Radio Column September 8, 2006

Listening In

September 8, 2006

By Sandy Wells


Remembering radio’s ‘Living Legend,’ Huggy Boy



I called up KRLA-AM 1110’s Huggy Boy show the Saturday night after my girl friend and I got engaged and made a request. Huggy answered the phone himself and taped me dedicating “I Got You” by James Brown to my future bride. Then he told me, “Sure, buddy, I’ll get it on for you.”

I remembered that night after I learned that Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg had died last week at the age of 78.

The sincerity and warmth in his voice stayed with me. Huggy Boy was definitely not your average DJ. Maybe possessing that reservoir of sincerity available to give to each and every one of the thousands who called him was one of the reasons he remained a popular figure for six decades in Los Angeles radio.

When he worked at K-Earth 101 (KRTH-FM 101.1) – his last radio gig – his difficulty fitting in to the straight-jacket standards of the station modeled after “Boss Radio” KHJ-AM, the super-slick top 40 powerhouse of the 60s and 70s – was plain to hear. His creative energy and playful attitude, the signature stack of “low rider” oldies he used to woo and win his huge nighttime audiences at KRLA-AM 1110 – where he often humbled his mighty FM competitor in the ratings – were all, sadly missing. Huggy Boy, an anomaly in a profession that celebrated anomalies – was out of place on K-Earth 101. Too bad the station just didn’t let him do his own thing, chat with the listeners for as long as he wanted, play his signature R&B hits, and sing over the songs when the spirit moved him.

I remembered my interview with “The Mayor of East LA” in 1998, just after he’d signed on to work at K-Earth 101.

He told me his last song on KRLA, which had switched from all oldies to a talk format, was “Don’t Let No One Get You Down” by War.

The noise of the traffic outside the window of his first floor apartment near East LA made it hard for me to understand him as he often seemed to mumble his words. I often asked him to repeat what he’d said as I strained to catch everything, not really trusting my tape recorder to catch the words my ears missed.

Huggy Boy told me how he made his name hosting the “Harlem Hit Parade” from midnight to 4 a.m. on KRKD-AM 1150 from Dolphins of Hollywood record store at Vernon and Central. He became one of a handful of cultural white disc jockey spinning “race records” that actually appealed to people of all races in Los Angeles.

Later, at home, going over the tape, I was astonished to find his voice and words come across as clear as a bell, a voice made for the microphone.

Huggy was never one of the slick well-connected DJs who transitioned easily from the role of playing the hip sounds for the young crowd into a record industry job or a seat on “Hollywood Squares” or a lucrative career doing voice-overs.

After a decade and a half of playing contemporary music ended in the mid sixties, he made a go at some other lines of work, including a stint as a strip club entrepreneur, a job he did not like. In the early 80s, he reemerged in Southland radio, playing requests and dedications on XPRS-AM 1090 before launching a 14-year reign as a DJ on KRLA-AM 1110.

The last time I saw Huggy was at a tribute held for him in the City of Industry in 2003. Hundreds of people came out that night to see the man who, although no longer on the air, was still a “living legend” in the world of rock and R&B radio. He was frail and obviously in poor health, but his spirit was still strong and he hadn’t lost the ability to command a room full of admirers.

He graciously asked me to say a few words of introduction. Unprepared, I could only manage a few platitudes about his legendary popularity. I wanted to say more, but I didn’t want to steal the occasion by launching into a long discourse about what I felt his significance was as a pioneer of R&B and rock n’ roll radio.

I wanted to say something like – “to me, Huggy, you are one of a handful of originals who blazed a trail for thousands of DJs and pop impresarios to come. You were out there doing it when no one knew how to do it or whether the music would last another six months, making up the rules as you went along – spinning the R&B rock sounds that simmered until the heat boiled over into a major cultural revolution. It was lead by radio personalities such as you – what the mainstream press condescendingly called the ‘Pied Pipers of Rock and Roll.’ But it was really just the start of something very big, something that continues to this day.”

There, now I’ve said it. I wish you well Huggy, up there in rock and roll heaven.


Huggy Boy in 1994 (second from left) with (L-R) fellow KRLA personalities Mucho Morales, Dominick Garcia and actor Jimmy Smits promoting the film "The Cisco Kid."
(Courtesy Dominick Garcia)