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49-405: The Ozark Music Festival was organized by Musical Productions, Inc., a company created by a group of Kansas City businessmen for the purpose of promoting the festival. Chris Fritz served as president, and Robert Shaw handled the advertising and general production for the event. On February 21, 1974, prior to its March incorporation, the company's legal counsel sent a letter to Ron Jones, Secretary of

98-568: A Division of Drug and Crime Control be established within the state of Missouri and that legislation be enacted which could regulate, and possibly prevent, future music festivals from occurring. Chris Fritz Chris Fritz was a co-founder of the Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League (now called the National Lacrosse League ) on May 13, 1987. Fritz was the league's first President. In June 2005, it

147-449: A common occurrence. Medical staff working at the festival were totally unprepared for the volume of patients that they received. Later reports estimated that at least 2,500 people were treated on-site at the festival. Over 230 individuals had to be transported to area hospitals. The majority of patients in both scenarios were treated for drug related issues. One festival attendee died at Bothwell Memorial Hospital from complications relating to

196-419: A common sight on the fairgrounds. The report equated these sales to concession stands at a sporting event, with one witness even claiming that there was a man at the festival walking around with a cartridge belt full of heroin syringes which he advertised and sold to concert goers. Sedalia residents described seeing nude women around the fairgrounds with signs advertising various drugs. A farmer with land bordering

245-439: A decade after his death and remain available to local stations, through Talent Farm as of mid-2020. In 2024, as part of a oldies format marking its 85th anniversary, XEPRS began to carry the remastered recordings. In his early days, Wolfman Jack made sporadic public appearances, usually as a master of ceremonies for rock bands at Los Angeles clubs. At each appearance, he looked a little different because he had not decided what

294-482: A drug overdose. The bands that performed included: ] Host/Emcee Wolfman Jack The bands and artists that were in the initial lineup but canceled their performance include: By Monday, July 22, the festival crowd had left, leaving a field of garbage behind. Musical Productions, Inc., left cleanup responsibilities to the state of Missouri, a massive task that, when combined with repairs, resulted in $ 35,916 worth of expenses. The cleanup had to be completed before

343-410: A made-for-TV movie Deadman's Curve based on the musical careers of Jan Berry and Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean . Smith appeared in several television shows as Wolfman Jack, including The Odd Couple , What's Happening!! , Vega$ , Hollywood Squares , Married... with Children (his final public performance), Emergency! , The New Adventures of Wonder Woman , and Galactica 1980 . He

392-650: A montage of skits by the comedy troupe The Committee . Wolfman Jack started his recording career in Minneapolis while working at KUXL Radio in 1965 with George Garrett, who helped record the album Boogie with the Wolfman by Wolfman Jack and the Wolfpack on the Bread Label. He was also responsible for engineering, producing, and assembling the band. Wolfman Jack also released Wolfman Jack (1972) and Through

441-566: A pill called Florex, which was supposed to enhance one's sex drive, was sold. "Some zing for your ling nuts ", the Wolfman would say. 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". That station continues to broadcast under the call sign XEPRS-AM. XERB also had an office in

490-523: A replacement. Because of new laws passed in the UK in 1967 ( Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 ), the sales operation needed to be situated outside of the UK. For a time, Don Kelley, Wolfman Jack's business partner and personal manager, acted as the West Coast agent for the planned new Radio Caroline, but the deal eventually fell apart. As a part of this process, Wolfman Jack was set to deliver

539-475: A rock festival in attempt to lessen the worries of local citizens, many of whom were afraid the Ozark Music Festival would be similar to events such as Woodstock or Altamont . Promoters also planned a nondenominational religious service for Sunday morning on the last day of the event, along with an "old-time fiddler show." Wells Fargo Security Service would provide 375 security guards. Although

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588-553: The Missouri Department of Agriculture and the Sedalia Chamber of Commerce that the three-day weekend event would be a bluegrass and “pop rock” festival with no more than 50,000 tickets sold. Advertisements described additional attractions, such as a craft fair and an electronics display. $ 100,000 worth of jewelry would reportedly be displayed in booths at the festival. Promoters of the event refused to call it

