Rock & Roll Heaven +2
As promised, below is
BFYP’s
Swinging Sixties tribute to Jack Vincent, KCBQ/San Diego DJ extraordinaire, who made his way to Rock
& Roll Radio Heaven Sunday (January 29
th). He was a
feisty 99.
After the first tribute posted January 30th (1950s), it was learned he made the trip that day with
Herb Oscar Anderson (88), a popular but reluctant Rock Radio DJ for WABC/New York. RIP, fellas.
Jack’s interview for the
BFYP
books (in
Shotgun Tom Kelly’s
infamous pool room) was rambling, but delightful. I hope you enjoy his excerpt from Book 2,
The Swinging Sixties 1960-1969 (to publish
in eBook format this month). Leaving legacy vignettes for pioneering Rock &
Roll Radio DJs …
We’re playin’ the hits at BFYP-FM! As
time goes by, no more kiss-is-just-a-kiss tunes, because frankly, my dear, I
don’t give a damn …
Let’s
have Fun,
Fun, Fun … ♪ oh no … daddy took
the T-bird away … and … no! Not the transistor radio!
Jack
Vincent
1917 ~ 2017
Best known at
KCBQ/San Diego, California
Jack
is the Daddy-O of the late night show. “I worked twenty-seven years there
(1955-1982), during their ‘glory days,’” said Jack, “and on air most of that
time (1955-1967).” Jack’s tenure at KCBQ is still an unbroken record.
For
thirteen years on the night shift, Jack’s soft tones soothed your soul from
midnight to six in the morning. As we’ve heard from a few other DJs, the night
shift in a radio station can be verrrry interesting.
Jack
didn’t broadcast from KCBQ’s famed 7th and Ash window studio —like,
what’s the point—it’s dark. Secluded at its transmitter site in Santee, about
ten miles east of San Diego, Jack has some great stories to share about our
sexy, swingin’ Sixties.
Jack
landed at KCBQ after he chose radio over construction in the 1950s. Suffering
with a work-related back injury, he figured being a disc jockey was less
dangerous.
Hired
as an engineer, for a behind-the-scenes gig, he accidentally became a reluctant
DJ and settled comfortably into KCBQ life.
The
Clark Gable of the airwaves enjoyed his fortuitous career and a few perks along
the way.
Forgive
us as we chat randomly—stories may be a little out of chronological order. Our
interview took place when Jack was ninety-one years old. Some dates are a
little fuzzy, and I suspect some events happened earlier or later on the
winding path of Memory Lane; but his stories are no less vibrant. We’ll just
tell ‘em as they come …
[Image: The Big KCB ”Q” Survey for
December 10, 1961, gave us seven handsome DJs and one … duck?! BFYP Collection]
“A
situation developed when Elvis was in town,” began Jack. “San Diego used to
have a big skating rink downtown and it was decided to have the Elvis show
there. Elvis was to be at the rink by seven o’clock, so the station could
broadcast him.
“The
system [throughout the evening] was to keep hyping Elvis’ appearance and make
you think he was going to be on ‘next’; but next was always some ‘Joe Blow’
performer. [So that’s where our
network news television stations got the idea!]
“Finally
at ten o’clock that night, Elvis went on, and the place just went wild. Girls were throwing their panties
on stage, and screaming and hollering, and sailors were jackin’-off …” I took
my eyes off my notepad and looked at Jack with a bit of disbelief at the last
part, and he smiled impishly and nodded. “I got this story pretty damn straight
from the guy who cleaned the floor the next day!”
Jack
was a popular remote location disc jockey and spent many shifts at a hoppin' local hangout. “We had a lot of high-class people coming in at Pat’s Drive-In,” Jack
mused. “I’d guide them down to us on El Cajon Boulevard [while they’re
listening on their car radios]. We had a salesman from Hershey candy, so I’d
have boxes of chocolates [to give away], and the beer man would leave a case. I
never knew what I was going to end up with the next morning …” Love those
leftovers!
