The American Spectator : He Was My Disc Jockey

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He Was My Disc Jockey

By Ben Stein on 6.1.09 @ 6:08AM

Don Dillard, the man who introduced me to rock and roll and R&B, has died.

Saturday
Sad tidings from my pal, Ronnie Oberman, like me an early fan of rock and roll and rhythm and blues in Silver Spring, Maryland. Our hero, our paragon, Don Dillard, disc jockey of my youth, has died. He was 75 and went of a stroke, from what Ronnie heard.

When I was a lad listening to my little plastic GE radio (tubes, not transistors), I was introduced to rock and roll and R & B by this man only eleven years older than I was. His father had bought him a small low power dawn to dusk outlet. Don broadcast in the morning as we were getting ready for school and then at about 3.30 to dusk as we got out of school. He was one of us. When I was 12, he was only 23. If you think of Wolfman Jack, only with no bad attitude and totally accessible to us listeners, that's Don Dillard. He would offer 45's to the first person who got to the station -- a storefront on Georgia Avenue -- and once in a while I got one. Usually Don was the only guy there. My next door neighbor and pal, Carl Bernstein, was also a fanatical fan.

It isn't a big exaggeration to say that rock and roll from Don Dillard saved my sanity. As my mother badgered and bullied me to study more, endlessly to study more (FULFILL AND OVERFULFILL THE FIVE YEAR STUDY PLAN!), and as I simply didn't do it, I found good strong male energy to resist coming at me from Don and his music, from the Platters, from Roy Orbison, from the Flamingos, Harvey and the Moonglows, Little Richard, Elvis, the Diamonds, and the best of them all, Buddy Holly, so many more I wish I could remember them all but I cannot. I just remember a few special ones like the Keys. They had a verse that went like this: "Tai S'moke'em Boom Day-Eh." The song was about Chinatown. I guess it has some drug reference I only this moment realized.

Every so often as I am hurtling down the freeway in my glorious Cadillac STS-V, with my XM set on 5, I will hear some song that I last heard in 1958 and I can remember every word, every note. Thanks to Don Dillard.

He had a great, low, insistent yet amused voice. I know I have told you this before but I can recall him telling us kids how an irate woman had told him he should not play rock and roll in the morning.

"I'll keep doing what I do," he said. "If you don't like it, just move the dial a little up or a little down and we're gone."

I wrote about Don Dillard ten years ago in the Spectator. He wrote me a delighted letter. My father and I met him at a race track (Laurel?). He looked frail but was richly amusing and pleasant to be around. If I closed my eyes, I could hear him coming from my yellow radio on my bed stand on Harvey Road.

Now, he's gone and my father is gone. And my mother, who really only wanted what was good for me. She's gone, too.

I have been ill for some time now, and I really feel floored by learning about Don Dillard. This time thing, this aging thing is really getting to be too damned much. I can cope with being old and weak and sick, one day at a time. But this loss of Don Dillard. The day the music died. The day youth itself died.

About the Author

Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes "Ben Stein's Diary" for every issue of The American Spectator.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (21) | Leave a comment

Stacy Stewart| 6.1.09 @ 7:50AM

Sweet and Beautiful

Norman Kasal| 6.1.09 @ 9:01AM

Ben, I felt the same way when my hero, Chet Atkins, died. Something went out of my life. I wasn't a country & western guy, just a guitar appreciator. But don't be too sad...they brought us great joy we can relive everytime we play one of those songs!
Peace!
Norm

Phil Hoey| 6.1.09 @ 9:31AM

I also remember Don, having met him several times at the Wheaton studios of WDON. He will be missed.

Clark Whitten| 6.1.09 @ 9:50AM

The song by the Keys is "Ling Ting Tong". I still hum it from time to time.

frost| 6.1.09 @ 10:07AM

Mark your calendar, July 15th, the 48th anniversary of our starting the "oldies" format with KOOL Gold back in '61.
Sure there were those big-band nostalgia network shows from guys like Al Ham, but, if you check, bet you'll find that we were the first in the "modern day" definition.
The story behind it, how it came about, is a fun story in itself, but we'll save that for another day.

Clayton in Mississippi| 6.1.09 @ 10:47AM

According to the music website, AllMusic.com, it's "The Five Keys" and Ling Ting Tong was their number one hit, released in September 1954

Bill| 6.1.09 @ 3:40PM

His name was Kirby Scott and he played the Top 40 at WCAO Radio 60 on your AM (tinny transistor) radio in 1960s Baltimore. We were introduced to the Beatles and the British Invasion, Motown, the Watusi and the Twist. He ended each broadcast with " keep the trash cans covered, the dog tied tightly, and until then, Yatse Sool!(Stay Loose). " We literally soldered the dial to 60AM. I remember doing my 5th grade homework and listening when the Beatles had the entire top 5 (6?) (7?) songs.
Innocence like that is gone forever.
Thanks for the memory, Ben. Hope you feel better.