637-678: The Missouri State Fair , officially proposing the music festival and suggesting that it be held on the fairgrounds. A lease was signed on April 11 after negotiations between officials with the Missouri Department of Agriculture (the state agency which oversaw the State Fair) and Musical Productions, Inc. The company agreed to pay the State of Missouri $ 40,000 for use of the fairgrounds. Promoters assured officials from

686-582: 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 Douglas "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. After selling encyclopedias and Fuller brushes door-to-door, Smith attended

735-486: The 1980s, he did a brief stint at XEROK 80 , another border-blaster station that was leased by Dallas investors Robert Hanna, Grady Sanders, and John Ryman. He also hosted a TV show at Little Darlin's Rock n' Roll Palace, which was eventually renamed Wolfman Jack's Rock'n'Roll Palace. Ryman then moved Smith to Scott Ginsburg -owned Y95 in Dallas, Texas. Recordings of Wolfman Jack's old shows were reintroduced to syndication

784-654: The Ages (1973) on the Wooden Nickel label. In 1973, he appeared as himself in George Lucas 's second feature film American Graffiti . Lucas gave him a fraction of a "point", the division of the profits from a film, and the extreme financial success of American Graffiti provided him with a regular income for life. He also appeared in the film's 1979 sequel More American Graffiti , though only through voice-overs. In 1978, he appeared as Bob "The Jackal" Smith in

833-469: The Continental Kids . Wolfman Jack was regularly parodied on The Hilarious House of Frightenstein as "The Wolfman," an actual werewolf disc jockey with a look inspired by the original The Wolf Man movies. A few years earlier, Todd Rundgren recorded the tribute "Wolfman Jack" on the album Something/Anything? ; the single version of the track includes a shouted talk-over introduction by

882-672: The Eagles , the Earl Scruggs Revue, and Lynyrd Skynyrd . The Ozark Mountain Daredevils , Bruce Springsteen , and Jefferson Starship were in the initial lineup but canceled shortly prior to the event. The Ozark Music Festival occurred during the Richard Nixon impeachment proceedings, and the Eagles dedicated their performance of “ Already Gone ” to the president. When the gates officially opened on Friday, July 19, it

931-737: The National Academy of Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. After graduating from NAB in 1960, Smith began working as "Daddy Jules" at WYOU in Newport News, Virginia . When the station format changed to " beautiful music ", he became known as "Roger Gordon and Music in Good Taste". In 1962, Smith moved to country music station KCIJ/1050 in Shreveport, Louisiana , as the station manager and morning disc jockey, "Big Smith with

980-688: The Ozark Music Festival was not slated to begin until Friday, July 19, crowds began to form as early as Monday of that week. That same evening, a combined force of officers from the Missouri State Highway Patrol , the Sedalia Police Department, and the Pettis County Sheriff's Office conducted a series of drug raids at the fairgrounds. As they made their arrests, it is reported that a crowd of 250 to 400 people formed and began shouting insults at

1029-554: The Prowl", 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, which was carried on KRLA -Pasadena (Los Angeles) from 1984 to 1987. He moved to Belvidere, North Carolina , in 1989, to be closer to his extended family. In

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1078-527: The Records". He married Lucy "Lou" Lamb in 1961, and they had two children. Cleveland's Alan Freed had 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

1127-472: The Soviet Union. At XERF, Smith developed his signature style (with phrases such as, "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% 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. Even

1176-500: The State Fair at the time of the lease's signing) of the Missouri Department of Agriculture; festival staff; and other witnesses to events surrounding the Ozark Music Festival. The Select Senate Committee's report was issued on October 25, 1974, outlining occurrences that seemed to confirm the worst fears of those who argued against the Ozark Music Festival being held on state grounds. Open and uninhibited drug sales were described as

1225-769: The TV special Garfield in Paradise in 1986. Jim Morrison 's lyrics for "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" were influenced by Wolfman Jack's broadcasting. He is mentioned on Sugarloaf 's 1974 hit single " Don't Call Us, We'll Call You " and on the Grateful Dead song "Ramble On Rose". He furnished his voice in The Guess Who 's top-10 hit single " Clap for the Wolfman ". In 1976, he furnished his voice on "Did You Boogie (With Your Baby)" by Flash Cadillac &

