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Pat Walsh
Pat's Peeps Podcast
Ep. 387 Today's Peep Celebrates National D.J. Day: How A Voice Between Songs Shaped Our Lives, Why D.J.'s Still Matter, Dr. Don Rose, Wolfman Jack and So Many More, Plus a Lost Gem from '72
The moment a human voice slips between the drum fill and the first lyric, something electric happens. We wanted to honor that spark, so we took a long, joyful drive through radio’s living memory: the boss jocks who could hit the post with surgical precision, the velvet FM narrators who taught us to hear the lineage from Zappa to the Dead, and the local promos that made a Friday night feel like a town ritual. National DJ Day gave us the perfect excuse to celebrate the people who turned playlists into companionship.
We revisit the stations that raised us—KROY in Sacramento, KFRC across the bay—and the legends who made mornings and late nights sing. Dr. Don Rose’s quick wit, Wolfman Jack’s raucous call-ins, and the rebel folklore of Coyote Calhoun pushing against rigid playlists remind us why personality-powered radio still matters. Along the way, we crack open the past with artifacts that still hum: a promo-only 45 from the DJ shelf, a long single like American Pie that turned a bathroom break into a communal ballad, and the warm shuffle of AM radio where Cool and the Gang could sit beside Jim Croce and Charlie Rich without apology.
This story is as personal as it is cultural. We talk about chore soundtracks on a console stereo, lemon pledge and brass knobs, car rides with a parent singing Gordon Lightfoot, and the day’s wages traded for a single 45 by War. The thread through it all is simple: radio built community with tone, timing, and care. It taught us to love eclectic mixes, to value local voices, and to trust the human at the mic who knew when to speak and when to let the chorus land.
If you love radio history, DJ craft, and the feeling of a city mirrored back through speakers, press play and ride with us. Subscribe, share with a friend who still keeps a box of 45s, and leave a review with the station ID or DJ who shaped your taste—who was that voice for you?
Look at the that man.
SPEAKER_08:Looks like a radio station.
SPEAKER_00:The request lines are now open, KGFJ, so radio.
SPEAKER_12:Do it now, man.
SPEAKER_00:Request lines are not.
SPEAKER_12:It's open.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome back. Hey there. It is Pat Speeps 387. Happy Tuesday. Thank you for checking us out yet again. Support local business. Hope you're doing well today. It is a like I say a Tuesday. It is a 20th day of January 2026. I'm looking out my studio window. Look at those daffodils outside. How beautiful the entire hillside behind me is just strewn with daffodils. It's a little cloudier today, but this it's kind of a mixture of sun and clouds. It's a nice day. But uh yeah, it's not quite as sunny as the last couple of days. But nonetheless, it is a beautiful one, and I appreciate you being there. My name is Pat Walsh. I am the host of the Pat Walsh Show. As heard on KFBK Radio in Sacramento, 93.1 FM, 1530 a.m. and live everywhere on your free iHeart app. And of course, we uh you just like this platform, you can stream us anywhere. Today, by the way, is a special day near and dear to me as a as a radio guy. Today is National DJ Day. By the way, I also hope you had a great day off yesterday. It was Martin Luther King Day. We talked about that on the show last night. But today, National DJ Day. Celebrating the work of our favorite disc jockeys. You know, celebrating in my mind, not just the disc jockeys, but transistor radios and the way we used to listen to radio and uh also turntables because we used to buy 45s before albums, and we would put the 45, you know, as a single, which I always play on my show here on my podcast. And, you know, you get the song that you like that you heard on the radio as played by the DJ. Here's what I love about DJs, and you know, I get streaming platforms, whatever. Okay, you get continuous music, that's fine. But where is the heart and soul of the person? Where's the personality in a situation like that? That's the way I look at it. It used to be what made it special in so many ways is that when you heard it on the radio, the DJ was your friend. He'd come in between songs, you know, he'd have some cool stuff to say, he had everything timed out just right. He could hit the post. When I say hit the post, you know, it'd be building up to a song, you know, to where you would be able to talk up a song, whatever it is, and be able to hit the post, which is the post being the lyrics. And there was a real art to that. I used to love listening to that on my radio with the DJs. I'll play one. Let me give you an example here. I don't know, let me just think of a song from the 70s. Now, I was never this kind of a DJ, but if I were, you'd go like this, alright? Alright, a beautiful day here on a Tuesday. It is 120. Hey, don't forget we got tickets coming up for the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium. You and a friend can be there to sing the grassroots here on K-R-O-Y.
SPEAKER_10:Welcome tonight. I gotta feel the grassroots.