Donald Watson| 6.1.09 @ 4:15PM

Ben, our prayers are with you on your illness. We have enjoyed your dry humor and columns and hope you stay with it. Its great to find that we had similar musical interest in our youth. Mine was west coast and in the fifties it was a challenge to find the cool station. One that played R&B as opposed to Pop music. Joining the Air Force at age 17 and being stationed at Travis AFB north of Frisco and my home town in San Bernardino I did a lot of Hwy 99 travel. In those days of old AM radio the music reflected the local taste. Get close to the bay area and you had a great selection of R&B stations (and jazz), not as great in LA but still better than the heartland of California. It was mostly country western (or as we called it hillbilly) music there. It was a great time to be young and be able to experience the diversity of America. Diversity that was real. Again our prayers for you Ben and thanks for your Rock and Roll memories.

Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 6.1.09 @ 4:22PM

I knew I was getting old when too many of my favorite musical artists from my youth had died. Louis Armstrong. John Coltrane. Buddy Holly. Richie Valens. The Big Bopper. Ricky Nelson. Jerry Garcia. Roy Orbison. Elvis. Clarence White. Patsy Cline. Hank Williams. Johnny Horton. Frank Zappa. John Lennon. Sam Cooke. Recently Bo Diddley. My list is huge and I have not included many others. It seems all too often that whenever I discover a new to me talent or my children ask me, “Whatever happened to ...?”, that person is now a member of God’s Really Big Band. Must be a tremendously joyful noise. Hope when my time comes, I’ll get to hear them.

Bill Speers| 6.1.09 @ 4:54PM

Mark Lapidus| 6.2.09 @ 12:19PM

When I was 15 years old I dreamed of being of on-air and started calling radio stations. Don was one of the few who agreed to meet with me to discuss the business. Although he wasn't looking for anyone, he was extremely encouraging and told me to follow my passion until someone finally said yes. Before my 16th birthday I was on the air at the then 90.1 WGTB. I've spent my entire career in broadcasting and online in no small part due to Don beging really nice to a young kid. Mark Lapidus

Ian| 6.2.09 @ 5:43PM

Ben Stein so often touches my soul, this time more deeply than ever. I am so sorry that Don Dillard died, even though I didn't know him, but I did know so many like him back in the day. Youth disappears a little each time one of those touchstones goes away.
Does anyone else remember things like a "pick to click" when a new 45 came out? Probably not.
Getting older is tough, but I hope Ben Stein is there writing about it until I have finished my run on the planet. It is a healing to share those human experiences that he describes.

Loretta Ward Sutton| 6.2.09 @ 11:19PM

Don was a great friend of my youth when he helped to promote my short but exciting song writing career. My sister, Janice and I spent countless hours at WDON just listening to Don talk and spin those wonderful old songs. Rest in peace dear friend.

Mike Hamilton| 6.3.09 @ 1:47AM

Growing old isn't for sissies.

Joel Freedman| 6.4.09 @ 4:45PM

Ben, I was one of Don's close friends "back in the day." No one mentions what a great athlete he was in his youth. He hurt his knee badly, otherwise you would have been reading about his baseball, football, basketball and track exploits. He was special in so many ways. He had no business running with me (I was a frustrated jock), but he did. I will always remember the drives back from the golf course (often Turf Valley in Baltimore), always a bit tardy for his afternoon show. Someone would put on his theme song and play it over and over until he would finally show up. Incidentally, golf was the only sport he didn't master. He was just good in golf. Great in everything else. His passing leaves a hole in my heart.

Martha Dillard| 6.4.09 @ 6:43PM

Once again thank for all your kind words and great memories. Don was a great fan of yours he thought of you as a very good and true friend. Don is someone who will never be gone.
THANK YOU,
Martha Dillard and familly

Henry Barrow| 6.4.09 @ 8:19PM

From 1962 to 1965 I was stationed at an Air Defence Missle Site in Rockville, MD. Every GI there tuned in to WDON and Don Dillard to help pass away the many long hours spent guarding the Washington DC area.

Stephen King| 6.17.09 @ 11:15PM

I felt the same as you when I read that Don Dillard of WDON died -- that there went the last of our youth. Strangely, I have a very old reel-to-reel audio "air check" tape of Don signing off the station. I will try to get a copy of it to his family.

Dr. Bruce Nelson Stratton| 6.24.10 @ 7:08AM

When I first got out of the army my first job was with WDON working w/Tom-Cat Reeder. Tom used to tell me son great Don Dillard storys...Dr. Bruce Nelson Stratton GM KFTX Corpus Christi (This is my 52nd year on the air)

richard j barrett| 7.22.11 @ 9:30PM

new Don in the 50s WDON radio,went to most of his record hops in area ,later meet Don at laurel race track stay friends until the end great stories, & a great person, rest in peace God bless, Richard.

Michael| 2.8.12 @ 4:41PM

I remember Don, but never met him. I think that at one point he had another DJ (I think he had come from WARL) working with him and they were the "Gruesome twosome for yousome"

Don Dillard and Lord Fauntleroy Bandy meant everything in the world to a Johnny Mop (Saint John's College [High School]) in those dull dentist's-office-waiting-room days of the 1950's.

Another memory Mr. Stein brought back a few years ago was - Hofberg's Delicatessen near the corner of Georgia Avenue and Eastern Avenue - they had Napoleons to die for.