Saturday, February 26, 2011

Clark Race

Photobucket
Clark Race image from Jeff Roteman

Hey, everyone of a certain age recalls the glory years of Pittsburgh radio with the likes of Porky, TL and Mad Mike. But the guy that drew the listeners of the Steel City en masse was KDKA's Clark Race.

He started out by making rather than spinning music. Race was the youngest of eight children growing up in the Depression era, but his parents always managed to scrape together enough coin to keep him in instruments.

As a kid, he played trumpet, accordion and trombone, and led his high school band. Race and his folks attended a fundamentalist church when he was a boy where he developed a love of gospel music.

Race even tried his hand at the tunesmith's craft, writing and recording the ballad "Shy Boy" in 1959. Though it was never released, his wife still has the demo tape.

Like many radio jocks, the Hudson, N.Y., native started his radio career in 1958 as a sportscaster doing local baseball games in Albany. His career as a vinyl spinner began out of the blue when his station manager told him that he wanted him to DJ.

It was the era of jock-driven programming, so he went out to an Albany record store and bought some disks of the songs he liked. Listeners liked the tunes, too, and his show caught on.

Westinghouse heard of Race's popularity and offered him a job at KDKA-AM as part of its effort to attract a younger audience. The 26 year-old came to Pittsburgh in 1959, and hosted a drive time show that owned the City's ear and car radios until 1970.

His opener of "Hi!" - "Hello Clark Race, Hello" (sung), - "And welcome to the show" followed by his theme song, "String of Trumpets" by Billy Muir was burned into the memory of virtually every teen AM radio listener in the sixties. So was his signoff "It's so nice to know so many nice people," lifted from noted DC jock Eddie Gallaher.

At its height, Race's show captured more than 50 percent of the audience, a huge number in the competitive local market. Like the other DJ's, the Top 40 was whatever he decided it would be, and his tastes covered the board.

Following the suburban jocks, Race brought the music of black artists to his mainstream audience. His playlist mixed pop, rock, soul, country and standard hits, and featured local artists like Lou Christie, the Vogues, the Electrons, the Racket Squad and Bobby Vinton.

Race was a master of evaluating songs, breaking Lou Christie's "Lightning Strikes," Bobby Vinton’s breakout tune, "Roses Are Red" and even the novelty ditty of the Royal Guardsmen, "Snoopy and the Red Baron."

He helped create huge local hits by spotlighting "Hanky Panky" by Tommy James, "Because Of You" by Rome & Paris, "It Ain't No Big Thing" by the Electrons, "Cross My Heart" by Billy Stewart, "Hung Up" by the Racket Squad and many others.

How big was he? Beatles manager Brian Epstein invited Race to go to London and meet the Beatles along with Murray the K. That eventually led to one of the few one-upped moments of his life.

The "Fun Lovin' Five" of KQV were KD's main music radio rivals. Their station manager finagled a plane ride from New York to Pittsburgh for Chuck Brinkman and Dexter Allen with the mop-tops that had been promised to Race, who got rudely bumped off the passenger list, along with intro honors (which hadn't been promised; the promoters had a KQV tie-in) for the Beatles' 1964 Civic Arena show. He made sure his audience knew all about the slight, too.

And Race wasn't just a studio wonder. His hops drew kids from all around the region, and in 1963, KDKA-TV began airing Clark Race's "Dance Party," a knock-off of Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" (he inherited the show from Randy Hall) every Saturday until 1966. To get some camera love on the show was a big thing to a high school pair. He drew all the top acts for his fans' dancing pleasure, like the Supremes and Chubby Checker.

His most memorable moment may have been when he had the Strangeloves of "I Want Candy" fame on the show. They had an elaborate cover story of being Australian brothers named Strange. It was concocted by their producers to create a little cachet; in reality they were just touring session players from New York. One part of the tale was that one of the members was a boomerang champ from the Land Down Under.

