Jack Spector (September 15, 1928 – March 8, 1994) was an American
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
and TV host, particularly known for his work in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
during the
1960s
File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; the Beatles led the British Invasion of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong and Buzz ...
"rock radio" era.
WMCA Good Guys
Spector began his radio career in 1955. In 1961 became one of the original Good Guys on
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...
station
WMCA WMCA may refer to:
*WMCA (AM), a radio station operating in New York City
* West Midlands Combined Authority, the combined authority of the West Midlands metropolitan county in the United Kingdom
*Wikimedia Canada
The Wikimedia Foundation, ...
570 AM.
In late December 1963, WMCA, with Spector, earned the distinction of being the first New York City radio station to play
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
' groundbreaking
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
"
I Want to Hold Your Hand
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded on 17 October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment.
With advance orders ...
" by
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
. (Outside New York, the record's broadcast debut is widely accepted to have occurred earlier at
WWDC
The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in t ...
1260 AM in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
). WMCA was keen on playing new product and breaking new hits. Consequently, Spector became associated with the radio station most credited with introducing
Beatlemania
Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By ...
- and the "
British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on b ...
" musical movement - to New York City listeners.
In 1960, he briefly hosted a
syndicated television program, ''The Jack Spector Show'', featuring teenagers dancing to popular hit records of the day, similar to
Dick Clark
Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 198 ...
's early TV shows. He was introduced on the program as "Smilin' Jack Spector."
In 1962,
The Four Seasons released "
Sherry
Sherry ( es, jerez ) is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versi ...
," their first number one hit on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100. While there were many suggestions for the name of the song, it was called "Sherry" after Spector's eldest daughter. The song reached #1 on September 15, 1962, which was Spector's 34th birthday.
In 1969, while continuing to work as a DJ in New York, Spector released a
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
on
Buddah Records
Buddah Records (later known as Buddha Records) was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's foundin ...
under the name, "Vik Venus, Alias: Your Main Moon Man". The single, "
Moonflight", was a
novelty
Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...
"break-in"
record in the style of
Dickie Goodman
Richard Dorian Goodman (April 19, 1934 – November 6, 1989), known as Dickie Goodman, was an American music and record producer born in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for inventing and using the technique of the "break-in", an early precur ...
. In it, a reporter asks
astronauts
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
questions about a fictional "
Achilles moon flight", with the responses taken from snippets of popular
song
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
s of the day. All response fragments used for this record were from previous hits on Buddah. The record peaked at #38 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
, and #20 in Canada.
Talk Shows, Country and Oldies
WMCA moved to a
talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...
format
Format may refer to:
Printing and visual media
* Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements
* Paper formats, or paper size standards
* Newspaper format, the size of the paper page
Computing
* File format, particular way that informatio ...
on September 21, 1970, one day after the final Top 40 broadcast. Spector stayed on as host of a
sports talk
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...
show. Around 1971, Spector moved to
WHN 1050 AM, then a vocal-based
easy listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...
station. He remained for a while after WHN became a
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
station in 1973. In 1974, Spector left WHN to go to
WCBS-FM
WCBS-FM (101.1 FM) is a radio station offering a classic hits format licensed to New York City and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are in the combined Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood in lower Manhat ...
101.1 where he hosted a 1955-1964 based
Oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...
show called "The Saturday Night Sock Hop" and another regular weekend shift. He was also a regular fill-in host there, substituting for full time DJs over the years. In 1983,
Cousin Brucie
Bruce Morrow (born Bruce Meyerowitz on October 13, 1935 or October 13, 1937) (sources differ) is an United States of America, American radio personality, radio performer, known for professional purposes as Cousin Brucie or Cousin Bruce Morrow. I ...
began doing every third Saturday night of the month. Spector remained at WCBS-FM until the Spring of 1985.
Later in 1985, Spector joined
WNBC
WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...
660 AM as the original host of "Sports Night", eventually replaced by
Dave Sims
David Sims (born February 14, 1953) is an American sportscaster. He currently is the television play-by-play commentator for the Seattle Mariners. Sims was the 2018, 2019 and 2020 National Sports Media Association's Washington state Sportscaster ...
. Spector usually began his show as
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, ''The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terre ...
was wrapping up his afternoon program. The two would often banter on the air about Spector's life in radio. Spector then went to
WPIX-FM
WFAN-FM (101.9 FM), is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York. Owned by Audacy, Inc. the station simulcasts a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM", or "The FAN", along with co-owned WFAN 660 AM. It ...
101.9, which was playing an
adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
format. Upon the station's change to
new adult contemporary (NAC) and soon after to
smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s.
History
Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...
, he became one of the first on air personalities on the renamed
WQCD "CD 101.9." Spector also owned a retail optical store for reliable income during times when he was not on the air.
Spector dies while on the air
Late in 1988, Spector left WQCD and joined the staff of
WHLI
WHLI (1100 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Hempstead, New York, and serving Long Island. It is owned by Connoisseur Media and has an oldies radio format made up of hits from the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
The station's studios a ...
1100 in
Hempstead, New York
The Town of Hempstead (also known historically as South Hempstead) is the largest of the three Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead, New York, North Hempstead and Oys ...
, playing an
Adult Standards format for
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
listeners. That station began mixing in some rock and roll oldies by the early '90s. After participating in a few "Radio Greats" weekends at WCBS-FM, Jack Spector returned to 101.1 as a part-time swing announcer in 1993 while also working five days a week at WHLI.
On March 8, 1994, shortly after starting a recording of
Louis Prima
Louis Leo Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and trumpeter. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he forme ...
's ''
I'm In The Mood For Love
"I'm in the Mood for Love" is a popular music, popular song published in 1935 in music, 1935. The music was written by Jimmy McHugh, with the lyrics by Dorothy Fields. The song was introduced by Frances Langford in the movie ''Every Night at Eigh ...
'', he suffered an apparent
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
and collapsed. Following a long silence after the song had finished, radio station employees ran into the studio and found Spector on the floor. Repeated attempts to revive him failed. He was pronounced dead at
Winthrop University Hospital Winthrop may refer to:
Places United States
*Winthrop, Arkansas
*Winthrop, Connecticut is a village in Deep River, Connecticut
* Winthrop, Indiana
*Winthrop, Iowa
*Winthrop, Maine
** Winthrop (CDP), Maine
*Winthrop, Massachusetts
*Winthrop, Minneso ...
. He was 65.
Spector is buried at Beth Moses Cemetery in
Farmingdale, New York
Farmingdale is an incorporated Political subdivisions of New York#Village, village on Long Island within the Oyster Bay (town), New York, Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York. The population was ...
. After his death, Howard Stern, his colleague at WNBC, said Jack was one of the few fellow disc jockeys he liked, and who liked him. Stern often credits Spector for having the wisdom to own an eyeglasses optical store, for times when his radio career had interruptions.
Notes
Sources
*
Joel Whitburn
Joel Carver Whitburn (November 29, 1939 – June 14, 2022) was an American author and music historian, responsible for setting up the Record Research, Inc. series of books on record chart placings.
Early life
Joel Carver Whitburn was born in Wau ...
, ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits''. 7th edn, 2000
External links
Jack Spector Air Check March 1959 WPTR*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spector, Jack
1928 births
1994 deaths
Musicians from New York (state)
American radio personalities
20th-century American musicians