Dewey Phillips

Class of 1943

         
     

 

Radio personality. Starting as a clerk spinning records at W.T. Grant’s Department Store in downtown Memphis, he took his passion for music across the street to the Chisca Hotel and the studios of WHBQ Radio. He soon earned the spot hosting the radio station’s rhythm and blues program "Red, Hot & Blue" as "Daddy-O-Dewey." What started as a 15 minute filler for the station grew into a weeknight program airing from 9 p.m. till midnight. He is best remembered for being the first disc jockey to play an Elvis Presley record over the airwaves. It was the summer of 1954 and the acetate that Sam Phillips brought Dewey to spin was “That’s All Right Mama.”