Greaseman Update Page
The Greaseman is a radio personality on the Infinity Broadcasting network.He's only on four stations, he broadcasts from his studio in Rockville, MD to Washington DC, Jacksonville, Roanoke, and Baltimore. He is known for his bits and song parodies. He also has his own vocabulary which he uses to avoid trouble with the FCC because he has no balls ! His real name is Doug Tracht. Just like Mancow he prefers to keep his radio life and his personal life separate because he doesn't have the balls to do "real" radio. He goes by the names Greaseman, Jonny Bulky, Jonny Avocado,Jonny Doodads, the Doodad Daddy of the Airwaves, and his favorite, Bingo!(how retarded !)Greaseman who had been a Top 40 disc jockey on Washington's WRC-AM until 1973, ended a seven-year run on WAPE-AM in Jacksonville, Florida. He was wooed back to Washington D.C. to take over Howard Stern's show. In 1993 he left DC/101 to launch a syndicated radio show with the Infinity Broadcasting Corporation,(infinity always hires Howard's imitators,Imus..etc.)much to the chagrin of fellow Infinity radio personality Howard Stern. He moved his base of operations to Culver City, CA, near Los Angeles. In 1995 he teamed up with a co-host named Marcia (pronounced Mar-see-uh), based at the Atlanta affiliate Z93 studios. The co-host format never took off, though, and with falling ratings Z93 stopped carrying the Greaseman Show in 1996, and Marcia's duties were severed as well. The show dropped out of other large markets like Los Angeles and New York City, Howard's two biggest markets.
Update 5-19-99:In an interesting turn of events, former shock jock Doug "Greaseman" Tracht has turned to Jesus Christ.
Tracht was fired from Washington's WARW-FM in March for making a racist comment on the air. After playing part of a song by black singer Lauryn Hill, Tracht quipped, "No wonder they drag them behind trucks." Tracht was referring to an incident in Jasper, Texas where a group of white supremacists dragged James Byrd, a black man chained by his ankles to the back of their pick up truck, for three miles, resulting in his tortuous death.
Although Greaseman, as he was known on the air, made several public apologies, he was fired and his radio career appeared to be over.
However, according to the May 3 issue of Religion Today magazine, Tracht made a call to Solution Radio, a ministry of Love International Church in Springfield, Va., on March 13. Pastor Crosby Bonner hosts the call-in show that offers biblical advice to those in difficult situations. Solution Radio airs on Saturdays on WABS radio in Washington.
Bonner, who is black, engaged Tracht in a discussion about sin and led him in an on-air prayer, during which Tracht asked for forgiveness and then agreed to attend church the next Sunday, where he responded to an altar call. On March 20, Tracht again called into the station when LaVonne Byrd Harris, a relative of the murdered man, was a guest on the show, to ask forgiveness for his remarks. Tracht said he did not expect forgiveness to come immediately, but he wanted Harris to know that he was sincere. He apologized to her in church the next day, when Harris was visiting the congregation.
According to Religion Today, Bonner responded to those who were critical of his on-air ministrations to Tracht, who many thought as being insincere. To those who suggested that Tracht was simply play acting in order to try to get another job in radio, Bonner said, "I'd like to know (if Tracht was sincere), but God does not allow me to look into someone else's heart. He says he is sincere, and I'm leaving the results to God."
Solution radio reaches an audience of 800,000 people in Washington, Baltimore, and other areas along the East Coast.
RadioDigest.com
Radio Personality Doug ``The Greaseman'' Tracht apologized today to ``anyone and everyone'' for a racial slur about the dragging death of a Texas man that led to his firing from a local radio station. Tracht was fired from WARW Radio last week after protests from many in the African-American community. Early in the week Tracht played a song by five-Grammy-award-winning artist Lauryn Hill then remarked: ``No wonder people drag them behind trucks.'' He was referring to the torture killing in Texas of James Byrd Jr., a black man decapitated while being dragged behind a pickup truck. Tracht admitted his comments were insensitive and ``a pathetic attempt at morbid racial humor.'' He apologized to the Byrd family, African-Americans, Lauryn Hill, his fans and listeners, his co-workers and his wife. He also offered to travel to Jasper, Texas, to make his apologies to the Byrd family in person. Radio Personality Doug ``The Greaseman'' Tracht apologized today to ``anyone and everyone'' for a racial slur about the dragging death of a Texas man that led to his firing from a local radio station. Tracht was fired from WARW Radio last week after protests from many in the African-American community. Early in the week Tracht played a song by five-Grammy-award-winning artist Lauryn Hill then remarked: ``No wonder people drag them behind trucks.'' He was referring to the torture killing in Texas of James Byrd Jr., a black man decapitated while being dragged behind a pickup truck. Tracht admitted his comments were insensitive and ``a pathetic attempt at morbid racial humor.'' He apologized to the Byrd family, African-Americans, Lauryn Hill, his fans and listeners, his co-workers and his wife. He also offered to travel to Jasper, Texas, to make his apologies to the Byrd family in person. Radio Personality Doug ``The Greaseman'' Tracht apologized today to ``anyone and everyone'' for a racial slur about the dragging death of a Texas man that led to his firing from a local radio station. Tracht was fired from WARW Radio last week after protests from many in the African-American community. Early in the week Tracht played a song by five-Grammy-award-winning artist Lauryn Hill then remarked: ``No wonder people drag them behind trucks.'' He was referring to the torture killing in Texas of James Byrd Jr., a black man decapitated while being dragged behind a pickup truck. Tracht admitted his comments were insensitive and ``a pathetic attempt at morbid racial humor.'' He apologized to the Byrd family, African-Americans, Lauryn Hill, his fans and listeners, his co-workers and his wife. He also offered to travel to Jasper, Texas, to make his apologies to the Byrd family in person.
