Hunter Hancock, the disc jockey regarded as the first in the Western United States to spin rhythm-and-blues records and among the first to broadcast rock ‘n’ roll, has died. He was 88.
Mr. Hancock, a top Los Angeles disc jockey of the mid-20th Century, died Aug. 4 of natural causes at a retirement complex in Claremont, Calif., said his daughter, Rosemary Davis.
Known on air as “Ol’ HH,” Mr. Hancock and his high-pitched, frantic, exaggerated voice was heard over local air waves from 1943 until 1968 when he was host of the KFVD (later KPOP) Sunday “Harlem Holiday” and daily “Harlematinee,” the KGFJ nightly Top 20 “Huntin’ with Hunter” and the KGER Sunday gospel show “Songs of Soul and Spirit.”
He also had a brief run on local television station KCBS in 1955 with the Friday night show “Rhythm and Bluesville,” interviewing such musicians as Duke Ellington, Fats Domino, Little Richard and The Platters.
For several years, Pulse survey, a precursor to Arbitron, rated Mr. Hancock’s shows No. 1 among black listeners in Southern California. In 1950, the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper rated Mr. Hancock the most popular disc jockey in Los Angeles among blacks.
To the surprise of black and white audiences at live concerts, however, Mr. Hancock was white. Born in Uvalde, Texas, he tried 22 jobs over six years–salesman, bank clerk, chauffeur, drummer, singer. He ultimately found work in radio.
He landed a weekend announcer’s spot on KFVD in California, a “sundown station” that went off the air at dusk. When the downtown Todd Clothes bought an hourlong program on Sundays specifying that it appeal to blacks, Mr. Hancock became the host.
Known as an “announcer” before the term disc jockey entered the vernacular, he played jazz recordings on the new show he dubbed “Harlem Holiday.”
By 1947, Mr. Hancock was encouraged to add a daily half-hour show he called “Harlematinee,” and he soon learned that jazz was not the only music that appealed to his audience. A Modern Records salesman bluntly told him, “Hancock … if you want to reach a huge Negro audience, you should be playing race records.”
Mr. Hancock had no idea what “race records” were, but he played two that the salesman offered. That attracted more record promoters, and within a week, Mr. Hancock told the Doo-Wop Society years later, “my show was 100 percent `race music.’
“Nowadays,” he said, “we call it rhythm and blues. Without realizing it, I became the first disc jockey in the Western United States to play R&B.”
Mr. Hancock’s career had its lows. In 1961 he was indicted, and later convicted and given a suspended sentence and probation, for failing to report $18,000 of income in his tax statements for 1956-58. Prosecutors said the money was “payola” from record companies bribing Mr. Hancock to “plug” and play their records. He testified that he considered the cash as “gifts.”
Hancock’s wife of 41 years, Dorothy, died in 1999.