SPEAKER_01:Did I come up with the grassroots? That was off the top of my head. But you can see, you know, you hit the post right before he starts to sing. There was a real art to that. So we celebrate the disc jockeys and the different styles that they had. I used to like the boss jock. I used to like the 70s sound of the FM jocks. That's right. All right, coming up, we got the brand new one from the Rolling Stones. You know, I just love the sound, and they used to celebrate that. Tom Petty's got a new one coming out, the Eagles right after that. You know, Earth Radio 102, they had that big, deep, cool voice, man. That's where I learned a lot of my musical knowledge. Not just from my ma, not just from other sources and friends, but from the from DJs, from the FM jocks. You know, we'd they'd back sell the song. We had the Grateful Dead in front of that, Frank Zappa, and Johnny Winter started things off that time around, you know, and so you'd learn you'd learn all of that. If you're riding the school bus, I'd listen to that. If you were in the backseat of the station wagon riding with your mom and your dad, mainly my mom, because my dad's 59 Ford truck didn't have a radio, but he'd sing sometimes, which was funny and it was very it was cool. My mom was always singing to the radio. So I just want to go through some of this stuff here on National DJ Day. You know, speaking of that, yeah, my mom she'd listen to the radio and she'd go out and buy records. She'd buy everything I've told you before. I mean, everything from the Ames Brothers to the Mills Brothers to Vaughn Monroe. She'd play, she'd get Hank Thompson, she'd have Hank Williams, she'd be playing Hank Snow, Ernest Tubbs, Mario Lonza go down the line. She'd be playing some Burt Canford. This would be my house. This would be our house on a Saturday morning, sun's shining, sun's coming through the curtains there. Time to open up. You gotta do chores, right? You're not doing anything until you do your chores. So she'd put the Burt Canford on the console stereo, for instance. You know, with a velvet cover. You got the record player in there. This is before A-Tracks. Then she'd break out the pledge. I can still smell the lemon fresh pledge. And the next thing you know, be like, you got the vacuum cleaner going. Are you kids done with your bedroom? You know. She wants you to get up and do your chores, quit being lazy. Or then it was go outside and play. She'd be out there. And the reason is because she heard it on the radio. With a 65 Rambler with an AM, Delco AM radio. Mom with a B I have haircut, we'd be listening to Dion Warwick, and I would just love it.
SPEAKER_00:Do you know the way to San Jose? I've been away so long. I may go wrong and lose my way. Do you know the way to San Jose? I'm going back to fight. Bert Camford songs.
SPEAKER_01:All of these great victories. You know, Tom Jones. I mean, I could the list is just from the 60s alone. Deion Warwick, of course.
SPEAKER_00:We started two years, how quick they pass, and all the styles that never were.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I would just absorb that kind of stuff like a sponge. I would just get it. So then as you get older, you'd be listening to the radio, and a lot of people would have their favorite DJ or their favorite radio station. And they'd play some of your favorite tunes. In Sacramento, you had your choice. Pretty much between these would be top 40 radio stations. You had KFRC in San Francisco. You had KROY, which was my go-to station in Sacramento, because I'm from Sacramento. And for a period of time, KNDE. But rising to fame from KFRC was certainly in San Francisco, Dr. Don Rose.
SPEAKER_06:Program number one thousand one hundred and twenty-four. Can you imagine? I can't. I don't want to think about it. No, they usually sell it by the ton, you know. Blazing for you. As a matter of fact, uh, get me out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini. Good grief, it is wet out there this morning. That's all right. It's nice and dry in here and wherever you are, I hope. We have a uh leak that just spraying in the over our closet. Fortunately, it's in there instead of over the bed, so gonna wait till next summer to worry about it, right? 559. Good morning.
SPEAKER_01:Can't get no talk it right up to the post.
SPEAKER_06:So, anyway, it's in little pieces. You don't have to worry, Roscoe. You can just kind of chow it out. Okay, come on. All right, go ahead. Okay, now in deference to Beverly, in Deverance to Beference to Beverly. We'll have a moment here. Just here, I'll take the microphone and put it down here so we can catch Roscoe when he can hear him. Okay, all right, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Dr. Don Rose. And it's National DJ Day here on Pat's Peeps 387. You can't forget, of course, Wolf Mag Jellick, baby.
SPEAKER_08:You sound like you're doing it. You certainly doing it, man. What's your name? My name is Earl Stafford. Okay, Earl, listen, let me play a record for you. How about uh Bad Moon Rise and McCreater? You got it, baby. It's how you should call it. All right, love you.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, this one brings back memories. Toby Gray Drift Away 73, baby. K-R-O-Y more with Wolfman.