Live on air, Race handed the guy a boomerang for a demonstration. Never having so much as seen one before, the Strangelove promptly threw it into a camera, knocking it over. Clark asked if that was really the right way to toss the boomerang, and the quick-witted if somewhat sassy reply was "That's why I'm the champion and you're not." Now that's reality TV.

Heck, he even started one of his brother KD jocks on a second career. The late Bob "Tiger Troop" Tracey saw Race ride his Vespa, one of his passions, into the station lot one Saturday. Tracey borrowed it over the weekend, and his love for two-wheeled vehicles was born. He operated Bob Tracey's World of Cycles in Moon for twenty years after he got out the business.

But all things come to an end, and after eleven years in Pittsburgh, Race joined KMPC, owned by Gene Autry, in Los Angeles in 1971. Race was widely considered to be the heir apparent to the station's morning top dog Dick Whittinghill. He got to moonlight, too, when in 1972 Race became the host for ABC-TV's game show "The Parent Game," produced by Chuck Barris.

But working the overnight shift, he never connected with the Southern Cal listeners like he did with his Pittsburgh audience.

Race left the station in 1978 and drifted to gigs in San Francisco and San Diego, finishing his West Coast broadcasting in 1980 working mornings for contemporary Christian music station KBRT on Catalina Island. Like many radio jocks from the early years, he left the business because the power had switched from the DJs to the programming directors.

He returned to Pittsburgh in 1986, opening a bed and breakfast in Sewickley with his wife Diane, and in 1993 they bought another B&B in Amish country, New Wilmington. The Lawrence County inn became Clark & Diane's home. It was actually a dream vocation for the pair, who could often be seen tooling around the area, running errands and giving local tours to their guests.

Race had offers to return to local radio, but always with an oldies format. Race turned them down, not wanting to be caught in that niche; he was listening to Natalie Merchant, Enya and Kenny Rogers, not Bobby Vinton and Lou Christie, in the eighties and nineties.

In 1999, Clark Race died at the age of 66 after a heart attack and a lengthy battle with throat cancer. Diane Race said one of her husband's last hopes was that he could scare off others from smoking, a long-time habit of his.

He had an impressive send off. After all, as Clark Race always said, "It's so nice to know so many nice people." They knew and remembered him.


"String of Trumpets" by Billy Muir

27 comments:

Rae Tuttle said...

I was about 6 years old and I remember his show "Hello Clark Race, Hello... and welcome to the show." And the talking guitar, "Fun-loving KQV, audio 14, Keep Listening!"

Ron Ieraci said...

Yah, Rae, Clark was on about everybody's radio back in the day and created a lot of memories.

Buzzy Beck said...

I worked with Clark for several years and it was him in 1964 that got me interested in the radio side of disc jockeying. Clark was responsible for so many acts (not just locals) becoming popular that were turned away by the then popular American Bandstand. Most of the acts were one hit wonders but their short claim to fame would not have occurred without Clarks recognition. Along with Chuck Perry (Clarks mobile sound man for many years) we tried to help Clark with his return to Pittsburg come back, but it just did not quite work out for him. I ran into Clark in the late 1990s when one of my sons was attending Westminster College. Clark really seemed to enjoy the final years with the Bed and Breakfast he and Diane owned and was sincere at trying to help others. Buzzy Beck

Ron Ieraci said...

Thanks for the note, Buzzy, and it's good to hear from you; been a long time since the WZUM days.

Anonymous said...

My name is Billy Nardozzi and I loved the "Clark Race" show. It was 1962 or 1963, that I appeared on his dance show.I will never forget that he was then promoting the "new bun candy bar"! And I think "Bobby Vinton' was performing that day! And if I remember correctly,Bobby Vinton was wearing a "blue suit"! And he signaled to me that Clark Race wanted to talk with me! So I went over and Clark Race asked me to "wink" to the camera! I couldn't wink with one eye,so I did it with two! And I remember everyone laughing!I'll never forget that memory! Does anyone know if I can get a video of that show???

Ron Ieraci said...

Billy - great story; we used to watch the show to see which of our buds would give us something to talk about that night.

