Night Owl D.J. Airs Jazz, Attends Early Classes Daily

By RON SILVERGOLD
NEWS Staff Writer

October 20, 1958

There are a few University students - a passive, not easily identifiable cult - who consider themselves "night people on parole."

"On parole" because most students cannot stay awake in the wee small hours and also impress their professors during morning classes.

EXCEPTION TO RULE
"Most" students because there is one known exception, namely Chuck Sherman, Business ‘60, president of the local night people.

Chuck is a disc-jockey on "Sounds in the Night," a modern jazz program on WHAT radio station from 1 to 6 am Tuesday thru Sunday mornings.

He is also a full-time student majoring in communications; an announcer, actor and engineer on WRTI-FM, University radio station; University football announcer and radio time salesman for his jazz program.

SUMMER REPLACEMENT
"I started at WHAT as a summer replacement," Chuck began, "and when the station started programming 13 hours of jazz a day, I was retained for the 1 to 6 slot.

"Did you know," he added proudly that WHAT is the only station broadcasting 13 hours of jazz east of California? From 5 pm to 1 am, it is only on FM and my program is on both FM and AM."

After the program, Chuck has classes from 8 am to noon. He then spends a few hours at WRTI where he is Sports Director and University football game announcer.

ACTS AND ANNOUNCES
"I now act and announce for the "Studio Schoolhouse" series broadcast by WFIL radio. It's the longest consecutive series of educational programs broadcast on a commercial station in this area," Chuck said.

"It takes me two hours to program the music for the jazz show, and then it's usually dinner time. I sleep from 6 to 11:30 pm," he said.

Falling asleep during the show is always a problem, Chuck said, and he noted one time he fell asleep during a long-playing record. "The phone woke me but the air was dead for about two minute," he added.

30 CALLS NIGHTLY
Chuck receives about 30 telephone calls a night during the week and 60 on Sunday mornings.

"My show is piped into the Central Post Office, a few bakeries & Coast Guard base and a United Parcel building," Chuck explained, "and I hear from persons working in these places all night long. They're awake."

Studying is a problem, Chuck explained, "I hit the books Sundays from 1 to 11 pm, and every morning during a long-playing record which is a nightly feature from 4 to 5 am, I catch up on French."

Before taking over "Sounds in the Night," Chuck was merely an occasional listener to modern jazz.

JAZZ ADDICT
"Now I'm a jazz addict, Stan Kenton first influenced me and now I lean to Ella (Fitzgerald), MJQ (Modern Jazz Quartet) and Frank (Sinatra).

After a short, but pointed digression on the value of rock ‘n' roll Chuck said, "After knocking rock ‘n' roll one morning, I found my car tires slashed. And there are always threats over the phone. All disc-jockeys get a little of that, but none of them pay any attention to it."

At this point in the interview, it was about 5 pm. Chuck yawned, excused himself and quietly slipped out of the room.

(Reprinted with permission from the Temple University News)