SPEAKER_08:All right, it's check-in time on the Wolfman Jack Show on Ole's 94.9. Checking in, give me your name and where you callin' from. Hello? Hello, Rubby? Where's she calling from? Grand Prairie. Grand Prairie. Do you love me, baby? Thank you, darling. I love you too. What's your name? Ray. Okay, Ray, stay with us now. Hello, checking in on the Wolf Band Jack Show. What's your name? Patrick Power. And where you callin' from? Arlington, Texas. Mercy. All right. Who's calling on the Wolf Man Jack Show? This is Carrie from Arlington. How you doing, Carrie? You're partying tonight. We're working on it. You got a good Christmas coming. Yeah, we do. All right, thank you for calling, ladies. Hello, who's just on the Wolfman Jack telephone? Hey, Wolfman Jack. This is Joe, and I'm calling for Fort Words, and the song I requested is for Mark.
unknown:Okay, what do you want to play, Doug?
SPEAKER_08:And so this is Christmas by Don Lennon. You got it, here it goes. Thank you, Wolfman.
SPEAKER_01:Wolfman Jack, it's these guys that were beloved. We loved them. Guys that played some of my favorite music going back and I listened to these 45s. You know, I had my own collection. Growing up, I'd go to the store. One of my favorites of all time is I'd hear it on the radio. AM Jungle Boogie by Cool and the Gang. Always loved this one. Thank you to AM Radio for tuning me on to all these great tunes. You might hear this, then you might hear like Charlie Rich behind closed doors. You might hear Uneasy Rider by Charlie Daniels. You might even hear Helen Ready. What about Jim Croce? They'd mix it up. That's right, it was AM Radio, buddy. I remember in Oregon with my cousins. We went to West Salem. We picked strawberries all day. I sucked at picking strawberries. I earned only enough money to buy this 45 that they were playing on the radio a lot, the DJs. I literally worked all day just to buy one record. God, I must have been lazy. And this song, The Cisco Kid by War, made me a huge fan of War. To this day, and I've had the pleasure of introducing them on stage, to this day, War is in one of my all-time favorite bands. Right in there in the top echelon.
SPEAKER_12:And I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance, and maybe they'd be happy for a while.
SPEAKER_01:They'd play this on the radio and it would stick with you all these years later, you know? It's just, I still think about this. And the impact that it had on radio. It was a huge song, Don McClane. American Pie. Just one example.
SPEAKER_12:I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride.
SPEAKER_01:It was a very long single because the single took up two sides of the 45. Both sides. It's like part one, part two. You had to flip it over. It was like one of the longest singles ever. It was a great bathroom break for the DJs. When I was growing up, K R O Y being a Sacramento guy, that was my go-to radio station. And I remember people like the Wonder Rabbit, KROY.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Umce you get to dramatics with a Wonder Rabbit. Love that Loma Gold Rush Time. 10 20 and 74 degrees. Bee Winchell Clay, a name you can trust from 6 till 10 on Croix. Gold Rush is almost here. Gibson Ranch is the place for fun games. Be Winchell Clay. That's a name from the past. September 11th. I love the old promos and commercials. September 11th. Probably fine. September 11th. What? September 11th. Alright, here's something that I know you'll want to include in your Labor Day weekend plans. It's Bruce Atkins pre-Labor Day specials with important savings for men and women. Today's Bruce Atkins. I have a Bruce Atkins store. Sunday, you'll save over$38 on men's regularly priced$95 suits. That's right. Yes, yes, yes. You'll buy a new fall suit for only$56.90 at Bruce Atkins. And you'll save on men's full sports coats and slacks, too. Women's fashion dresses, regularly$28 to$46, are reduced to one third and one half off. Now come save at Roos Atkins and their pre-Labor Day specials, your holiday of savings. Here's good news for everyone who was asked how to get extra copies of the complete Power on KROY. 1025 from KROI and 74 degrees with a Wonder Rabbit on a Friday.
SPEAKER_01:Another thing about local DJs, you know, where they promote the local stores, local businesses. That's where I had a passion for that. Joan Baez.
SPEAKER_02:They drove old Dixie down. Joan Baez, K R O Y Crayloma Gold Rush Time. 1028 degrees this year's gold rush. I want that sound for my show. It's bigger and better than ever, so pick up your gold rush map at any wine stock store, okay? Wine stocks. And she doesn't even want to see.
SPEAKER_01:My friend Tony Cox. He was on KROY, and yet here we are in our adult lives, and he and I become friends. It's Tony.
