Scooter Magruder
09:00 - 14:00 GMT daily
mailto:thehop@worldspace.com
W. Scooter Magruder is an African American man who grew up in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area in the '50's & '60's. The radio was a welcome fixture to the Magruder household, blaring everything from Washington Senators' baseball to rock & roll to gospel to classical to low-down blues shouters like Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown and Willie Mae Thornton. The Little Scooter reeeeeally enjoyed the rock & roll and blues the best. He enjoyed singing in the Peoples Congregational Youth choir as well as harmonizing to the radio lead singers.
The church needed a deejay one day for a function and Scooter's mom exclaimed that Scooter was a deejay although he really wasn't. Soon after that, a real rock n roll deejay was born.
In Washington DC, the radio stations that mattered were WEAM, WOL,WOOK,WPGC & WINX (all AM stations). The deejays were Jack Alix, Moonman, Nighthawk, Al Bell, Harv Moore, Rudy Runnells, Carroll Henson, Hoppy Adams and a host of unremembered names who wailed, rhymed and kept the teen-agers glued to their radios in the mid '50's to the early '70's when FM radio and disco music crept onto the music scene with a vengeance.
When Motown music was hot, the young, high schooler Scooter listened and danced to the beat of the 4 Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, Marvelettes, Jr. Walker & the All-stars, Contours, Stevie Wonder, & Mary Wells. Memphis' Stax label provided Scooter with funk-fortified soul music from the likes of Otis Redding, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Eddie Floyd (who Scooter met at a local record store named Waxie Maxies Record Shops), William Bell, the Mar-Keys & the Mad Lads. Chicago's soul machine punched out artists like Gene Chandler, the Impressions, Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart (who, by the way, migrated from DC to become a star), Bo Diddley, Little Milton, the Artistics, Jerry "the Iceman" Butler, and Major Lance.
From the south, thru Atlantic Records' magic, came talents such as Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Archie Bell & the Drells, Joe Tex & Solomon Burke.
But, no one--No One moved the neo deejay Scooter like Mr. Please, Please, Please- Mr. Dynamite-the Godfather of Soul-Soul Brother #1!
JAMES BROWN!!!!
Scooter's favorite artist had become and remains MR. BROWN.
No other funky beats, stage show, syncopated band or emotion captured Scooter's imagination and grabbed him by the soul the way MR. BROWN did & does to this day. Just as in certain publications that list superstars of a genre of music sometimes list them in their own special sections (i.e. Elvis, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles), there should be a separate wing in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. PERIOD!
Since his formative years, Scooter has stayed in contact with the soul/r&b music via, working in a record store (he's the manager), emceeing many, many local shows and record hops, deejaying all sorts of parties, and hosting his own weekly radio program called the Sunday Night Train on WBIG-FM, 100.3 10pm-2am in Washington, DC His program showcases the musical styles of his youth and early adult life while dwelling on the not so famous entertainers who also made a contribution to the rock & roll era.
Satellite radio happened to Scooter by chance and has made him realize the impact music has on listeners world-wide. World Space programming is the future of radio listening in this industry. By getting to share his knowlege and enthusiasm with the Hop radio customers, he feels he is being provided a chance to communicate with a vast audience eager for more sounds, more info and, above all, MORE SOUL!
