Truth be told, Wolfman Jack was neither a wolfman nor a Jack.
Robert Weston Smith was from Brooklyn, growing up on the new "hep cat" DJs of the 50s like "Moondog" Alan Freed and Murry the K. After working in radio and the night club business in New Jersey, he moved to a station in Shreveport, LA, and soon hooked up with a "border blaster", XERF-AM, 1570 on your dial, across the river from Del Rio in Acuna. This is where Wolfman invented his legend and took on a legion of followers.
These Mexican AM stations were not under FCC regulation, which meant that the content, and more importantly the broadcasting power, of the stations were unlimited. In the US, AM power was maxed at 50kW; XERF used a 250kW transmitter. To avoid interference, the transmitter at XERF ran from 6pm to 6am. In the evening, the ionosphere cooled down and the radio signals could really move. You could listen to Wolfman all over the US on most nights, sometimes Canada and Alaska.
"WOLFMAN PLAYS DE BEST RECORDS IN THE BIDNESS, AND THEN HE EAT 'EM!"
Wolfman shows were, in part, an insane musical revival. He was free to say whatever he liked and play what he liked. R&R, R&B, Blues, Hillbilly, Tejano, Opry country, Bluegrass, Jazz - you name it and the Wolfman played it. As his legions grew, his show became a showcase for nitty gritty R&R and all of its variants, and his air checks became a vital part of the show.
The other ingredient of Wolfman's border shows was surreal infomercial. There was no traditional commercial advertising, so the only money coming in was from the products sold on air. Some of the products he pitched:
** Record packages from Ernie's Record Shop in Nashville and Stan's Record Shop in Shreveport. 40 songs for $4.95. Supposedly he would sell 600 record packages a day.
** Mail order Dog Food "The wolfman eat it all the time!"
** Weight loss pills (natch)
** 100 Baby chicks for $3.95 COD "You can walk them around with little leashes. Give them names. And when they grow up, ya can eat 'em."
** Florex pills (some sort of herbal boner pill) "It'll put some zing in your ling!"
** Roach Clips, but he never said what they were really for. "Clip the roaches' tiny little legs to them and throw them out the window!"
Wolfman earned 50% commission on everything he sold and made a tremendous haul. Playing R&R, acting like a lunatic, selling mail order chickens, and getting rich.
Of course once the masses were into Wolfman and the money got huge, he had to pay off so many people to keep it going in Mexico that it got exhausting and dangerous. After a couple of years of broadcasting live from Acuna, and his presence at more than one shootout, Wolfman hit the road and moved to Minnesota where he and another partner had bought a radio station. But part of his deal with XERF was that he would continue to make tapes for the station. So his show continued at XERF for the next few years.
In 1967, he got tired of Minnesota and started a new broadcast back across the border at XERB in Tijuana. This time he had a studio in Los Angeles where he recorded all of the shows. They were then driven down to Mexico to be played at the transmitter. He was still broadcasting out of Acuna, had XERB, and would add shows for XEG in Monterrey and XELO, somewhere in Mexico. All the while Wolfman and his family lived in Beverly Hills. He was the king of border radio, and R&R DJs, until frustration with the Mexican government made him decide to leave Mexico behind. He moved into the 70s with legit radio jobs in LA, American Graffiti, and the Midnight Special.
"WHEREVER YA ARE, WHATEVER YA DOIN', I WANCHA TA LAY BACK, PUT YO HANDS ON THE RAY-DEE-OOO, AND SQUEEZE MY KNOBS!"
No, the Apple never heard the guy on the air while he was alive. But it's not all hearsay and myth making - you can still hear archival recordings as MP3s over at the Wolfman Jack Online Museum.
The fact is, whether he was on the X blasting out of Acuna or the Midnight Special with Helen Reddy (introducing KISS to lip-sync "Christine Sixteen"), Wolfman proselytized R&R. At his best he was a total lunatic and the biggest fan of the music he played, reaching right through the radio and making wherever you were the best place to be. So take a moment and reflect on the X, the magic of R&R, and clap for the Wolfman.
Heard it on the X - ZZ Top, 1975
Clap For the Wolfman - Guess Who, 1972
"WE ARE PUT ON THIS EARTH TO HAVE A GOOD TIME. THIS MAKES OTHER PEOPLE FEEL GOOD. AND THE CYCLE CONTINUES."
