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Although
the expression, "blast from the past" was apparently invented by
Murray the K,
years before Murray Kaufman ever saw a microphone or the inside of a
broadcast studio, Douglas "Jocko" Henderson, "The Ace from Outer Space," was blasting off in his virtual
rocket ship and landing it via radio in our homes. The "fastest moving show on the radio" always
opened with sound of
the rocket blast that our favorite space traveler said would "make
your
liver quiver." |
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Jocko
was anything but an
Alan Freed
imitator or a "duplicator," but rather to us he was unique; he was an
innovator and an
originator. We
viewed (or heard) him as probably the most innovative, spirited, entertaining and overall cool of
all the early New York City jocks. But
was he really original?
Check
this out (but don't forget to come
back here.) |
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Jocko's
career started in his hometown of Baltimore, but it
was in Philadelphia, beginning in 1952 or 1953,
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that he first took on the name, "Jocko" and began talking over (and often directly to) the records, rolling his
Rs, and
rhyming everything he
said in a style that would later influence countless
other disc jockeys (and decades later, the rap music genre). Jocko opened doors for black DJs everywhere
like no one else. |
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Beginning in 1954, we found Jocko
broadcasting
toward the top of the dial at 1280 WOV
in New York City on his
"Rocket Ship Show"
every weekday night after 11 p.m. (when both Alan Freed and
Peter Tripp signed off the air)
in his own brand of rhyming jive patter (for which he is now
widely
acknowledged as the father of rap music).
He
became the first DJ to do radio broadcasts commuting back and forth
daily between two cities (Philly in the afternoons and New York
at night).
Later,
in 1959,
when Jocko went head-
to-head with then newcomer,
Murray, "the K," WOV
became known as "WADO Radio." |
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 "Hey, there, all you Daddy-Os and Mommy-Os,
welcome aboard the big 'Rocket Ship Show.' It’s your engineer, Jocko,
your Ace from Outer Space, way up here in the stratosphere, we gonna holler
mighty loud and clear.
 "Back on the
scene with the record machine, sayin’ oop-pop-a-doo and how do you do.?
Close the hatch, and prepare to blast. Well, eee tiddle dee dock. This
is the jock.
"Great
Googamooga,
Shoogabooga!"
Click to read about
the origin and meaning of "Googamooga.")
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When he wasn't on the air, Jocko was out promoting the
music he loved.
Some
called him the black
Dick Clark.
Like
Clark and
Alan Freed, Jocko also appeared on TV (his
TV "Rocket Ship Show" ran for about a year
beginning in 1958 on New York's
channel 13) and hosted live stage shows in New York City, in his case, beginning in 1956 at Loew's
historic
State theatre, the first rock 'n' roll review on Broadway (Alan Freed's
first Broadway stage show at the New York Paramount in Times Square was in
February 1957), and later, Jocko's live show at the world famous Apollo
Theater in
Harlem was a
virtual legend. The consummate showman, he would swing onto the
stage on a rocket ship suspended by wires from the ceiling, in
a puff of smoke and with
that familiar rocket blast sound!
Jocko lived out his later years with little
or no
hoopla, just an occasional radio appearance, for example, on a short series
of tribute shows on WCBS-FM (then, New York's
oldies station) from 1989 to 1991, and briefly during that period for two hours a week in
Philadelphia, where he had lived most of his life.
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Program booklet cover from Jocko's first
stage show, New York City, 1956 |
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Despite his brief TV career and his live shows,
Jocko was rarely seen by most
of his radio fans, and then, usually in a space suit
(therefore, barely recognizable). But he was a pretty slick and snappy guy as you
can see in this ad at right for Eagle Clothes (of
Brooklyn, New York) with Jocko, always an innovator
and an originator, featured at the peak of the civil
rights movement in 1964 in one of the
earliest men's clothing ads that featured a black model. |
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Jocko died quietly in Philadelphia on July 15, 2000,
at the age of 82. His memory was honored there in 2004 with his
induction into the Broadcast Pioneers of
Philadelphia's Hall of Fame, as of this writing, he
has not yet been given the national recognition he
so richly deserves. |
Click below for more memorable Jocko New York radio
Rocket Ship Show
airchecks
(audio clips):
Two of these feature seemingly endless dedications,
similar to
Alan
Freed's. (But who knows who started that
trend?) They are rather large files, so
give them some time to download.
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Click the back button to return to this page. |
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