He spent 79 years on the radio, promoted exhibits and put in style songs collectively for compilation albums.
Artwork Laboe, the DJ and music promoter who spent 79 steady years on the radio, was an innovator of the compilation album and coined and trademarked the time period “Oldies however Goodies,” has died. He was 97.
Laboe died peacefully Friday at his house in Palm Springs after a short bout with pneumonia, Joanna Morones, a spokesperson for his manufacturing firm, Dart Leisure, introduced.
He was on the air as lately as Sunday night time along with his pre-recorded The Artwork Laboe Connection, the syndicated program that he launched in 1991.
“My favourite place to be is behind that microphone,” Laboe mentioned. “I've top-of-the-line jobs on this planet, enjoying the music, interacting with our listeners, doing their dedications and connecting them with their family members.”
One of many first DJs to play R&B and rock ‘n’ roll on Los Angeles/West Coast radio, Laboe will get credit score for creating the oldies format in radio (he helped set the tone within the ’70s at KRTH, often known as Okay-Earth 101). He additionally owned and operated a nightclub that's now the location of The Comedy Retailer in Los Angeles.
Laboe started his skilled radio profession at KSAN/San Francisco at age 18 in 1943, and he went on to work for a number of stations in Los Angeles. He additionally had stops in Palm Springs; Pomona, California; and Reno, Nevada.
He owned radio stations in Tucson, Arizona, and Fresno, California, and in connection along with his radio exhibits offered, promoted and hosted concert events all through the west, together with one Saturday night time on the Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino.
Born Arthur Egnoian in Salt Lake Metropolis to an Armenian American household, Laboe within the mid-’50s arrange his radio present at an L.A. drive-in, the place he took dedication requests from these readily available and got here up the concept of placing songs from totally different artists on the identical album.
He began Unique Sound File Inc. in 1957 and a 12 months later launched the compilation LP Oldies however Goodies Vol. 1, which stayed on a Billboard chart for months. Additionally in 1958, he hosted for KTLA-TV The Artwork Laboe Present, a dance program that includes the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Jackie Wilson and Bobby Darin.
By means of his firm Unique Sound Leisure, Laboe positioned hundreds of songs in commercials, movies and on TV relationship to George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973), which paid royalties to the artists heard within the movie.
OSE additionally helped out on the licensing of music for movies together with Soiled Dancing, La Bamba, Deadly Weapon, Good Morning, Vietnam, Born on the Fourth of July, Hairspray and Virtually Well-known and represented songs from artists starting from The Seaside Boys, Ritchie Valens and The Everly Brothers to Little Richard, Johnny Money and The Isley Brothers.