very first edition of Top Of The Pops on January 1, 1964, and again its finale on July 30, 2006. Savile also presented several popular radio programs throughout the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s on both Radio Luxemburg and the BBC Radio. Over the course of his long career, Savile became arguably as popular – at least throughout the UK, as the countless pop stars whose careers he helped launch. Jimmy Savile was 84 when he died of pneumonia on October 29, 2011.