Died On This Date (March 15, 2004) Chuck Niles / Popular Jazz Radio DJ
themusicsover Chuck Niles (Born Charles Neidel)
June 24, 1927 – March 15, 2004
Chuck Niles was a popular and extremely knowledgeable jazz radio disc jockey who entertained and educated Los Angeles, California music fans for the better part of 50 years. Known by such nicknames as “Mr. Jazz,” Niles could be heard throughout much of Southern California on influential jazz and blues station KKJZ for the last fourteen years of his life. After moving to Los Angeles as a young man, Niles dabbled in acting, even landing a bit part in Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Throughout his long and fruitful years on the air in L.A., he worked at such stations as KHJ, KBCO (later KKGO), and eventually KLON which became KKJZ, one of the most famous jazz and blues stations in the United States. Over the years, Niles was memorialized in songs like Horace Silvers’ “The Hippest Cat In Hollywood,” Bob Florence’s “Bebop Charlie,” and Louie Bellson’s “Niles Blues.” He was also awarded a star on Hollywood’s prestigious Walk of Fame – the only jazz disc jockey to ever be bestowed that honor. Chuck Niles was 76 when passed away on March 15, 2004. He never regained consciousness from a stroke he suffered a few weeks earlier.
Thanks to Micaela Pierce for the assist.
Richard Pegue was a popular Chicago R&B radio disc jockey for the better part of forty years. He also penned a handful of R&B songs that managed to get recorded. Pegue was just eleven when he first took an interest to the broadcast medium, thanks to a reel-to-reel tape recorder that was given to him by his grandmother. By his teens, he was DJ’ing local parties and dances. Before long, Pegue was spinning records at radio stations throughout Chicago and Indiana. During the late ’80s he helped develop the popular “urban oldies” format. He continued working in radio into the 2000s. Richard Pegue was 66 when he passed away on March 2, 2009.
Rickey Wright was a music journalist who was often praised for his vast knowledge of music trivia. Over the course of his career, he wrote for amazon.com, Virginian-Pilot, USA Today, Seattle Weekly, Washington City Paper, and more. In 1999, Wright won the Rhino Records Music Aptitude Test, earning him free Rhino CDs for the rest of his life. He was reportedly working on a book about 
Waylon Jennings was a hugely influential country singer, songwriter and musician who was one of the pioneers of the genre’s “outlaw” movement of the ’70s. Jennings learned to play the guitar and formed his own band before he even hit his teen years. One of Jennings’ first jobs in music was as a disc jockey at a local Texas radio station. It was there that he met an up-and-coming rockabilly singer named 
