WAMO RADIO PORKY CHEDWICK

"Porky Chedwick - the Bossman"

The Westinghouse Sign was a large, animated, electric sign advertising the Westinghouse Electric company and located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The sign was best known for the essentially infinite number of combinations in which (it was popularly believed) its individual elements could be illuminated. The sign was removed in 1998 when the building on which it was mounted was demolished to make way for the construction of PNC Park.

Along with the ever-changing sign in the night came WAMO Radio's "Pork the Tork, Daddio of the Raddio, Platter Pushin' Poppa, the Boss Man, PORKY CHEDWICK". He too had infinite combinations to please his radio and dance audience. I remember Porky coming to Aliquippa High School to hold a dance. Wow, what a turn-out.

The radio stations around the area were playing ROCK and ROLL tunes hot off the presses. One OLDIES radio station in particular that I would listen to was WAMO Radio from Homestead, PA who's DJ was playing the greatest Rock and Roll records in the Pittsburgh area.

The DJ was "the Boss-Man, the Daddio-of-the-Raddio, the Platter-Pushin-Poppa ... Porky Chedwick.

Porky Chedwick was the first white DJ to present a racially diverse audience in a major eastern American city a steady diet of what were, in the summer of 1948, called "RACE RECORDS".

The trail Porky Chedwick blazed with thousands of loyal fans was astounding --some 4 years before the more famous Pennsylvania native, Alan Freed, called the music "ROCK and ROLL". Chedwick's original playlist was comprised of Oldies R&B and Gospel records that he had collected over the years, making

Porky Chedwick the world's first bona fide 'OLDIES DJ'.

Porky called the records his "DUSTY DISC'S", since he would literally have to blow the dust off the 78s before he could preview them at the records stores. Record stores had no demand for the records and would often just give them to Porky Chedwick, or he would rescue them from bargain bins with what little money he could scrape together.

Years later, radio stations, record companies and concert promoters would take notice and copy the "Porky Chedwick Formula", creating the billion-dollar "OLDIES ROCK and ROLL" nostalgia industry which still thrives today.

"Any entertainers of my era who say 'they don't know who Porky Chedwick is' - They're damn lyin'! That's the cat that played the records. I know!" - Bo Diddley

"Porky Chedwick? Now you're taking me back!" - Dick Clark

"Porky Chedwick is a legend!" - Charlie Thomas, The Drifters

Porky Chedwick has been recognized on the floor of the United States Senate for his pioneering contributions to radio and rock and roll (and countless times around Pittsburgh, including a day-long 50th anniversary oldies concert called "Porkstock," in 1998 at Three Rivers Stadium and was among a group of radio disc jockeys honored in the "Dedicated to the One I Love" exhibit at Cleveland, Ohio's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, in 1996. He's the only Pittsburgh DJ to be recognized in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

At age 88, Chedwick celebrated his 58th anniversary on the air at Hall of Fame's Alan Freed Radio Studio on August 12, 2006. He'll be the subject of an upcoming documentary that was begun that day, by Emmy Award winning producer, Daniel Friedman, the son of one of the original owners of WAMO in Pittsburgh.