Our Mentor: Art Roberts 
by Jimmy Rabbitt 

Webster's defines mentor as:  1. (noun) a wise and trusted counselor or teacher  2.  (cap) (in the Odyssey) a loyal advisor of Odysseus entrusted with the education of Telemachus  3. verb...to act as a mentor.  

I don't know who this Odysseus is, or his sidekick Telemachus "the unicorn" or what station they worked for, but for hundreds of disc jockeys like me around the world it should read: Art Roberts.  Our loyal advisor entrusted with our radio education! 

It all started for me back in early 60's when two culturally deprived boys named "Fast" Eddy Payne and Randy "Big R" Robbins were draggin' the streets of  Tyler Texas in their hot rod Fords listening to a 50,000 watt wonderland in the night called WLS.  We were d.j. s on different top 40 stations and had been good friends since long before we became competitors in the "Rose City" radio wars.   We were as different as night and day, him from the south, me from the north, he loved R&B and Jazz, while I loved Country and Rock and Roll.

Different yes,  but somehow we both managed to fall in love with the same young, beautiful, blonde, Texas heartbreaker, yes she broke both of ours and married another d.j.!   We both bought brand new Ford Galaxy 500XLs complete with the 406 super engine that would eat Chevy 409s for snacks, his was white and mine was red.   We both entered and won trophies at twist contests held around the east Texas area in conjunction with the many "twistploytation"  films that were popular at the time.  I think he won the most, but I know I won the biggest, it was held at the Tyler Theater between showings of "Don't Knock The Twist" with Chubby Checker,  Dee Dee Sharp and Joey Dee and The Starlighters!  We both had long rock and roll D.A. haircuts, and dressed like we lived on Beal Street in Memphis which really made us stand out in that small Texas town.   We both played and recorded with rock and roll bands, and had local hits during the 60's.  His band was called "The Sensors", mine "The Golden Hawks". 

But somehow we knew we could never be rock and roll stars, so we became d.j.s!  And we both loved to listen and dream about the "big time" jocks we heard on all those "big market" radio outlets that boomed into Tyler after sundown every night.

There was KLIF from Dallas with Russ Knight "the weird beard", Chuck 'Baby' Dunaway "The Round Mound of  Sound",  Ken Dowe and "Granny" Emma, Rex Miller and Charlie and Harrigan.  Then there was WNOE from New Orleans with Long John Silver "The Blue beard" and other fast talking hip New Orleans announcers.  But most of all we both loved WLS.  We got a real kick out of Dick Biondi and all the wild and crazy things he got away with on the air,  we loved Clark Webber's "East of Midnight" show,  we both wished we had Ron Riley's voice (still do), and we both wanted to grow up and move to Chicago someday and work with our hero...Art Roberts! 

Randy and I were both lucky enough to follow Art to KLIF, "Big R" by way of KFJZ Fort Worth.  He later moved on to St. Louis, Denver and Atlanta.   I went to KLIF in 1964 and took over nights when Russ Knight "the Weird Beard" moved on to WKBW in Buffalo, and I stayed there till 1967 when I was fired and became a promotion man and producer for a Dallas record company.

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We knew that Art had worked in Tyler once upon a time just like us -- He was at KTBB, we were at KGKB and KDOK.   We also knew that he had become a "radio star" and moved on up to KLIF, and was now the "King" of Chicago on WLS!  Art had a way with words like no other d.j. we had ever heard!  He was a "radio personality", his delivery was smooth, and boy was he ever suave!  He not only knew more about music than anyone, but he obviously personally knew all of the rock and roll stars that we played on the radio, and secretly yearned to be.  We would often ride around together, taking notes on yellow legal pads, stealing words, phrases, and tidbits of information about the music and the artists he played and talked about.  We bought and began to spin Chicago records like they were locals, and yes, we knew the name of every club and concert arena that we were going to play when we got to "the windy city" and worked for WLS with our mentor at large Art Roberts! 

I got to know Art over the years, we became friends, we worked together, talked for hours about broadcasting, and cried together over the changing state of radio!  When I was a record promo man for Abnak Records back in 1967, Art help me break records like "Western Union" by The Five Americans and "Do It Again, Just A Little Bit Slower" by Jon And Robin and The In Crowd.  When the groups would go to Chicago to play, Art would take them under his wing and see that they played the right shows and got the best billing that unknown musicians from Dallas could expect.  He talked to them about how to dress, what songs to play (besides their hits), and most of all taught them how to work the tough Chicago crowds.  Like the many Chicago groups including The Buckinghams and The Shadows of Knight that Art mentored in the 60's, there were also some green Texas musicians that say they would never have made it without his help.   People like John Durrill of the Five Americans who moved to Hollywood and wrote and produced hits for The Everly Brothers and the Clint Eastwood "Every Which Way" series of movies.  Jerry Lynn Williams of Jon and Robins's In Crowd who became Eric Clapton's favorite guitar player and wrote hits for people like B.B King, Delbert McClinton, Bonnie Raitt and Eric himself.  And Rex Ludwick also of The In Crowd who joined the Willie Nelson Family Band in the 70's and helped put the Rock in Country Rock are just a few of many musicians who credit Art as their mentor. 

Thanks to him I was a success as a record producer and promotion man, but remember  he was my mentor and  just he wouldn't let me alone.  He kept saying "Rabbitt get back on the radio, you're wasting your good talent pushing records!" 

