Dewey Phillips

Dewey Phillips (May 13, 1926 – September 28, 1968) was an American disc jockey based in Memphis, Tennessee, best known as the host of the WHBQ radio show "Red, Hot, and Blue".

He was one of rock and roll's pioneering American disc jockeys, helping to popularize the genre in radio airplay along with Cleveland's Alan Freed.

Phillips started his radio career in 1949 on WHBQ/560 in Memphis with a special studio at the Gayoso Hotel, initially playing gospel records.

[5] Joe Hill Louis waxed an electric blues single, "Boogie in the Park" (recorded in July 1950 and released the following month).

[8][9][10] Dewey Phillips was bringing Black Music to segregated Memphis before Alan Freed did the same as Moon Dog in Cleveland.

Though Phillips was not involved in the payola scandals of the time (as was Freed), he was fired in late 1958 when the station adopted a Top 40 format, phasing out his freeform style.

Control Room C from WHBQ Studios originally in Hotel Chisca now in Sun Studios. From this room Dewey Phillips broadcast his radio show "Red, Hot and Blue" in the years 1953-1959.