The station won't have the tape. Back in the day, they had a short shelf life before they were wiped and reused. Maybe someone taped the show at home, tho in that era...

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This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
craigs48 said...

I have to disagree with the 1963 date of "Dance Party" beginning on TV. I started high school in '62 and was on the show a few times that year and the next. I remember watching it while I was in grade school before that. I can still see the kids dancing to the Revels "Midnight Stroll" and that was a 1959 recording.

Ron Ieraci said...

Craig - All my sources say Race's KDKA "Dance Party" started in 1963. Chuck Brinkman and TL did "Come Alive" starting in 1966 on Channel 11.

There was a program on WTAE called "Jay Michael's Bandstand" that began in 1958; maybe that's the one you saw. Another early show was the "6 O'Clock Hop"/"Daily Dance Party" that aired M-F on Channel 11 and had Chilly Billy Cardille as host, and that show may have begun as early as 1957.

There was also a show from WSTV (now WTOV) in Steubenville that used to air in Pittsburgh called "Teen Time" with Stan Scott, George Wilson and Del Curtis. I'm not sure when that first aired, but if memory serves, it predated the Pittsburgh shows.

Ron Ieraci said...

Our bud Ed Salamon, author of "Pittsburgh's Golden Age of Radio," wrote us with this explanation: "The confusion over Dance Party's start date may be because KDKA overnight personality Randy Hall was the original host of KDKA's Dance Party. Race became host in 1963, but the show itself preceded him. See "Pittsburgh's Golden Age of Radio", page 57.
I likewise danced on Dance Party in 1963 and 64. Most shows were live, but some were prerecorded, so I keep hoping a tape will show up.
You can see clips from WSTV's "9 Teen Time" with Del Curtis hosting at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4XFk2VCgVc and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-04WsBcjzJc and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84lov4voV-c and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT5SDKOg_aU and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuOVhPK2FPw&feature=relmfu and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4TzeXNAPPY&feature=relmfu
In the 70s and 80s, Del Curtis worked with me under his real name, Del De Montreux, at country radio station WHN in New York."
Thanks, Ed.

craigs48 said...

I read Ed's book, and I guess my reading skills are fading. Thanks Ron.

Ron Ieraci said...

My bad, Craig. I knew that Race inherited the show from Hall, and should have made that logical jump that Ed provided. Hall or Race, it was still a big thing to get some some TV face time back in the early sixties. Just out of curiosity, do you remember who you took to the show to dance with?

radiojay1@verizon.net said...

I was Clark Race's overnight engineer in 1959 when I first started at KDKA. [Clark was the all night jock before he moved to daytime.] Randy Hall - real name James Olmes - was the next all night jock. Does anyone know what happened to Randy/James?

Bob W said...

I danced on the Clark Race Show 4 or 5 times while in high school and I graduated in 1961!

Ron Ieraci said...

Bob - Dance Party may have existed then (I'm not sure when KD began it) but the first host was Randy Hall. There seems to be pretty strong agreement that Clark Race didn't take the show over until 1963.

Anonymous said...

My husband and I danced on this show in 1961 and 1962. You had to go to the KDKA studio to audition with Pete Tambellini to appear on the show. Clark Race was the host. Does anyone know if there are any tapes or photographs, we would love to see them.

Joe and Bonnie

Eddie in Florida said...

That's exactly the way it was with the audition. Then there was always the wait in the KDKA lobby for each show. Met so many great people, some of whom became friends. I danced on the show many times and remember that Pete Tambellini was Clark's agent at the time. I
went to college with his daughter Phyllis. Clark Race inspired me to get into the broadcast business and I'll never forget him for that. Those Dance Party days will always be remembered as the best of times by so many.

Eddie in Florida said...

That's exactly the way it was with the audition. Then there was always the wait in the KDKA lobby for each show. Met so many great people, some of whom became friends. I danced on the show many times and remember that Pete Tambellini was Clark's agent at the time. I
went to college with his daughter Phyllis. Clark Race inspired me to get into the broadcast business and I'll never forget him for that. Those Dance Party days will always be remembered as the best of times by so many.