I finally did thanks to "Granny Emma" Dowe who talked Gordon McLendon into giving me a second chance on KLIF, and the "Uncle" Mike Scott who took me to San Diego and KCBQ, then "The Screaming Eagle" Tom Ayres got me a job at KRLA.  Then it was KABC fm, The ABC fm Network, KMET fm, KLAC am, KBBQ am, KROQ am/fm,  KGBS fm, The Satellite Music "Pure Gold" format, and on and on until I had over 500 stations on my resume. 

Then Art and I both ended up back in Tyler Texas in the 90's.  He was working afternoon drive for KDOK fm,  I had returned to College and was working part-time at KTYL fm.  Art was doing what he did better than anyone...picking and playing the best music anywhere! KDOK's music rotation was based on Bud Buschardt's ABC  Satellite Radio format that included everything from 40's Big Band to Current Hit Music, and literally everything in between!  While I was cracking the books on Math, History, English, Computers and Music Theory, I got to listen to my mentor once again. I began to notice that the kids on campus were listening to Art. Everywhere I would go on campus and around town it was Art on the radio again!  

When I finally began to ask them why they told me that unlike all the "cookie cutter" top 40 Rock and Country stations in east Texas Art Roberts played all kinds of music!  They said they were never bored with the same old songs over and over again, they said the other stations were "Narrowcasting" not Broadcasting! (those kids were hip!)  And then I began to hear things that I should have expected, but somehow didn't, "Art Roberts knows so much about music and the people that make it, I'm learning something new about music everyday"!   And "Art has taught me to love Rock and Roll and Country Music,  I never did before I heard The Beatles and Tom T. Hall"! And Art taught me about "Big Band" music  and I learned about people like The Spitfire Band and Tony Bennett,"!  And  "Art is my favorite because he talks to me...not at me...like those other guys"! 

Art was mentoring to a whole new generation of young people who were seeking a higher education and wanted more than the same old records "over and over and over and over again"!  They learned about people like Ray Charles,  Jr. Walker & The All Stars,  Julie London, The Kinks,  Hank Williams,  Quincy Jones,  The Kingston Trio, Gene Pitney,  Aretha Franklin,  Bobby Darin,  Waylon Jennings,  Connie Francis,  The Four Seasons,  Glen Miller,  Gene Vincent,  Stevie Wonder,  Mickey Newberry,  Doug Sahm, Stan Getz,  Blood Sweat and Tears,   Rick Nelson,  Seals and Crofts,  Los Lobos,  Jim Reeves, Billy Joel,  Bill Doggett,   The Platters,  Santo and Johnny, Wilson Pickett,   Jim Croce,  Johnny Horton, and many more artists that they would never hear anywhere else.   They also learned that people like The Beatles, The Supremes, Elvis Presley, The Temptations, Natalie Cole,  Chuck Berry,  Frank Sinatra and other had more than one or two songs worth hearing. 

I listened and I learned too.  In fact I learned  more from my mentor then than I did in all those years in L.A.!  We all listened and the KDOK ratings began to climb.  The station management didn't really understand, they wanted more Perry Como and  Doris Day!  I was working part-time for a station that wanted more Madonna and Elton John! Then when he got sick and had to leave the air, he asked me to fill in for him till he could return.  You know I had to say yes, it was the dream of a lifetime,  Eddy Payne sitting in for Art Roberts. When  I asked him what I should play,  Art said, "Rabbitt play a little bit of everything.  Whatever you think is right, just don't play anything that will run the audience away!" 

I don't know if I ran any listeners away, but the ratings continued to rise and Art thanked me and said I was doing a great job.  That was better than an "A+" on my report card, and the kids at school thought Eddy Payne was cool!  I was really something...because now they knew that I knew their mentor Art Roberts!  They never believed me before when I told them that I'd known him for years, and they never knew who Jimmy Rabbitt was either.  Art never returned, he got better and moved to Nevada, and I was fired for playing or not playing something or someone, I don't remember which. 

I never saw Art again, we talked on the phone, learned about the internet from Larry Shannon our webmaster, stayed in touch by e-mail right up till last month, and planned a radio format that would be like the one we did in Tyler.  We were going to do it...come hell or high water!  It's sad to think now that we'll never get to hear what Art had in mind.  But I believe that someday one of those kids that loved him, and learned so much about music will buy a station and show the world what they learned about Broadcasting not "NARROW-CASTING" from their mentor. 

I know that after all these years in radio,  the high point of my career came recently when Art was asked about the current state of radio, and what he would do if he were put in charge of a station today,  he said, "I would hunt up half a dozen Hubcap Carters and Jimmy Rabbitts and turn them loose on the listening audience!"  

That's right Art, to do what you taught us how to do,  to play what you showed us how to play!   We would both have left radio a long time ago if it weren't for you.  And neither one of us would have ever even been in radio if it weren't for you!  Hubcap and I were both just kids back in the early 60's listening to the greatest "radio personality" in the world coming out of that clear Texas air all the way from Chicago. 

I'll never forget back in 1967 when I was pushing records,  Art took me aside and told me "Jimmy, if you get back into radio and work on your show, I promise you I'll get you on WLS someday!"  He did last Friday night!   I was on the air with Jay Marvin talking about my mentor,  but I'd give anything I've got to have missed that show! 

Jimmy Rabbitt
www.jimmyrabbitt.com