Hunter Hancock

Hunter Hancock was a disc jockey generally regarded as the first DJ in the western U.S. to play R&B to a mostly white audience (in the mid-1940s), and is also generally credited with being the first DJ to play rock 'n' roll in the area in the early 1950s (most L.A. DJs of the time wouldn't touch it). In 1950 the Arbitron radio ratings system called Hunter's show the #1 program among black listeners in southern California, and the black-owned newspaper The Los Angeles Sentinel said that Hunter was the most popular DJ in L.A. among blacks--and Arbitron and the Sentinel were both astounded to discover that Hunter was white. He entered the radio field in San Antonio, Texas, soon took a broadcasting job in Laredo, then moved to Los Angeles and got a job with a radio station as a weekend announcer. A local clothing store chain that catered specifically to blacks bought air time, and Hancock was hired to host the show. He parlayed that into a career that saw him become the most popular DJ in Los Angeles for years. In his later years, however, he ran into some trouble. In 1961 he was convicted of failing to declare more than $10,000 on his income tax return, given a hefty fine and probation.