Art Laboe, the pioneering DJ credited with helping end segregation in Southern California, has died. He was 97.
Laboe died Friday night after catching pneumonia, said Joanna Morones, a spokesperson for Laboe's production company, Dart Entertainment.Laboe is credited with helping end segregation in Southern California by organizing live DJ shows at drive-in eateries that attracted whites, Blacks and Latinos who danced to rock-n-roll and shocked an older generation still listening to Frank Sinatra and Big Band music.
His radio shows gave the families of incarcerated loved ones, in particular, a platform to speak to their relatives by dedicating songs and sending heartfelt messages and updates. California and Arizona inmates would send in their own dedications and ask Laboe for updates from family."I don't judge," Laboe said in a 2018 interview with The Associated Press at his Palm Springs studio. "I like people.
Anthony Macias, a University of California, Riverside ethnic studies professor, said the music Laboe played went with the dedications enhancing the messages. For example, songs like Little Anthony When the United States entered World War II, Laboe served in the Navy. He later returned to the Southern California area, but a radio station owner told the aspiring radio announcer he should work on becoming a "radio personality" instead.
The scene that Laboe helped cultivate in California became of the nation's most diverse. Places such as the El Monte's American Legion Stadium played much of the music Laboe aired on his radio show, giving birth to a new youth subculture.
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