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| Bob Smith as Wolfman Jack was at his best during his years at XERB. As station manager and DJ, he had control of the station and could say and play whatever he wanted on the air. The Wolfman�s show was an awesome roller-coaster ride as he snarled, cackled, and blasted Soul, R&B, and whatever other music was popular at the time. He made suggestive comments to listeners who called in and would make prank calls, (some real others staged). |
| The XERB studio & transmitter site in Rosarito, Mexico. Baja California. circa 1950. |
| Bob Smith was thriving as a salesman. In addition to selling commercial spots to LA-based retail shops, he made 50 percent commission on every mail order item he sold over the radio including cosmetics, potency drugs, diet pills, and Wolfman Jack t-shirts, roach clip, and calendars. With a hoarse-voiced dialect that sounded like a mixture of a hippie, beat-nick and Pentacostal preacher, Wolfman Jack would say, |
| Although he got an enormous response for these items, it was selling airtime to preachers that made the most money for XERB. Smith, (who from here on out will be referred to as his alias, Wolfman Jack), sold programming to the radio proselytizers in 15-30 minute blocks. Some preachers like Brother Henderson paid for a regular spot that was thinly disguised as a gospel music show. His program called "Glory Bound Train" was typically on Monday thru Saturday from 6:00 am to 10:00 am and again for another two hours before Wolfman's show at 9:00 pm. Brother Henderson and other radio proselytizers like Reverend A.A. Allen were real hustlers making enormous amounts of money selling salvation through bibles and anything from "The Lord's Last Supper" tablecloths to "Lord's Prayer Coins" with the likeness of Jesus on them. Wolfman once joked that the radio preachers were selling Jesus all day while he was selling sin at night. "Hallelujah!" Because they had such a large following and made so much money, the radio evangelists were never too hesitant about paying huge fees for airtime. Some eccentric preachers like Reverend Ike would pay for their spots a year in advance. He would drive up to the XERB office in his Cadillac and walk in with a brown paper bag filled with one hundred dollar bills to pay for his airtime. |
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| "They made up one of these here, one of these crazy calendars, for me, baby. One of these psychedelic calendars. Got a picture of da Wolfman on it right smack in the middle of a big LSD capsule, baby. One of these psychedelic jobs. You gonna blow yer mind when you see this here calendar, baby. You gonna looove it ta death! Have mercy! If you ain't got yer calendar yet, you better get cha' one in the mail right now, tonight while its fresh on yer mind...This is what the calendar look like, baby it's red and green and blue and yella... Got all the important birthdays on it. Got the drinkin' days, and the sleepin' days, and this that and the other thing. You won't believe it when you see the calendar, baby. It's all yours for just a dollar. Send one dollar cash, check, or money order to: Wolfman Jack Calendar, X-E-R-B, Hollywood, California!" |