[1] Niles was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and first gained notoriety on Los Angeles commercial jazz station KNOB-FM in 1957.

After that station switched formats, he took over the afternoon drive slot at the non-commercial, publicly supported KLON-FM (now KKJZ) on the campus of Cal State Long Beach.

Chuck Niles was a DJ for KKJZ from 1990 until his death in Santa Monica in 2004.

[2][3] Horace Silver ("The Hippest Cat in Hollywood'), Louie Bellson ("Niles Blues"), and Bob Florence ("Bebop Charlie", "Nilestones"), and others have written tunes for "Carlitos Niles".

[2] He later said of the film, "I was just walking around like Frankenstein, that's all, no lines, just 'gluergugluergu,' and I'm pretty good at that... the movie was just terrible".