Frankie Crocker

Frankie Crocker was the flamboyant kingpin of disco radio, though he had never singled out dance music as a specialty. He played rhythm and blues and jazz on the radio in his hometown of Buffalo, New York; in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and in Los Angeles before joining WMCA in New York as one of the “Good Guys” in 1968. He was the Top 40 station’s first African-American deejay. “New York was alive with rock and roll as well as soul and R&B, and everybody went to see everybody else,” he said. “The only place it was segregated was on the radio, and so that became my desire: to mix it together.”

In 1972 Crocker moved to New York City’s WLIB, which, with a change of call letters to WBLS, became a disco powerhouse beginning in the late 1970s, following the lead of WKTU. He immersed himself in the culture of the New York City club scene and reflected that culture on the radio. He also worked in television, including a stint as one of the first “video jockeys” on the cable music station VH1.