Robert Weston Smith was born in Brooklyn on January 21, 1938, the younger of two children of Anson Weston Smith, an Episcopal Sunday school teacher, writer, editor, and executive vice president of the Financial World, and his wife Rosamond Small. They lived on 12th Street and 4th Avenue in the Park Slope section. His parents divorced while he was a child. To help keep him out of trouble, his father bought him a large Trans-Oceanic radio, and Smith became an avid fan of R&B music and the disc jockeys who played it, including "Jocko" Henderson of Philadelphia, New York's "Dr. Jive" (Tommy Smalls), the "Moon Dog" from Cleveland, Alan Freed, and Nashville's "John R." Richbourg, who later became his mentor.
Early days in a studio.After selling encyclopedias and Fuller brushes door-to-door, Smith attended the National Academy of Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. Graduating in 1960, he began working as "Daddy Jules" at WYOU in Newport News, Virginia. When the station format changed to "beautiful music", Smith became known as "Roger Gordon and Music in Good Taste".
He married Lucy "Lou" Lamb in 1961, and they had two children.The Wolfman also worked in an interracial nightclub called The Tub, which was housed in an old Quonset hut, and served as host of a weekly interracial dance party for teen-agers. Twice he had crosses burned outside his home by members of the Ku Klux Klan angered by the interracial activity. He was instrumental in getting great music on the airwaves, especially black music, that was getting very little exposure.
Disc jockey Alan Freed had played a role in the transformation of black rhythm and blues into rock and roll music, and originally called himself the "Moon Dog" after New York City street musician Moondog. Freed both adopted this name and used a recorded howl to give his early broadcasts a unique character. Smith's adaptation of the Moondog theme was to call himself Wolfman Jack and add his own sound effects. The character was based on the manner and style of bluesman Howlin' Wolf.
In 1963, Smith took his act to the border when the Inter-American Radio Advertising's Ramon Bosquez hired him and sent him to the studio and transmitter site of XERF-AM at Ciudad Acuña in Mexico, a station whose high-powered border blaster signal could be picked up across much of the United States. In an interview with writer Tom Miller, Smith described the reach of the XERF signal: "We had the most powerful signal in North America. Birds dropped dead when they flew too close to the tower. A car driving from New York to L.A. would never lose the station."
Most of the border stations broadcast at 250,000 watts, five times the U.S. limit, meaning that their signals were picked up all over North America, and at night as far away as Europe and the Soviet Union.
It was at XERF that Smith developed his signature style (with phrases like "Who's this on the Wolfman telephone?") and widespread fame. The border stations made money by renting time to Pentecostal preachers and psychics, and by taking 50 percent of the profit from anything sold by mail order.
The Wolfman did pitches for dog food, weight-loss pills, weight-gain pills, rose bushes, and baby chicks. There was even a pill called Florex, which was supposed to enhance one's sex drive. "Some zing for your ling nuts," the Wolfman would say.
That sales pitch was typical of Wolfman Jack's growling, exuberant on-air style. In the spirit of his character name, he would punctuate his banter with howls, while urging his listeners to "get naked" or "lay your hands on the radio and squeeze my knobs". Part of the persona was his nocturnal anonymity; listeners from coast to coast had no idea how to recognize the face behind the voice that said things like "Wolfman plays the best records in the business, and then he eats 'em!"
This recording is from Wolfman’s second year at XERB, sometime in 1967. [ LISTEN ] (46:59)
XERB was the original call sign for the border blaster station in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, which was branded as The Mighty 1090 in Hollywood, California. The station boasted "50,000 watts of Boss Soul Power". 
Interior of the Mexican studio, XERB from which Wolfman's pre-recorded shows were broadcast 1966-72.
WOLFMAN JACK ON XERB
December 3, 1966 | April 1967 | October 17, 1967 | Summer 1968 | Mid-1969 | September 1969 | April 12, 1970 (1) | April 12, 1970 (2) | March 15, 1971 | March 30, 1971Wolfman's Last Night on Soul Express XEPRS: April 14, 1972: Part 1 | Part 2
It was not unlike the small broadcast studio depicted in the film American Graffiti (which was filmed at KRE in Berkeley). It was located only ten minutes from the Tijuana–San Diego border crossing.
It was rumored that the Wolfman actually broadcast from this location during the early-to-mid-1960s.
Smith left Mexico after eight months and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to run station KUXL. Even though Smith was managing a Minneapolis radio station, he was still broadcasting as Wolfman Jack on XERF via taped shows that he sent to the station. Missing the excitement, however, he returned to border radio to run XERB, and opened an office on Sunset Boulevard in the Los Angeles area in January 1966.