1274-465: The Wolfman should look like. Early pictures show him with a goatee, but sometimes he combed his straight hair forward and added dark makeup to look somewhat "ethnic." Other times he had a big afro wig and large sunglasses. The ambiguity of his race contributed to the controversy of his program. His audience finally got a good look at him when he appeared in the 1969 film A Session with the Committee ,

1323-459: The Wolfman, but on the album version, Rundgren performs that part himself. Canadian band The Stampeders also released a cover of " Hit the Road Jack " in 1975 featuring Wolfman Jack. From 1975 to 1980, Wolfman Jack hosted Halloween Haunt at Knott's Berry Farm , which transforms itself into Knott's Scary Farm each year for Halloween. It was the most successful special event of any theme park in

1372-500: The city council banned future rock concerts in the city. On Monday, July 22, a day after the close of the Festival, six Missouri State Senators toured the fairgrounds and announced that they were planning on launching a Senate subcommittee investigation into the Ozark Music Festival. Missouri Senator Richard Webster acted as chairman of the subcommittee. The expressed goals of the investigation were to determine what went wrong, why it

1421-548: The country, and often sold out. In 2012, the estate of Wolfman Jack released a hip-hop single featuring Wolfman Jack clips as the vocals. In 2016, clips from the Wolfman Jack Radio Program were used in the Rob Zombie film 31 . When the one surviving ship in what had originally been a pirate radio network of Radio Caroline North and Radio Caroline South sank in 1980, a search began to find

1470-474: The fairgrounds reported that that concert attendees killed some of his livestock and caused extensive property damage. Witnesses also testified that two school busses were turned into brothels and that sexual activities were common across the festival grounds and served as a spectator sport. The Select Senate Committee Report concluded that "The scene on the grounds at Sedalia made the degradation of Sodom and Gomorrah appear to be rather mild." It recommended that

1519-508: The festival had underestimated the attendance for the event and were grossly unprepared in regard to staffing. Many of the Wells Fargo security team were reassigned to other responsibilities such as ticket sales. Advance tickets sold for $ 15, while tickets cost $ 20 at the gate. The Ozark Music Festival was hosted by the popular radio personality, Wolfman Jack . Among its top billed performers were Bachman Turner Overdrive , America ,

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1568-525: The gates opened for the Missouri State Fair in August. In one example of damage that occurred to the fairgrounds, the portable toilets were turned over and emptied after they were quickly filled up. Conditions were bad enough on the fairgrounds that lime had to be spread as a disinfectant in order to make the fairgrounds safe for visitors. On the ground, bulldozers scraped up the topsoil, which

1617-519: The midwest, particularly the Kansas City market. This biographical article relating to American lacrosse is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Wolfman Jack Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938 – July 1, 1995), known as Wolfman Jack , was an American disc jockey active for over three decades. Famous for the gravelly voice which he credited for his success, saying, "It's kept meat and potatoes on

1666-572: The more popular, 'Hit the road, Jack.'" In 1963, Smith took his act to the border when 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 across the U.S.-Mexico border from Del Rio, Texas , 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

1715-484: The morning shows on the new station. To that end, he recorded a number of programs that never aired, because the station did not come on air according to schedule. (It eventually returned in 1983 from a new ship, which remained at sea until 1990.) Today, those tapes are traded among collectors of his work. On July 1, 1995, Smith died from a heart attack at his house in Belvidere, North Carolina , shortly after finishing

1764-460: The officers and throwing rocks, chunks of asphalt, and other objects. Four patrol cars were damaged by the thrown objects, resulting in $ 650 worth of damage. 17 individuals were arrested during the raid, but the Wells Fargo security team secured the release of 14 the next morning. In the days leading up to the start of the festival, several local businesses reported shoplifting from their stores and disruptions by concert goers. By Thursday, July 18, it

1813-569: The radio, taking away 80% of XERB's revenue. Smith then moved to station KDAY 1580 in Los Angeles, which could only pay him a fraction of his former XERB income. Smith capitalized on his fame, though, by editing his old XERB tapes and selling them to radio stations everywhere, becoming one of the first rock-and-roll syndicated programs (as the tapes began to age, they were eventually marketed to oldies stations). He also appeared on Armed Forces Radio from 1970 to 1986. At his peak, Wolfman Jack

