Mark McDermott
283 Fir St., Park Forest, IL 60466

Markm    @    MarkMcDermott    .    com

"Wolfman Jack" (Robert Weston Smith) (1941-1995), broadcasting from stations
along the Mexican border and later via Armed Forces Radio, howled and growled
through rock and rhythm & blues classics, making generations of fans throughout
the southwest, then around the world. From his presence in the movie American
Graffiti (1973), the Wolfman became the disc jockey most associated with the
"greaser" revival of the 1970s.
     Young Bob Smith had a reputation as a hoodlum in his Brooklyn neighborhood.
To keep him out of trouble, his father gave him a radio, which he used to tune
in the disc jockeys who championed rhythm & blues music. "Smitty" eventually
headed to Nashville to learn radio from "John R" Richbourg, of WLAC, a white
champion of black R&B since the 1940s, and then began a series of radio sales
and announcing jobs.
     Bob became interested in the "border radio" stations in Mexico, which could
blast an unrestricted 250,000 watt signal back to the U.S., selling faith cures
and patent medicines that would cost stations their licenses back in the States.
He took over management of XERF, south of Del Rio, TX, in 1960. To get the
station's lineup of radio preachers to pay their bills, Bob temporarily replaced
them with a licentious R&B show hosted by his new alter-ego, Wolfman Jack (Smith
later recalled that had played "the Wolfman" when roughhousing with his sister's
children, and that "Jack" was a beatnik affectation of the time). By day, Bob
Smith sold time on both KCIJ (Shreveport, LA) and XERF, but by night, it was the
Wolfman who howled on the airwaves as far out as the Soviet Union.
     Once Smith pulled XERF into the black, the absentee owner decided to cut
him out of the action. Smith staved off a literal gunfight by selling out his
interest. After an unsuccessful stint with KUXL in Minneapolis, he headed to
XERB in Tijuana, with access to the Los Angeles market. His sales staff and
announcers worked at a Sunset Boulevard office, then ran each day's programming
on tape to the transmitter in Mexico. There, Wolfman became a radio legend in
the western U.S.
     Wolfman Jack's guttural delivery borrowed from blues singer Howlin' Wolf,
baying R&B slang and double entendres, telling listeners to "get nekkid" and
coining "watching the submarine races" as a euphemism for necking on lover's
lane. He responded to records like a revival chorus and dropped sound effects of
wolves into the middle of songs.
     Mexican officials saw radio profits escaping north, and forced Smith to
sell his interest in XERB. Smith and the Wolfman were on the outs for a short
time, until he got a morning-drive gig at Los Angeles' experimental album rocker
KDAY. In 1970, he took his old XERB tapes, edited his segues and phone
dedications to remove dated references and L.A. locations, and became the first
rock DJ to go into syndication. The show ran for 16 years across the country and
on 600 Armed Forces Radio stations worldwide.
     When the movie "American Graffiti," with the Wolfman's bit part as himself,
came out, breaking box-office records, the Wolfman's show became more popular
than ever. He became co-host, with Helen Reddy, of "The Midnight Special," a 
live music show airing Fridays after Johnny Carson on NBC.
     Wolfman Jack was everywhere in the 1970s. He had a religious show, pitched
dozens of products, and did guest shots on TV series. His voice is heard on Top
40 tribute songs like the Guess Who's "Clap for the Wolfman," Flash Cadillac's
"Did You Boogie (With Your Baby)," and the Stampeders' cover of "Hit the Road,
Jack."
     Bob Smith cut back the Wolfman's workload in the 1980s, working small
venues and corporate meetings, and hosting "Rock 'n' Roll Palace" on the 
Nashville Network. He emceed oldies concerts and sold record collections 
through TV infomercials. He had begun syndicating a live oldies record show 
from the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Washington, DC, when he died of a 
heart attack in 1995.

Bibliography
Smith, Wes. "Country Wolf: The New Rock Makes Him Howl, So Jack Turns to
     Nashville." Chicago Tribune 28 Dec. 1988, sec. 5:3.
--,  The Pied Pipers of Rock 'n' Roll: Radio Deejays of the 50s and 60s.
     Marietta: Longstreet, 1989.
Wolfman Jack, with Byron Laursen. Have Mercy! Confessions of the Original Rock
     'n' Roll Animal. New York: Warner, 1995.
                                                                  Mark McDermott

from: The Guide to United States Popular Culture, Ray B. Brown & Pat Browne,
editors
Copyright 2001 © Bowling Green State University Popular Press