Disc Jockeys - St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture | HighBeam Research
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Disc Jockeys
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture January 1, 2000
Disc Jockeys Since the early days of radio broadcasting, the disc jockey or DJ has been an essential part of radio, not just playing records but serving as an intermediary between the listening audience and the stars of popular music. Disc jockeys enjoyed the most influence on their listeners in the 1950s and 1960s, when they introduced new music to Americans and made rock and roll the dominant force in youth culture. I n the first two decades of radio in the United States, the person who introduced records and made station announcements was usually a technician who worked the broadcast equipment. I t was a policy of the large radio networks to avoid recorded sound as much as possible and rely on live programming. Thus there was little call for disc jockeys in the 1920s and 1930s. The radio networks were forced to drop their opposition to canned music as their studio musicians were called up to join the armed forces in the 1940s. Thus began the rise of the radio announcer who played recordings on the air, the so-called disc jockey. The most popular was Martin Block, whose "Make Believe Ballroom" invited listeners to a pretend concert and entertained them with humor and records. His program was networked in the 1940s and reached a national audience. The monopoly of the three national ‌ COPYRIGHT 2000 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to Customer Service.
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