Released on Volume 2, Issue 3 of Programmer’s Digest in August of 1973, this feature is narrated by John Young, (at the time, KILT, Houston) and honors the legendary John “R” Richbourg, who was heard on 50 kilowatt WLAC, Nashville, Tennessee for 32 years. It includes his July 28, 1973 farewell on WLAC, and an interview in which he talks about his life.
In the book The Hits Just Keep On Coming – The History of Top 40 Radio, Ben Fong Torres writes:
John Richbourg had a direct impact on a teenaged Robert Smith, listening in Brooklyn … Smith, the future Wolfman Jack, wrote a memoir, Have Mercy! in which he recalled John R.’s theme…. “Hey John R., whatcha gonna do? C’mon, John R., man, and play me some rhythm and blues”, to which Richbourg would roar out his response, “Whoa! Have mercy, honey, have mercy, have mercy.”