Um,
not sure where the beer man came from in a burgers and malts drive-in, and Jack
didn’t elaborate; but anything was possible in the mid-Sixties. “It was kind of
a fun life,” said Jack. His gently lined face lit up with a grin. “It never
acted like a job. It seemed like I was on vacation all the time.”
Vacations
in the Sixties, especially in San Diego—much like today—involved summer,
alcohol, and skimpy swimsuit-clad bodies, all hours of the day and night. Bikinis
became largely accepted in the early 1960s; and well … often swimsuits were
optional.
[Image: Clark … I mean, Jack … flashes a
randy smile as he spins the vinyls at KCBQ, c. 1963. Courtesy of Shotgun Tom
Kelly.]
Betwixt and Bewitched in the Midnight Hour
As
we sat together on a sofa at Shotgun Tom Kelly’s home in SoCal, Jack recalled
one of his vacation-at-work nights. He’s on the air at KCBQ as usual …
“I
never locked the door,” said Jack. “One night a girl knocked on the door and
she said, ‘Jack, you sound real sexy on the air. I just wanted to see how sexy you are.’”
Now
remember, this is the guy who could take on Clark Gable in a look-alike
contest. Surely, she was smitten.
“She’s got a fifth of whiskey and a bottle of
chasers in her hand.” What could he do but invite her in?
“So
I’m playin’ the records and I had a tape that I put on sometimes, if I want to
take a break about two in the morning. Come two o’clock, I turn around—and I
had a divan about like this in my studio—I turn around and there she was,
laying without any clothes on.”
Yahoo
for summer vacation! Ever the gentleman, the firmly married disc jockey
politely invited her to leave.
[Image: What do you think of the
resemblance in this cameo mashup?]
During
his tenure at KCBQ, Jack’s taste in music ran the gamut from the Big Band Era
through Elvis, The Beatles, and what he termed “the New York bunch.”
Though
he favored the music of the 1930s, from his youth—something we all do—Rock and
Roll had enough tunes that he liked, to make his job enjoyable.
“Early
on we played a song with big band sound, like ‘Poor People of Paris,’” said
Jack. The American instrumental version of the French song topped radio charts
in 1956. It’s reported to be the last #1 chart hit before Elvis’s “Heartbreak
Hotel” broke hearts and chart records.
Jack’s
radio engineering school training served him well on both ends of his long
career. As life does, his role at KCBQ changed around 1967, and he finished his
“vacation” with them through 1982, as an engineer.
“When
I was a kid Jack used to let me watch him on the air, reading the news and
playing the hits on KCBQ.” Shotgun Tom Kelly (in tribute to Jack’s passing,
five days earlier; Facebook, February 3, 2017.)
Highly
respected in the broadcasting industry, Jack’s name joined other iconic DJs
carved into the granite of the KCBQ “Top 40” monument, dedicated at the old
transmitter site, in 2010.
Today: Jack shared a few
more final words: “In 1982 management decided to drop the union, l
etting all
the union men go. I was one … I was sixty-five years old, so it worked out
perfect. I retired. Now I don’t do anything … just sit back and have fun.” He
did that—complete with cigar, wine, and pool cue in hand, until eleven months
shy of his 100
th birthday.
He
also had high praise for his best friend and once-coworker, Shotgun Tom Kelly.
“Shotgun is the last of the good disc jockeys.” Takes one to know one!
[Image: Jack Vincent, left, Shotgun Tom
Kelly, right, celebrating Jack’s 90th birthday in “Tonight Show”
style, 2007. Courtesy of Shotgun Tom.]
Lingering
Lovelights 
No
doubt, St. Valentine’s Day had something to do with “Dedicated to the One I Love”
scaling WABC/New York’s survey ladder in one GIANT leap, from an obscure #57 on February 25, 1967 to #15 the following week. 