Unknown said...

Clark was a great guy and once invited me to sit in on his KMPC Show in L.A. That weasel pd at KQV with the initials John R. stole the Beatle's Concert MC gig from Clark. Incidentalky, Mr. Rook was one of the 6 ptogranmers in America who invented the "7 second dj" and ruined radio.

Fran McNeese Beal said...

I don't know where the information was obtained that said Clark Race Band Stand show started in 1963, because that is not correct. I was one of the original regular dances chosen by Pete Tambellini which was in 1959. That was the first show of Clark Race KDKA Record Hop. I believe there were approximately 16 of us regulars, and we would take turns going to the Monday night tryouts to help select other kids to dance on future Saturday afternoon shows. I have a full page story and photos about the show that was published in the Pittsburgh Press on January 3, 1960. The pictures show Clark Race and our guest that day which was Rod Lauren. Others in the photos include many of the'regulars'..... myself, Fran McNeese, dancing with Bill Baker who was also a regular on the show; plus photos of other regulars i.e. Pete Tambellini's daughter, Phyllis, Bill DeBone, Dorothy Berteotti, Charles Schardong,and many more. I was on the show until Spring of 1961. You should be able to go to the Pittsburgh Press archives and see a copy of that full page story with photos. It was written by an Ann Zurosky and appeared in section 3 of that Sunday paper. If any of the 'kids' who were regulars during 1959 to 1961 I would love to hear from you. Best regards, Fran McNeese Beal

Unknown said...

Loved Clark race's show brings back so many memories!!!

Unknown said...

WOW ! He just popped into my head today so I Googled him and there he was . I was one of his hoard of fans , living in the northern pan handle of West Virginia on the glide path to the airport . I graduated from high school in 1966.I would love to see some video of him . Have to look for some . I remember him as being a somewhat ....aloof maybe , unusual, yet "cool " sort of personality . I never would have taken him for a Christian fundamentalist. And it was the golden age little transister radios, fm , 45's and disc jockeys . For some reason there is imbedded in my brain the occasion of Clark having Sam the Sham and the Pharos on his Saturday dance party show . " The Sham was a bit weird himself and their hit at the time was "Wooly Bully" . I think the song was a bit controversial in that some thought the lyrics might be somewhat sexually suggestive . But the way Sam sang it was hard to understand just what he was saying. But hey, Clark Race ....loved him and he was a big part of my coming teen years . So sad that he was a smoker, got lung cancer, and died young . But we were all so stupid about smoking back then .

Unknown said...

Dave Harvilak, Toronto, Ohio. High school 1960 - 64 and watched Clark race on KDKA Channel 2 until he ended the show. So many great memories.; I remember when he had Lou Christy on, several times. His studio had "HELLO" on the wall and at times he stood in front of the "O" and you know what was left for the viewers to see ! LOL. Radio was so special back in the day. I would never have wanted to grow up at any other time in my life. DH

Mike Suley said...

I was a regular on Dance Party for any months before and after the Kennedy assassination..1963-1964. I daw many of the great acts of the day. Clark Race interviewed me live and said my bangs were too long. A staffer gave him scissors and he chased me on the set to cut my hair. I was from Wilkinsburg and my girlfriend was from Lincoln Place. He asked her where Lincoln Place was. Her reply... "Hays." The Racket Squad was the only band that performed live.

Anonymous said...

I dress up as Mrs Kennedy and my partner was the President, on a Halloween show. Clark Race interviewed us. This was before the assassination. I was on the show many times between 1961 to 1964.Mary Doven

Anonymous said...

I was on the Clark Race dance show in ‘64 or ‘65. Lenny Welsh was the guest singer. I took a girl from Ellwood City. There were two other couples with us. It was a fun time those many years ago.

tim said...

Clark Race may have become discouraged about the possibility of succeeding Dick Whittinghill. Robert W. Morgan - of KHJ fame - agreed to do weekends on KMPC in 1975, so that he would be there when Whittinghill retired, which didn't happen until 1979.