Douglas, who was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 1994, began his radio career in 1953 at KLIC out of Monroe, LA. He moved on to Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Buffalo, Hartford, San Diego, and Miami, but only became a huge force in the country radio wars in 1970 when he started a new five-hour show each weeknight on New Orleans station WWL. This was the Charlie Douglas and His Road Gang show, eventually heard nationwide and involving humorous fictional characters of Douglas‘ creation, such as the imbecile Wichita Beaker. If his decision to pitch a show at truckers was a gimmick, then it was certainly safer than some of the previous escapades he became involved with while trying to make a name in radio. In Texas, he broadcast from a hot air balloon but lost control of the navigation and wound up drifting over the Gulf of Mexico. He is also the first person to broadcast while parachuting from an airplane, although not the first disc jockey who listeners wanted to have thrown out of an airplane. Similar thoughts would accompany Douglas‘ promotional broadcasts while standing in a lion’s cage or riding on the back of an enraged brahma bull. The WWL show ran for a lucky 13 years, and the honors were many.
Overdrive magazine named Douglas its Trucking Disc Jockey of the Year in 1973, and there were also awards from the Country Music Association. In 1975,Douglas himself went on the road, sending out music to road hogs from 40 different locations in just 50 days. Douglas replaced Chuck Morgan on Music Country Radio in the early ’80s, and from there garnered a spot at WSM in Nashville. He kept the latter position through 1995, at that time focusing full-time on his Compact Disc Xpress company. Recordings Douglas made on his own during his road show era represent this radio genius at the height of his creativity. The collaboration with Dudley has received the gold vinyl reissue treatment from Sun, but the country comedy cassette entitled Me and Dammit Ray, which Douglas created on his own, might only be found by scouring flea markets. The title routine, involving a talking outhouse, is worth sitting through. ~
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I was in high school and college in the upper midwest when Charlie took over nights at WWL in New Orleans. A number of us were involved in studying broadcasting and several of us spent many nights listening to Charlie’s program. He was one of the greats in terms of building and keeping an audience. There were many greats over the years but in my mind Charlie and Bill Mack were the best.