Roddy grew up in Memphis and began working in radio in 1958 with a midnight to 6:00 AM show on Knoxville's WKGN before moving to WWOK in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Roddy came to Birmingham in 1960 to work at WYDE-AM, where his former band-mate Jay Cook was outgoing program director. He worked for general manager Tom Whitley and program director George Singer, who changed his on-air handle from "Ken Keene" to "Rockin' Roddy" and posted him in the station's drive-through request window. With guidance from Pete Schiro, he pioneered a "beach music", heavier with rhythm & blues than the typical pop played on other programs.
The formula was a big hit with younger listeners and helped the smaller station pull an audience from the bigger WSGN and WVOK pop stations. His promotional stunts included a "HalloWYDE" event in which he broadcast on Halloween from an open casket in the station's front lawn, wrapped up like a mummy. Another marketing campaign, involving orange tennis ball antenna toppers, was widely copied.
In the late 50s, teens had to be home by a midnight curfew, so the last thirty minutes of Dave's show featured love songs, ending with an abbreviated version of the Flamingos' song "Lover's Never Say Goodbye" that became his official signoff theme throughout his career as a deejay.
When WYDE secured the rights to Birmingham Barons broadcasts in 1961, Roddy moved to WSGN, replacing Tommy Charles. His first meeting with general manager Ben McKinnon was arranged by Ward McIntyre. Program director Bill Bolen placed him in charge of compiling the stations Top 20 survey. Roddy took pride in applying his sense for hits to keep the list ahead of record sales and requests. Soon Bolen's replacement assumed control of selecting music. Duke Rumore rebelled and control was eventually returned to the disc jockeys. Roddy's program evolved to include more "oldies" (most often less than 5 years old). Those tracks were featured in his 6:00-7:00 "Classic Hour".
In 1962 Roddy organized a Kappa Theta Phi event with Benny Spellman, Arthur Alexander and Irma Thomas, with Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers as the backing band. Pinetopper vocalist Otis Redding stole the show and Roddy's call to Jim Stewart of Stax Records the next day led the way to the release of Redding's first singles. He took over the weekly Record Hop at the Norwood Armory from Ron Wayne and built it into a local institution.
At the urging of local fans he brought the Swingin' Medallions to town for weekly Monday night shows at the Hollywood Country Club. It soon outgrew that venue and moved to the Airport National Guard Armory, and later to the larger Oporto National Guard Armory. "Medallion Mondays" were complemented by "Tams Tuesdays" with The Tams.
In 1964, while other stations were banning their music, WSGN played Beatles songs in heavy rotation from their new studio atop the City Federal Building. Roddy worked remotes from the Alabama State Fair each year and appeared three times on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
Dave’s natural penchant for “branding” helped him come up with the name for such promotions as the bright orange WSG-N-tenna balls that appeared on car antennas all over the Magic City. “Branding” such as this would become his life’s work.
In 1965 Roddy moved to afternoons. In 1968 he recorded a cover of "The Last Goodbye" at Boutwell Studios that became a local hit and was distributed nationally on Warner Brothers.
The date is March 18, 1967 and Dave is behind the mic at WSGN. [ LISTEN ] (20:44)
Many other milestones were reached during Roddy’s stint as a Good Guy. In addition to having narrated his own hit record, one of the most impressive was the moving of the studios from 7th Avenue to the Penthouse of the City Federal Building. The move was accompanied with a procession of vehicles, flags, horns, and a police escort. WSGN newsmen covered the event from their slickly painted vehicles in Chet Huntley/David Brinkley Good Guy Logo1style “back-and-forth” banter.
In 1968, tragedy hit when Dave broke his back while helping a stuck motorist at “Tam’s Tuesday” at the Oporto Armory. It took a long 18 months to recover and by then, he found no place in the sudden shift to psychedelic music. He moved to what he refers to as a more “grown-up job” in advertising sales and marketing producing commercials for local businesses like Shaia's with Don Mosely at Sound of Birmingham before moving to Columbia, South Carolina in 1972.
He eventually left Birmingham for Columbia, South Carolina to (as of 2010) operate the Ruddle Agency Marketing/Public Relations where he won many “Best of Broadcast” ad awards.
WHERE DID DAVE WORK? Here is the list: WKGN, WWOK, WYDE, and WSGN.
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Alabama Record Collectors Association.
