Dewey Phillips

Dewey Phillips. . Pioneering Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips introduced R&B to young white audiences in the Mid-South and was the first to play Elvis Presley on the air. Journalist David Halberstam wrote that, although Memphis itself was strictly segregated, “At night, Dewey Phillips integrated the airwaves.”, Phillips irrepressible style became as popular as his choice of music until his freewheeling approach to programming – mixing R&B, pop and country music – was superseded by the Top 40 format., Dewey Mills Phillips was born in Crump on May 13, 1926, but grew up in Adamsville. He went to Memphis in 1942. When he was drafted in September 1944, he was working at the Taystee Bread Company. After discharge in 1946, Phillips took voice lessons at the Memphis College of Music before running the record department at the W.T. Grant store on Main Street. He began broadcasting on the store’s public address system., In October 1948, struggling Memphis radio station WDIA oriented its program exclusively to the city’s black community. WDIA was the first in the nation to do this, and it has an immediate success. Other local stations, including WHBQ, began programming R&B, often in the evening when WDIA was off the air. Phillips heard WHBQs R&B show, Red, Hot and Blue, and approached the station about taking it over. He started in October 1949, and the show’s 15 minutes grew to an hour, then two hours. Young white listeners were among his most avid fans. , Phillips’ catchphrases become part of everyday life among his audience. He developed a range of characters, creating voices for them and alternating them on air. His announcing style was a stream-of-consciousness speed rap. Commercials were often mangled or improvised, but sponsors didn’t care., In 1950, Phillips partnered with Sam Phillips (to whom he was unrelated) on a record label - It’s the Phillips. Their sole release sold poorly. Sam went on to start Sun Records in 1952. In July 1954, immediately after producing Elvis Presley’s first session. Sam brought Presley to Dewey for an on-air interview. Dewey played Presley’s first record repeatedly, making it a local hit. He and Presley became friends., Other pioneering white R&B DJs, notably Alan Freed, went on to host nationally syndicated shows, but Phillips was confined to the relatively small Memphis market. On Dec. 31, 1956, Phillips began simulcasting an after-school show on WHBQ-TV and radio. The television show was soon moved to 11:30 p.m. because the after school slot was allocated to Dick Clark’s syndicated show, “Bandstand”. Phillips’ TV show was cancelled in January 1958 after his on-air sidekick, Harry Fritzius, grouped a cutout of actor Jayne Mansfield., In August 1958, Phillips was fired from WHBQ. The emergence of the Top 40 format increasingly sidelined personality DJs. Two months later, he began broadcasting on WHEY (later WGMM), a new station operating out of Millington, Tennessee., Troubled by substance abuse, Dewey was supported in part by Sam and Presley during his last years. Dewey died at his mother’s house on Walnut Street in Memphis on Sept. 28, 1968. He is buried in Crump Cemetery together with his parents.