SPEAKER_07:K-R-O-Y Sacrament. Get the net offering you up to$5,000 in Troy catch call. Just a little after 10 o'clock with Tony Cox. K-R-O-Y. So rock and roll bands don't have it as easy as some people may think. K-R-O-Y. K R O Y and Tony Cox with my catch call. This tower. Worth$1,000. When you phone ring, don't say hello. K-R-O-Y and Tony Cox understand that Jackson Brown will be here to talk about February 3rd. One more? Call the Conservative Live at 442-4111. I was watching television last night and learned just a couple of things like the Moral of One to War Fuck the Evil of All Roof to the Money Fuck.
SPEAKER_01:My friend Tony Cox. Wow. Imagine I grew up listening to him, and then we become friends, which was just awesome. Radio gave us so many songs, too many to even recount right now. Just one off the top of my head, a song they used to play on AM radio that reminds me of my dad. My dad always loved this one. Gordon Lightfoot. Right here on Pat's Peeps. 387. It is a beautiful day. Hope you tune into my radio show tonight where we'll talk about National DJ Day.
SPEAKER_09:I can see a line back in a seven dress. In a room where you do what you don't confess. Somehow you better take care. If I mind you've been creeping round my backstags. Some down you better take care. If I find you been creeping round my backstags She's been looking like a queen in a sailor's dream. And she don't always say what she really means. Sometimes I think it's a shame when I get feeling better when I'm feelin' no pain.
SPEAKER_01:Sometimes Sometimes when you think about the DJs, I think of some of these DJs who live on in uh like folklore, like guy I've featured a few times on my podcast. I'll give you an abbreviated version of Coyote Calhoun, who gets fired from Z102 live on the air. He broke all the rules, decided, you know what? I'm gonna play stuff I want to play. The heck with their format. Uh this goes on for a while, so it's hilarious. I'll just give you a little snippet of it.
SPEAKER_04:I sneaked the C D in here and I played it without authority and without permission. Why? Because I knew you wanted to hear it. The CD has sold four million copies. Pink Floyd. We played nothing off it. That's a good business decision, isn't it? Oh, I can tell these people are smart. We hire a consultant to tell us, hey, don't play that. It sold four million copies. Someone might like it. Keep it off the station. Pink Floyd's my favorite band. We're gonna remedy the fact we don't blame Pink Floyd right now, ladies and gentlemen. It's G102. I hope you're behind me. Uh stand behind me because we have to change this autocratic way and this completely fascist way this radio station is run. I'm sure you agree. We're tired of hearing the same old garbage. Yes.
unknown:Let's play some. What is that pink Floyd?
SPEAKER_04:Ladies and gentlemen, there we're medications finally won off. All we're gonna do tonight, as I was saying, is have a real request and dedication show. Not one of these huggy ones where I just open people on the air to request dumb songs. Whatever you want to hear, give me a call 100-239-5888 or their other number, 333112. Whatever you want to hear, I'm gonna play for you. Why? Because I love you very much, and it is my show, and we're gonna try to present a show for you know with a little bit of intelligence for now instead of the same old garbage over and over and over. Oh my hotline is ringing. Well, ladies and gentlemen, my hotline is ringing. I bet this will be interesting. Let's uh let's answer the hotline on the air. Oh, this will be fine. Shh, don't tell anybody. C102 FM, hello.
SPEAKER_03:What the hell are you doing?
SPEAKER_04:I'm playing I'm playing one of my favorite bands, uh, Boston. I'm playing Boston, Steve. A lot of Boston is what I'm doing. Why?
SPEAKER_03:Is this on the air?
SPEAKER_04:Ladies and gentlemen, Steve Russell, our program director of WCBQ. Yes, Steve, we're on the air.
SPEAKER_03:Get me off the air now.
SPEAKER_04:Lighten up, Steve.
SPEAKER_03:It's just a bit, just a joke. Get me off the air now.
SPEAKER_04:No. I'm not gonna get if I take you off the air, then you'll give me a bad time. Why don't you just tell the people since you want, ladies and gentlemen, let's uh let's not let that run our party. Let's uh let's play some more Boston. Z102 FM. I think and then he calls his wife of Mr. Steve Russell Janice. Hello, Janice. This is his wife, yeah. Janice, ladies and gentlemen, the lovely wife of Mr. Steve Russell Janice. Hello, Janice. How are you? I'm fine, thanks. You're still having a sexual problem. No at all. Um speak to Steve, please. He's not here. Where is he?
SPEAKER_01:He's on his way to the station.
