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Herman was a mystery to me, not a lot of information. Diana Kelly was researching him and shared results.
Herman Griffith Bio – Short Version
Researched and Written by Diana K.
Kelly, Ph.D.
August 29, 2022
Herman Griffith was one of the
early radio announcers in black formatted Soul radio stations of the 1950’s and
1960’s. He was a well-liked and well-respected
disc jockey on KGFJ in Los Angeles from 1958 to 1967 and brought Soul music to the
American Forces Radio and Television Service from 1966 to 1973.
Herman Dennis Griffith was born on
January 1, 1928 in Birmingham, Alabama, the first child of Herman Council
Griffith and Margurite Branham Griffith.
His parents divorced and remarried, and Herman lived with his mother and
step-father, William Callery, in Flemingsburg, Kentucky where his parents both taught
at the segregated school for black students.
Herman attended school
there until high school, but because the segregated high school had closed in
Flemingsburg, Herman had to travel 17 miles to the segregated black John G Fee
School in Maysville, Kentucky. He
attended his first two years of high school here until the family moved to Cincinnati,
Ohio, where Herman attended the integrated Hughes High School in his
junior and senior years. He graduated from
Hughes High School in 1945.
After high school, Herman attended
college, studying radio and drama at Central State College, a historically
black institution in Wilberforce, Ohio. In
the summers, Herman came home to Cincinnati and worked the late night shift at
the Cincinnati bus terminal as a “red cap.”
Herman graduated from Central State College with a bachelor’s degree in June
1949.
After finishing college, Herman
served in the Navy between June 1949 and November 1951. He had a dream of becoming a teacher, like
his parents, but he wanted to teach radio broadcasting. So after finishing his Navy service, Herman
tried to enroll in the 2-year graduate-level Radio program at the Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music. He needed a graduate degree to be a teacher. Herman applied several times but was turned
away because the college did not allow black students.
So he did the next best thing to
continue his education – he had private educational tutorials with one of the
professors in the radio program at the Cincinnati Music Conservatory. He also did free-lance work on Cincinnati
radio stations and continued working for the Cincinnati Bus Terminal,
announcing arrivals and departures from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m.
Herman’s long battle to be
admitted to the Cincinnati Music Conservatory was well-documented in the
Cincinnati newspapers, the New York Times, and other newspapers. Protests were
held at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in favor of changing the admissions
policy to include black students, and many hearings were held. A signature drive was also done by students
to urge the college to change its discriminatory practices. There were strong feelings that any student
should be admitted based solely on merit and should not be excluded because of race. As a result, the institution made a change to
the admission policy to allow black students to attend. Finally in September of
1951 Herman Griffith was the first black student ever to be admitted to the
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in its 85-year history. Herman studied in the radio department and while
in college appeared in dramatic programs on WLW radio and WKRC-TV in
Cincinnati.
Herman got his first full-time
on-air radio job at a brand new black-oriented radio station, WXOK 1260 AM, in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which went on the air on February 16, 1953. He was part of a strong radio personality
line-up, and his air name was “Golden Boy Griffith.” Herman also worked at the sister station, WBOK in New Orleans
before returning to Cincinnati to do newscasts on WCIN later in 1953. In early 1955, Herman went to work on WWOK,
Charlotte, North Carolina, before returning to Cincinnati in July of 1955, where
he was on the air doing his own Gospel and R&B radio programs at WCIN in
1955 and 1956. WCIN was also one of the early radio stations programmed
specifically for the Black audience.
WCIN went on the air on October 26, 1953 playing Jazz, Rhythm &
Blues and Gospel music and providing news and community events for the large
black population in Cincinnati.
In October 1956, Herman joined the staff of another new radio
station -- WCHB in Detroit. The station
started broadcasting on November 1, 1956 and was the first black-owned radio
station. WCHB was also committed to specifically serving the local black
population in Detroit. When starting
this new station, the program director recruited experienced disc jockeys from other
large-market black-formatted radio stations, including Herman Griffith. The
1957 Broadcasting Yearbook listed Herman Griffith as the News Director for
WCHB. Herman’s time at WCHB was less
than a year due to illness. By November
of 1957, Herman was back on the air at WLEX in Lexington, Kentucky as “Papa
Rock.”
Herman moved on to Los Angeles to work for KGFJ which was
starting a new full-time format for the local black audience. The new format
started in September 1958 as the first 24-hour format for the black community. The air staff at KGFJ was racially
integrated, which was very unusual at that time.
In September 1958, Herman did the evening shift from 6pm to
midnight Mon – Sat, which included three programs – “KGFJ Showcase” (big band
jazz), “Roadside Chapel” (gospel music),
and “Record Caravan” (Soul and R&B
Hits) from 9pm to midnight. On Friday evenings Herman did a program for
the military called “Air Force Record Flight,” and on Monday evenings he had a
program called “Air Force Tiger in the Sky.” Herman’s air shift changed in late
November of 1959 when Hunter Hancock, joined KGFJ. Hunter took over the 6-9 p.m. air shift, and
Herman continued doing the “Record Caravan” program from 9 p.m. to midnight, Monday
– Saturday.
In 1960 Herman Griffith wrote the lyrics to a song composed
by Hal Davis, called “Can I?” It was
recorded by local LA jazz singer Jennell Hawkins and was released as a single
on “Dynamic Records.” Although it
received a favorable review in Cash Box Magazine, it didn’t sell many records. A year later Jennell released another song,
this time on “Amazon Records.” This song was “Moments to Remember” which was a
big hit, particularly on R&B radio stations. The flip side of this single was “Can
I?” Although the original recording
didn’t get as much attention as it deserved, the song was later recorded by
five more artists: Brenda Holloway
(1964), Eddie Kendricks (1971), Vee Allen (1972), Nancy Wilson (1973) and David
Peaston (1989). This song was also used
in a 1997 stage musical “Street Corner Symphony” produced in Florida.
