ART LABOE - Last of the West Coast Original DJs, First to Play Rock and Roll and other Firsts

Rare interview , below, with the great ART LABOE, still going strong with his 'lowrider oldies' niche programming in LA @ http://youtu.be/YbIdmFrZCcw Didn't know he started at KSAN in SF with Jumpin George Oxford and then the first to play rock and roll on west coast at Scrivner's drivein. Talks about 'inventing' 'Oldies but Goodies' and his other 'firsts' . Now all the other LA originials are gone - Huggy Boy, Hunter Hancock, Wolfman, etc. Laboe recounts his colorful LA radio history. May he continue on long...

Laboe broadcast from Scrivner's Drivein, Los Angeles

DJs used to do a lot of remote broadcasts. Here Laboe did a regular gig at Scrivner's Drive In.

On a personal note I remember as a kid visiting Los Angeles at the Roosevelt Hotel(?) and hearing a DJ broadcast from Dophin's (?) across the street on Hollywood Blvd, I believe. Exciting stuff

The  recently passed, great CLEVE DUNCAN, second from leflt, and his PENGUINS (Earth Angel)
doing record shop promo in the 1950s.


The Penguins were the biggest thing to hit L.A., with Earth Angel as Rock and Roll and
rythm and blues intersected in 1955. Laboe was there to capture the Penguins and sign them to his Oldies but Goodies.
Another new piece of info for me, was that Laboe was the one to put out the great early '60s 'Memories of El Monte' single and album by the Penguins. The song paid tribute to a very popular stadium for early rock and roll shows, just outside of Los Angeles. The song was written by none other than 13 year old Frank Zappa. 

Listen closely to the lyrics of Memories of El Monte and , even if you weren't there at the time,  you can

get a feel for what it might have been like at County Legion Stadium, El Monte, CA

Bob Keane, who had his own record label, DelFi, in Los Angeles, where he was also a big part of the LA scene and no doubt a part of Laboe's circle. Keane discovered and recorded Richie Valens and Sam Cooke among others

Laboe's famous series that originated in the early '60s. This was Volume 1 of many.  Artists were
many of the aforementioned local artists.

Home of 'Oldies But Goodies'

L:aboe with another great local DJ  via Philadelphia, Dick Clark

Whereas Laboe had a more normal vocal syle, 'Jumpin' GEORGE OXFORD had a real unique 'jive'  broadcast, also of KSAN, where Laboe began. 
Oxford might argue  that HE was the first West Coast DJ to bring R and B together with Rock and Roll, though
he's not around to protest. He may have been as big or bigger in the San Francisco Oakland
area in the mid 1950s as Laboe was in Los Angeles. He would move to KDIA in Oakland  where he emphasized the R and B sound at one of the first black oriented stations.
Hear Oxford's 'black' sound, by clicking on his face, above

Laboe was the ALAN FREED of the West Coast with his oldies shows. San Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Little Richard, Richard Berry, Jesse Belvin,  the Shields, The Larks along with the Penguins  were among the popular West Coast artists who would perform on such bills