1862-574: 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." Many of the Mexican border stations broadcast at 150,000 watts, three 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

1911-576: The rear of a small strip mall on Third Avenue in Chula Vista, California just 10 minutes from the Tijuana – San Diego border crossing. The Wolfman was rumored to actually broadcast from this location during the early to mid-1960s. Smith left Mexico after eight months and moved to Minneapolis to run station KUXL . Although Smith was managing a Minneapolis radio station, he was still broadcasting as Wolfman Jack on XERF via taped shows that he sent to

1960-667: The station. Missing the excitement, however, Wolfman returned to border radio to run XERB, and opened an office on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in January 1966. He 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. In 1971, the Mexican government, under pressure from the Roman Catholic church, banned the Pentecostal preachers from

2009-512: The table for years for Wolfman and Wolfwoman. A couple of shots of whiskey helps it. I've got that nice raspy sound." Smith was born in Brooklyn , New York City , 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 Financial World , and his wife, Rosamond Small. He lived on 12th Street and 4th Avenue and went to Manual Training High School in

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2058-498: Was (reportedly) littered with discarded drug paraphernalia and gnawed cobs of corn from a neighboring field along with mountains of contaminated dirt and garbage which were hauled to the county landfills. Meanwhile, festival-goers crowded the Interstate 70 rest stops to catch up on sleep lost during the weekend. Tents, cots and sleeping bags were spread throughout rest stops all along the highway. In early September of that year,

2107-489: Was able to happen, and the festival's total cost to the State of Missouri. They committee members were also charged with proposing "legislation which would prevent such an occurrence from happening again and which would provide for better control of the drug abuse statutes of our State." The subcommittee heard testimonies from the Musical Productions, Inc., promoters; the director and deputy director (Secretary of

2156-610: Was announced that Chris would be inducted into the National Lacrosse League Hall of Fame along with Russ Cline , Paul Gait , Gary Gait and Les Bartley . The induction happened at the 2006 National Lacrosse League All-Star Game in Toronto. Fritz is Co-Owner and Executive Vice President of the Philadelphia Wings organization. Fritz spent much of his career as a top concert promoter in

2205-427: Was based in part on the manner and style of bluesman Howlin' Wolf . At KCIJ, he first began to develop his famous alter ego, Wolfman Jack. According to author Philip A. Lieberman, Smith's "Wolfman" persona "derived from Smith's love of horror films and his shenanigans as a 'wolfman' with his two young nephews. The 'Jack' nickname was taken from the 'hipster' lingo of the 1950s, as in 'Take a page from my book, Jack', or

2254-766: Was heard on more than 2,000 radio stations in 53 countries. He was heard as far afield as the Wild Coast, Transkei , on Capital Radio 604 based there. 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 predicting the Wolfman would propel their ratings over those of their main competitor, WABC 's Cousin Brucie (Bruce Morrow). The advertisements proclaimed, "Cousin Brucie's Days Are Numbered / Wolfman Jack Is on

2303-469: Was reported that 60,000 individuals were in attendance.The crowd peaked to well over 100,000 on the afternoon of Saturday, July 20. By the time America played the last song of the festival the evening of the next day, the crowd numbered around 15,000. Nudity, drug use, and open drug sales were witnessed on the fairgrounds during the festival. Substance abuse, lack of sleep, and temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit combined to make medical emergencies

2352-404: Was reported that traffic was jammed for several miles on highways coming in to Sedalia. The congestion was believed to have resulted from only one of the fairground’s gates having been opened. Traffic was at a standstill for hours, resulting in people camping in their cars that night. The problem was not remedied until Friday afternoon when promoters decided to open additional gates. The promoters of

2401-524: Was the regular announcer and occasional host for The Midnight Special on NBC from 1973 to 1981. He was the host of his variety series The Wolfman Jack Show , which was produced in Canada by CBC Television in 1976 and syndicated to stations in the U.S. In 1984, Wolfman Jack starred as himself on the short-lived ABC animated series Wolf Rock TV . He also voiced the chief of the Rama Lama tribe on

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