Tom Dooley, WAKY (c. 1974)
George Patrick Thomas O’Dooley, Jr., known to Top 40 listeners throughout the country as Tom Dooley, says KHJ was a dark and evil place in this 2005 interview with WAKY historian and contributor John Quincy.
And what about those thousands of jocks who wanted to work at KHJ? “I wanted to stand on top of the mountain … and wave my arms and say, ‘Don’t Bother! Don’t come this way!” warned Dooley. “There’s no joy here. There’s no love here.” The infamous aircheck of Dooley demanding an investigation of President Richard Nixon is included in this exhibit. (It starts at approximately 15:36 into the interview.)
In a career that spanned some of the very best years of Top 40 radio, Dooley worked for KELI/Tulsa, WQAM/Miami, KNUZ/Houston, WSAI/Cincinnati, WAKY/Louisville, WMPS/Memphis, WORD/Spartanburg, KRIZ/Phoenix, WFIL/Philadelphia, WAYS/Charlotte, WIFI-FM/Philadelphia and WHBQ/Memphis, in addition to KHJ/Los Angeles and others. Dooley also recalls that he syndicated a radio contest, The Trap, and RKO tried to steal it, but they didn’t, and he did very well with it.
During the last years of his life, Dooley was an active Christian, and returned to the air on a syndicated radio program titled “The Journey”. Early in 2010, his friends and family noticed subtle changes in his behavior. Shortly thereafter, he experienced difficulty with balance and fatigue. Tests and a biopsy resulted in a diagnosis of aggressive brain cancer. A large tumor was removed on April 8, but some cancer remained and Dooley was paralyzed on his left side. Tom Dooley was born on January 18, 1947 in Chicago, IL., and was 63 at the time of his passing on November 9, 2010.
