Emperor Rosko

I seem to have an alarming amount of records made by Deejays.
Most of them are comedy or novelty records of course, but not all.
If you are under 30 this post will probably mean nothing to you because you may not know who I’m talking about.

For the rest of you Emperor Rosko (real name Mike Pasternak)was a DJ who Broadcast on BBC Radio one in the 70`s and based his presentation style of Wolfman Jack.

I can’t think of any other presenter who sounded like him on mainstream UK radio back then, so he was like a breath of fresh air to me. I loved his delivery and American style Jingles and whilst others were spinning Gary Glitter and the Osmonds, his playlist  seemed to include far more “hip” and trendy soul classics.
With the possible exception of Friday night when he hosted Roskos Round Table. A weekly review of new releases with famous guests spouting their opinion on forthcoming releases.

He released several Atlantic Souls Classic compilation albums and the track listings included some of the greatest records ever made with such artists as Aretha Franklin to Otis Redding.
They were segued together like a radio show & presented by Rosko himself complete with Jingles and all.

I’m not sure his style has stood the test of time, to be honest I think I would find him slightly annoying nowadays, but it does bring back good memories and the music included on these albums are still stunning to this day.

A sample of his presentation style from the albums is included below.

60s Radio Jingles

Radio Jingles have changed quite a lot over the years, nowadays all you get is the station indent repeated over and over by voices that range from a Barry White sound alike to a small choir boy on helium.

But in the 60s and 70s you got a full American Barber shop quartet singing the introduction to the weather report in what now sounds quite kitsch. The only thing that ever came close to those over the top produced jingles from the past were the home made ones by Kenny Everett. I have some of those on tape somewhere as well and if i get chance to transfer them over onto MP3 i'll bore you all with them.

I have no idea where this record came from (honest) or why I have it in my collection, but these classic jingles crack me up.

They remind me of Radio One, Radio Caroline, Radio Luxembourg, and many other 60`s and 70`s radio stations of this era
Favourite of the bunch “Drive carefully, ‘cause we love you”
Bring back jingles like this, that’s what I say, they jolt as many memories as the records played between them.