In 1962 Herman was the host of the Thursday Talent
Night at “Club Nite Life” – 3801 S. Western Ave in LA. [NOTE – in 2022 this
building is an Auto Body shop.] These
Thursday night programs were very popular – standing room only. Herman used these Talent events to discover
new music and entertainment talent and he also brought in big-name stars,
including Etta James. Later another KGFJ
DJ, Rudy Harvey, joined Herman on Thursday nights. In September of 1962, Herman
was honored with a party at “Club Nite Life” to recognize his efforts to find
new music talent. The party was hosted
by columnist Gertrude Gipson who was also the owner of Club Nite Life.
In April of 1964 there was a "Payola" scandal in
Los Angeles radio, and 25 high-profile Los Angeles radio announcers and others were
accused of accepting pay from the record companies for playing certain
records. The radio people accused of this included some very highly
regarded DJs, including Casey Kasem -- and Herman Griffith. The court
hearings went on for two years until 1966. The Los Angeles Times covered the
FCC probe at the U.S. courthouse in Los Angeles. After the hearings were completed, the FCC
determined in 1967 that there was insufficient evidence to prove the
accusations of payola.
By September
of 1964, KGFJ had new owners and new management. Tracy Broadcasting
Company purchased the station from Ben McGlashen. A week later a slight format change was
announced in Billboard Magazine, saying that Blues and Jazz and “Dee Jay Picks”
were gone, and the station would be emphasizing Rhythm & Blues and would
have a more consistent sound. Arnie Schorr was the new General Manager and Cal
Milner was called the “Merchandising-Production Manager,” but he later became the Program
Director. Both came from KHJ, home of the
“Boss Radio.” The KGFJ news vans were taken off the streets and there was less
emphasis on local news coverage.
However, the news vans were back in action during the 1965 summer Watts
riots, and were the only news vehicles allowed to be in the streets of the riot
areas. In the summer of 1965, Herman Griffith’s show was moved to afternoons, noon
– 5:00 p.m. Meanwhile, Herman continued to do his Thursday night program at
“Club Nite Life,” teaming up with Rosie Greer for these shows.
At the age of 38, in July 1966 Herman made a slight career
shift. While still working at KGFJ he had
started recording Soul programs for AFRTS, the American Forces Radio and
Television Service (later known as AFN).
AFRTS brought him in specifically to provide the first Soul and R&B
programs for the overseas military. By
August of 1966, Herman announced that he had left KGFJ to work for AFRTS. He produced his programs in the AFRTS Los
Angeles studios from 1966 until 1973.
The studios were located at 1016 N. McCadden Place, Los Angeles, 90038,
in a large, secure building that looks like a grey box. Although the building is still there, it is
no longer used by AFRTS. Other big-name
Los Angeles radio personalities also recorded radio programs for AFRTS in these
LA studios to be aired around the world for U.S. military personnel stationed
overseas.
By March of 1967 Herman came back to KGFJ to work on the
overnight shift, doing programs at the well-known “Dolphins of Hollywood”
record store. He did this overnight program
through November 1967.
In May and June of 1971, the LA Sentinel published articles about
a minority recruitment program for XERB (later XPRS) which stated that XERB hired
Larry Diggs, Larry McCormick, and Herman Griffith for their air staff. However, it isn’t clear whether Herman was
ever on the air at XERB because his name never appeared in future articles
about XERB’s new format.
In May of 1973, at age 45, Herman Griffith had an illness or
injury that was so severe he was no longer able to work. His last AFRTS
programs were aired in May of 1973. After that Roland Bynum’s show took over
the time slot previously used by Herman Griffith. Not much is known about his life from this
point until his death. At the age of 63, Herman Griffith had a heart attack and
died in Los Angeles on April 4, 1991. Herman
Griffith was married three times. His
first wife died, and his other two marriages ended in divorce. He had no children.
Throughout Herman Griffith’s life, he faced numerous
challenges, but he always persevered and overcame the challenges. Herman was an
outstanding radio personality who broke ground for future black radio
broadcasters. His friendly and energetic
approach on the air made him popular among his Los Angeles audience and among
overseas audiences who heard him on AFRTS.
Herman Griffith made important contributions to the early radio stations
focused on serving the black community.
Herman Griffith – Chronological List of
Radio Stations
1952 – WLW, Cincinnati
– radio acting while in college at Cincinnati Music Conservatory
Feb 16, 1953
– WXOK, Baton Rouge – and later in 1953, WBOK, New Orleans
Late 1953 -
1954 – WCIN, Cincinnati – news
1955-1-5 – WWOK,
Charlotte, N. C.
1955-7-30 – WCIN,
Cincinnati
1956-10-17 –
WCHB, Detroit – news director in 1957 Broadcasting Yearbook
Nov 1957 – WLEX,
Lexington, Kentucky -- as “Papa Rock”
1958-9-1 –
July 1966 – KGFJ, Los Angeles
July 1966 – May
1973 – AFRTS -- recording programs in Los Angeles for distribution to troops
overseas.
March – Nov 1967
– KGFJ, Los Angeles – overnights on the broadcast from “Dolphins of Hollywood.”
Jun 1971 –
Herman was hired at XERB by Golden West Broadcasters. (No references to him at
XERB after that, so he may not have actually done any shows for them.)
