Space Edge
09-30-2008, 09:20 PM
Heard this on Stern today
Greaseman begins his comeback in city today
By Charlie Patton,
The Times-Union
When he left Jacksonville in 1982, the radio disc jockey known as The Greaseman had cultivated the image of a middle-aged, potbellied, beer-swilling truck driver.
But Doug Tracht, who carefully concealed his real identity while dominating Jacksonville airwaves from 1975 through 1982, arrived Tuesday for an interview dressed in an expensive suit, lean and fit at 58.
Tracht, who still uses the name The Greaseman on the air, returns to Jacksonville radio today as host of the 3-7 p.m. program on Rock 105, WFYV (104.5 FM). He'll mix his irreverent, often risque storytelling with some classic rock each weekday afternoon.
It's a chance at a comeback for a man who has labored in the radio wilderness since derailing his career with a racially charged joke in 1999.
Tracht, a native New Yorker, left Jacksonville in 1982 for Washington, D.C. His career flourished there and from 1996 to 1998 his show was simulcast in Jacksonville, though it failed to draw an audience here.
Then his career imploded as the result of an on-air joke about the gruesome, racially motivated murder of a black man in Texas. Tracht apologized but was fired immediately from WARW in Washington.
He went more than two years without a job in radio, doing his best to make amends by appearing before black groups and going on Tavis Smiley's show on BET.
In 2002, he began to work in radio again, but only on a handful of tiny AM stations near his home in Potomac, Md.
Marc Fisher, a Washington Post columnist who is an expert on the radio industry, wrote a story in November asking why Tracht, unlike other disgraced broadcasters such as Don Imus, Marv Albert and Opie and Anthony, hadn't been rehabilitated. Fisher called Tracht "the most talented of shock jocks, a storyteller so verbally nimble, so fantastically imaginative that his showmanship seemed wasted on an audience of adolescent guys."
But Tracht said he doesn't feel sorry for himself.
"You can't wring your hands and say, 'woe is me,' " he said. "... As much of a firestorm as that [joke] caused, I think I've apologized and moved on. It won't happen again."
David Isreal, vice president and general manager of Cox Radio's six Jacksonville radio stations, said that when he arrived in Jacksonville people began asking him "whatever happened to The Greaseman?"
Intrigued, Isreal - who remembered hearing The Greaseman while on vacation in the 1970s - found Tracht about two months ago and they began discussing a job.
About Tracht's ill-conceived joke, "he was very honest and open and sincere in his apology," Isreal said. "He told me, 'I'm not even going in that direction.'"
Brain Rowland, a lawyer who used to work in the radio business, said the return of The Greaseman "brings back youthful, carefree memories of tooling to Wolfson High School while listening to the radio."
Some memories were not as good, with detractors posting adjectives such as "idiot," "sicko" and "misogyny personified" in Jacksonville.com message boards.
Tracht's show will originate part of the time from Cox Radio's Jacksonville studios and part of the time from the studio Tracht has at his Maryland home. But it will not be a syndicated show, he said. It will be broadcast only in Jacksonville and aimed at a Jacksonville audience.
"It's a thrill, frankly, to be back in Jacksonville," Tracht said. "This is where the Greaseman bloomed."
charlie.patton@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4413 GREASEMAN HOMECOMING Rock 105 will host a "homecoming party" for Doug Tracht, known on air as The Greaseman, from 6 to 9 p.m. today at Benny's Steak and Seafood at The Jacksonville Landing. Tracht is expected to join the party once he finishes his first Jacksonville show, which airs from 3 to 7 p.m. on WFYV FM-104.5.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100108/met_338771561.shtml
Greaseman begins his comeback in city today
By Charlie Patton,
The Times-Union
When he left Jacksonville in 1982, the radio disc jockey known as The Greaseman had cultivated the image of a middle-aged, potbellied, beer-swilling truck driver.
But Doug Tracht, who carefully concealed his real identity while dominating Jacksonville airwaves from 1975 through 1982, arrived Tuesday for an interview dressed in an expensive suit, lean and fit at 58.
Tracht, who still uses the name The Greaseman on the air, returns to Jacksonville radio today as host of the 3-7 p.m. program on Rock 105, WFYV (104.5 FM). He'll mix his irreverent, often risque storytelling with some classic rock each weekday afternoon.
It's a chance at a comeback for a man who has labored in the radio wilderness since derailing his career with a racially charged joke in 1999.
Tracht, a native New Yorker, left Jacksonville in 1982 for Washington, D.C. His career flourished there and from 1996 to 1998 his show was simulcast in Jacksonville, though it failed to draw an audience here.
Then his career imploded as the result of an on-air joke about the gruesome, racially motivated murder of a black man in Texas. Tracht apologized but was fired immediately from WARW in Washington.
He went more than two years without a job in radio, doing his best to make amends by appearing before black groups and going on Tavis Smiley's show on BET.
In 2002, he began to work in radio again, but only on a handful of tiny AM stations near his home in Potomac, Md.
Marc Fisher, a Washington Post columnist who is an expert on the radio industry, wrote a story in November asking why Tracht, unlike other disgraced broadcasters such as Don Imus, Marv Albert and Opie and Anthony, hadn't been rehabilitated. Fisher called Tracht "the most talented of shock jocks, a storyteller so verbally nimble, so fantastically imaginative that his showmanship seemed wasted on an audience of adolescent guys."
But Tracht said he doesn't feel sorry for himself.
"You can't wring your hands and say, 'woe is me,' " he said. "... As much of a firestorm as that [joke] caused, I think I've apologized and moved on. It won't happen again."
David Isreal, vice president and general manager of Cox Radio's six Jacksonville radio stations, said that when he arrived in Jacksonville people began asking him "whatever happened to The Greaseman?"
Intrigued, Isreal - who remembered hearing The Greaseman while on vacation in the 1970s - found Tracht about two months ago and they began discussing a job.
About Tracht's ill-conceived joke, "he was very honest and open and sincere in his apology," Isreal said. "He told me, 'I'm not even going in that direction.'"
Brain Rowland, a lawyer who used to work in the radio business, said the return of The Greaseman "brings back youthful, carefree memories of tooling to Wolfson High School while listening to the radio."
Some memories were not as good, with detractors posting adjectives such as "idiot," "sicko" and "misogyny personified" in Jacksonville.com message boards.
Tracht's show will originate part of the time from Cox Radio's Jacksonville studios and part of the time from the studio Tracht has at his Maryland home. But it will not be a syndicated show, he said. It will be broadcast only in Jacksonville and aimed at a Jacksonville audience.
"It's a thrill, frankly, to be back in Jacksonville," Tracht said. "This is where the Greaseman bloomed."
charlie.patton@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4413 GREASEMAN HOMECOMING Rock 105 will host a "homecoming party" for Doug Tracht, known on air as The Greaseman, from 6 to 9 p.m. today at Benny's Steak and Seafood at The Jacksonville Landing. Tracht is expected to join the party once he finishes his first Jacksonville show, which airs from 3 to 7 p.m. on WFYV FM-104.5.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100108/met_338771561.shtml