The Wolfman recorded his shows in Los Angeles and shipped his tapes across the border into Mexico, where they would then be beamed across the U.S. It was during his time broadcasting on XERB that Smith met Don Kelley, who became his personal manager and business partner for more than 20 years.
It was Kelley who saw the potential for Wolfman Jack to become more than a radio personality. Kelley started to work on a strategy to transform Smith from a cult figure to a mainstream entertainer in film, recordings, and television.
He promoted Smith to the major media and formed enduring relationships with key journalists.
It's August of 1973 and the Wolfman is working his first night at WNBC 66 in New York City.
Wolfman arrived in New York in 1973 to do the night show on 66 WNBC, competing with Cousin Bruce Morrow at WABC.
That lasted about 10 months until Morrow was lured away from WABC.. to do the WNBC night show! And the rest, as they say, is history.
In a deal promoted by Don Kelley, The Wolfman was paid handsomely to join WNBC in New York in August 1973, the same month that American Graffiti premiered, and the station did a huge advertising campaign in local newspapers stating that the Wolfman would propel their ratings over those of their main competitor, WABC, which had "Cousin Brucie" (Bruce Morrow). The ads proclaimed, "Cousin Brucie's Days Are Numbered", and thousands of small tombstone-shaped paperweights were distributed that said, "Cousin Brucie is going to be buried by Wolfman Jack"., After less than a year, WNBC hired Cousin Brucie, and Wolfman Jack went back to California to concentrate on his syndicated radio show.
One of the teens touched by Wolfman's radio programs was budding film maker George Lucas, who remembered the Wolfman when he wrote a simple screenplay, a tale of four friends in a small northern California town - graduates of the Class of '62 - preparing to go their separate ways.
The film was "American Graffiti" (1973), which earned four Academy Award nominations and $55 million at the box office, making it one of the most successful films of the year.
The movie also, once and for all, lifted the veil of mystery behind Bob Smith's character, and Wolfman Jack was about to make a transition from a cult figure to a full-fledged media star. Over the next few years Wolfman entered the media mainstream, yet never losing his appeal as a spokesman for rock 'n' roll.
The Wolfman's appearance in American Graffiti made him an international star.
The movie also, once and for all, lifted the veil of mystery behind Bob Smith's character, and Wolfman Jack was about to make a transition from a cult figure to a full-fledged media star. Over the next few years Wolfman entered the media mainstream, yet never losing his appeal as a spokesman for rock 'n' roll.
CANADIAN GRAFFITINostalgia was in following the release of American Graffiti in 1973, and radio station CHUM got in on the fun with Canadian Graffiti. The '50s and '60s music came alive every Sunday night from 9 p.m. to midnight.
DJ Scott Carpenter normally hosted the program, but now and then Wolfman Jack would do a show. The show debuted in early 1974 and continued until at least 1976. According to Carpenter, it was estimated that 60% of radios in use in Toronto on Sunday nights tuned into Canadian Graffiti.
Here's the Wolfman on February 22, 1976 [ LISTEN ] (57:35)
DJ Scott Carpenter normally hosted the program, but now and then Wolfman Jack would do a show. The show debuted in early 1974 and continued until at least 1976. According to Carpenter, it was estimated that 60% of radios in use in Toronto on Sunday nights tuned into Canadian Graffiti.
Here's the Wolfman on February 22, 1976 [ LISTEN ] (57:35)
During an eight-and-a-half-year run as host of NBC-TV's "The Midnight Special," and through his more than 80 television appearances on other networks and in syndication, plus more than 2,800 personal appearances around the world, Wolfman is part of rock history.
Jack in one of his last filmed interviews during the 90s.
For more than three decades he was a rock music legend, doing things nobody had done, and some things no one has done since.
On July 1, 1995, Wolfman Jack died of a heart attack at his home in Belvidere, North Carolina. That day, he finished broadcasting what would be his last Wolfman Jack Radio Show from The Hard Rock Cafe in Washington, D.C. He was very anxious to get home as he had been on the road for several days doing a promotional book tour for his new autobiography “Have Mercy.” After a flight from D.C. and a limousine ride from the airport, Wolfman was happy to be home. He walked up the driveway, went inside the house and hugged his wife. Then he just fell down and died. He was 56.
About 5 years after his death, Wolfman Jack Licensing was formed and began to digitize Wolfman’s radio show tapes. From Wolfman's vast, personal radio show tape archive, WJ Licensing has produced multiple digital original Wolfman Jack Shows that are currently being distributed to radio stations all over the USA and Internationally. The Wolfman Jack Radio Show is still on the air, every night, somewhere in the world!
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: XERB Radio, Airchexx, Canadian Music Week, Rock Radio Scrapbook, Wikipedia.
