Dewey Phillips, WHBQ Memphis 1957 (0:03:47)

The Uncle Ricky Collection
… If you can’t drink it, you can freeze it and eat it …

Description by Uncle Ricky

This short aircheck of Dewey Phillips on WHBQ/Memphis in 1957 was featured on Volume I, Issue 7 of Programmer’s Digest, dated November 6, 1972. Opening narration is by Stuart Hamilton, at that time with WMAK/Nashville.

Phillips was having trouble with the microphone on this show, which opens with him singing and then asking “What’s wrong with this pea-pickin’ thing?. (“Old birdbrain Dizzy Dewey” was known to have been rough with the equipment.) The unfortunate static and intermittent audio is part of the recording as published by PD.

Unlike the 1953 recording of Phillips, Dewey’s music selection was no longer limited to to obscure “race” records. In 1957, Rock ‘n’ Roll was entering the mainstream. Even Ricky Nelson was getting spins on Red, Hot and Blue.

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Welcome to the new ReelRadio!

This site is now operated by the North Carolina Broadcast History Museum. 

We want to thank the board of ReelRadio, Inc. for their stewardship since the passing of the founder Richard Irwin in 2018.  It has not been easy and they have maintained the exhibits for future generations to enjoy.

I met Richard Irwin, aka Uncle Ricky, when we were freshmen at East Carolina University.  We both had worked at local stations in our hometowns.  No one was more passionate about radio, especially Top 40 radio, than my friend Richard. 

Our goals with this site are to preserve the exhibits and make them available free of charge for people to enjoy.  Over time, we hope to add some airchecks to the site.  This will not happen immediately.  Time and resources will determine the future of new exhibits. 

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Richard Irwin’s hope was that his site would live on long after his passing. He said, “I hope REELRADIO will survive as my contribution to the ‘radio business’. The business is allowed to forget me, but the business should never forget the great era of radio that we celebrate here”.

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Board of NCBHP
North Carolina Broadcast History Project