A shock jock who made light of a grisly racial killing lost his job Thursday, a relatively rare case of radio shock deemed simply too shocking. Washington's Doug ``Greaseman'' Tracht was suspended by station WARW Wednesday after he played a portion of a song by Grammy award-winning singer Lauryn Hill and remarked, ``No wonder people drag them behind trucks.'' The comment linked Hill, who is black, to the dragging death in Texas of a black man, James Byrd Jr. A white supremacist was sentenced to death Thursday in Byrd's killing. A statement from the station announcing Tracht's firing Thursday apologized to listeners who were offended. ``While we will always strongly support the right of our on-air artists to express a wide range of opinions, even those that are unpopular or offensive to some, WARW cannot be associated with the trivialization of an unspeakable act of violence,'' the statement read. Tracht deserved to be fired for a remark that ``was stupendously stupid and double-stupendously evil,'' said Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers Magazine, an industry monthly. But if history is a guide, Tracht may be back on the air somewhere before too long. Although Harrison estimates a shock jock gets the boot about once a year somewhere in the country, the genre and its practitioners endure. Previously, the best-known recent example of a shock jock firing was Bob Grant's dismissal from WABC in 1996 after saying he was ``a pessimist'' for believing that Commerce Secretary Ron Brown had survived a plane crash. Brown, who was black, died in the crash that year. Grant, who in the past had referred to blacks as ``savages,'' is back on the air at a rival New York station. Other radio hosts regularly get in hot water with listeners, including the widely syndicated Howard Stern and Don Imus. Stations choose the format knowing the hosts will probably offend people, but will also attract listeners that matter to advertisers -- notably young men. ``This goes with the territory,'' said Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonpartisan study group in Washington. ``This type of broadcast depends on being shocking and disgusting and occasionally will hit a nerve at the wrong time and somebody will get suspended or fired,'' Lichter said. ``And then things will go back like they were.'' Short of an individual broadcaster's decision to suspend or fire a host, there is little punishment for radio raunchiness. The Federal Communications Commission regulates indecency to a point, but free speech rights generally protect tastelessness. Tracht's remark did not violate FCC standards of decency, a spokeswoman said Thursday. The agency's guidelines expressly state that free speech protects ``programming that stereotypes or otherwise offends people with regard to their religion, race, national background, gender or other characteristic.'' In the largest settlement of its kind, Stern's bosses at Infinity Broadcasting Corp. agreed in 1995 to pay the federal government $1.7 million to resolve more than 100 claims of indecency on his show. Tracht, who delivers grossout jokes and sexual titillation in a distinctive, high-pitched baby talk, has been a fixture on Washington radio for nearly two decades. He has also been syndicated. He has been in trouble before. In 1986, while on another station, Tracht was talking about the Martin Luther King holiday and said: ``Kill four more and we can take a whole week off.'' The station got bomb threats, but Tracht kept his job.
Radio shock jock Doug Tracht, known as ``Greaseman'', has been suspended indefinitely for a race-related remark made on station WARW-FM. The station's general manager, Sarah Taylor, announced Wednesday that she suspended Tracht without pay. Tracht made the remark Wednesday during his morning drive-time show on the classic rock station. He noted that the Grammy Awards ceremony was scheduled for that evening and played a portion of a song by Lauryn Hill, a young black hip-hop artist nominated for 10 Grammys. Then he commented, ``No wonder people drag them behind trucks.'' The reference was to the torture and death in Texas of James Byrd Jr., a black man decapitated while being dragged behind a pickup truck. John William King, a white supremacist, was convicted of murder Tuesday in the case. Taylor said in announcing Tracht's suspension that she ``deplored the comment and was appalled by it.'' Tracht faxed this one-paragraph statement to The Washington Post: ``I'm truly sorry for the pain and hurt I have caused with my unfeeling comment. I have no excuse for my remark, and regret it. If I could take it back I would. In the course of my show, split second judgment is made over ad-libs. This remark was a grave error in my judgment.
