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Wolfman Jack was making loads of money at XERB. According to his biography, by 1971 he was making a profit of almost $50,000 a month. The Mexican company executives that leased XERB noticed this and got greedy. They wanted to throw him out and make all the money themselves. So, the owners bribed Mexican officials into politically squeezing Wolfman off the air. The Mexican government did this by passing a law that stated there could be no more Pentecostal or religious programming on Mexican airwaves. Since XERB made most of its profits from airtime sold to the prayer-cloth preachers there was no way Wolfman could continue to make payments to the owners each month. �That was it. In one stroke they cleaned out 80 percent of all the money we were expecting to make,� Wolfman said in his biography. So, he and business partner Mo Burton had to turn control of the station back over to the Mexican owners.

With Wolfman out of the way, the station owners tried to duplicate his successful formula. They changed the call letters to XPRS and programmed soul music, calling the station �The Soul Express.� Wolfy still broadcast for a little while under the new ownership, but left soon afterwards. April 4, 1972 was the last day Wolfman ever held sway over the Mexican border airwaves. Soon the government repealed their own law and put the preachers back on the air. But, without the Wolfman howling over the airwaves, the station never even remotely saw the success that Wolfman Jack had achieved.

As if being on one border blaster wasn't enough, Wolfman began broadcasting pre-recorded shows on three differnt Mexican stations at differnt times of the day, XERB, XERF, & XEG -1050 in Monterey, Mexico. Wolfman created differnt programming for each station with frequent mention of the station's call letters in the middle of his wild patter. With powerful clear-channel (not the company) stations, broadcasting his show, Wolfman could be heard almost anytime, anywhere in the world. He was the undisputed king of border radio. Former XERB station manager and disc jokey, Ralph Hall, "The Nazz" remembers almost the entire continent being covered by da Wolfman. "We were just slightly ahead of Ted Turner, " he said. "With XERB we covered from the Rockies-west. XERF covered from the Rockie to the Appalachians, and all of Central America, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. all on one station. And then, XEG beamed to the East. So, with those three Mexican stations we had the entire North American continent covered. Anybody could listen to us. [Laughs] And, they did."

After leaving XPRS in early April, Wolfman immediately began working for KDAY 1580 in Santa Monica, CA. It was during this time that he was asked to be in American Graffiti. George Lucas was a huge Wolfman Jack fan and evidently, without talking to him, had planned on having him in his new feature film. When Wolfman went to Universal Studios for an interview, his radio show had already been written into the script. In his biography he explained, "On almost every page I kept finding the oddest thing-�Wolfman says this�� �Wolfman says that�� he remembered. He was thrilled with the prospect of being in the film. By the time the interview was over he agreed to play himself in the low-budget feature for $3,000. It was not much money for such a famous icon but in 1972 he was barely getting by on his KDAY salary and he needed to pay back some large debts that he had incurred while at XERB. And, besides, he thought being featured in the film would be great publicity. He couldn't have been more right!

WOLFMAN DOES LUCAS!

Story cont. next page.

WOLFMAN: Hello?
CALLER: Is this Wolfman?
WOLFMAN: This is the Wolfman. This is yer one and only,
                     baby. This is the Wolfman, ya understand?
CALLER: Yeah, man.
WOLFMAN: I love you. Who is this?
CALLER: This is Nancy.
WOLFMAN: I love you Nancy with the passion of my heart. I
                     know that I can walk through the green fields and
                     see the little sunlight breakin' through the trees.
                     And, love will be all around us. Ya understand?
CALLER: Yeah, man.

Part of the fun of the Wolfman Jack Show on XERB included recordings of phone call from listeners who would call in. Usually before they could make a record request they would get teased by the Wolfman. Often times he'd interrupt them by making farting noises. Other times he'd speak in romantic tones.