SPEAKER_04:He's coming here. Is he? Oh. Okay, well, I'll talk to him when he gets here then, okay? Okay. Okay, uh, nice talking to him with you. Bye, Janice.
SPEAKER_01:So the boss is coming to the station. Here we go. I love it. So the boss gets to the station.
SPEAKER_04:And he's in Virginia. Here's the music sheet right here. Look what we got. We got Madonna, Prince, Huey Lewis, sticks. Oh. Oh, boy. How adventurous. How adventurous.
SPEAKER_01:Every DJ's wanted to do this in the last couple decades.
SPEAKER_04:And why we we follow these music sheets and have no leeway what to do. I'll tell you something. I gotta follow this music sheet, but if the ratings come back and my ratings, my book is bad, you know who's gonna get fired? No, not Mr. Jeffries. Not Mr. Russell, Mr. Calhoun will be fired. So I should have some input into my show. And you should have some input. If you want to hear something, I should be able to play it. So when Steve gets you, we'll leave the mic on, and when he gets you, we'll ask him, why are we putting up with this? We know what to do. We've been a radio 10 to 15 years. We don't need management to tell us what to do, ladies and gentlemen. Shut the mic off. Ladies and gentlemen, the program director of WCBQ and my friend Steve Russell. Hello, shut the mic off. Back off.
SPEAKER_05:You're making it worse. Shut the mic off.
SPEAKER_04:The mic stays on.
SPEAKER_05:Cut the mic off, or you're gone.
SPEAKER_04:I cannot believe that you did this is a big damn deal.
SPEAKER_05:Cut the mic off now.
SPEAKER_04:The mic stays on. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_05:Cut the mic off.
SPEAKER_04:If you come close to the mic, I I back off, Russell!
SPEAKER_05:You cut the mic off. Cut the mic off. Mic thing on. Mike is on it. Get it off now. Your mic is on. I'll kill you.
unknown:Oh shadow. Oh god.
SPEAKER_11:Shadow, are you alright? Shadow. Cut the mic off.
SPEAKER_01:Coyote J. Calhoun. So I in honor of all this, I plucked a record off my DJ shelf. Because again, these records are promotional copies made for DJs. They are DJ copies. And I grabbed this one. This was very, very random here from Pat's Peeps387. Pull it out of its sleeve, take a look at it. It's in very nice condition. Some are very shiny and really nice. This one's just in nice condition. And I'm sure it sounds great. This is on Big Tree Records. Promotion copy. Not for sale. Compatible stereo. Kind of an off-white record with some green designs on it. The other side is stereo. Let me see. The other side has an orange sticker and a sticker that says 92. Now, I haven't heard this song in a long time. I can't even remember exactly how it goes, but I know as soon as I put the needle on this, I'm gonna go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I remember the band, I remember their other big hit song. Um, and I know the title, it's in my memory bank, it's somewhere on a card in my Rolodex in my brain. This song, it'll flip over as soon as I begin the song. But I just can't remember how it goes. But I but this came out like in sixth grade. It's a song written and recorded by an American singer that appears, I guess with one name. I thought it was a group, but it's a singer with one name. Appears on his album, Of a Simple Man. Released in 72, went to number eight on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Uh it was his third of four songs to top the Billboard Easy Listening chart. Where it had a two-week stay at number one internationally, it peaked at number four in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. This is don't expect me to be your friend. Lobo. Pat's peeps 387.
SPEAKER_10:I stopped sending flowers to your apartment.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I remember. Oh god, how corny!
SPEAKER_10:You aren't at home much anymore. Ah, that's so corny right there to me. I stopped dropping by without an appointment. Sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yes, I remember this.
SPEAKER_10:Sometimes late at night you'll still call me just before you close your eyes to sleep. You make me a vow to try and stop by sometimes. Baby, that's a promise I can't keep. Oh yes, I love you too much to ever start liking news. Oh yes, it's the story. I love you too much to else like your news, so don't expect me to be your friend.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, she is Man, that brings back memories. Haven't thought of this song forever. Yeah, I don't own the rights to this, I know.
SPEAKER_10:We used to go to all the time.
SPEAKER_01:Discussing and educating and critiquing, I gotta say. But I sure do appreciate you listening. And I wish you a very, very happy Tuesday.
SPEAKER_10:I love you too much to ever start liking you. So let's just let the story and it ends.
SPEAKER_01:God, it's just like yesterday now that I hear this again.
SPEAKER_10:Love you too much to ever start liking you. So don't expect me to be your friend.
SPEAKER_01:See you on the radio.
