Post edited January 23, 2018

Andrew Fields (AF) (b.jan 2, 1936, d. Nov 10, 2004), overnight broadcaster, part timer at WJLD and WBUL, his career spanning 1969-1982 reflecting on his development and experience in Birmingham radio and his contemporaries. Interviewer- Bob Friedman (BF) Date of Interview - August 28, 2001 Transcribed by Kimberly McDade Transcription completed January 20, 2018 Transcription time 4.5 hours Post edited January 23, 2018 BF- Sit up a little bit closer. Just say your name into the tape recorder. AF- Okay. Andrew Fields. BF- Andrew, when did you start working at WJLD? AF- In the fall of 1969. BF- And what do you remember about your first day s work? You know. Your first week s work here at the station. Back then, we were downtown on where? AF- 19 th Street BF- and what? AF- and 1 st Avenue BF- On the second floor AF- Yep. Upstairs. BF- What do you recall about the studio and who hired you? AF- Well, Uh...John George Johnston hired me, and Willie McKinstry. He was the one who put the seal on it; said that I could do the job. So, Johnston gave him the BF- authority AF- authority to teach me more. And he told me that I could do it, if you want to and if you don t I ll let you know. And so, finally, he told me one day that I had the job. So, I stayed there from BF- So what you say you worked one day a week? AF- One day a week, on Saturday night from 11 til 5 o clock on Sunday morning. BF- And what did you play? AF- I played The Blues and Rock N Roll. And whatever BF- Like, for instance? AF- Like we mixed it up the top 40 and all of that. BF- Can you remember the names of any songs or artists that you played?

AF- Oh. Yeah. When I first started. The first song Let see..back Up Train. BF- Back Up Train. Who made that? AF- I think um. I can t think of it right now. It wind up being one of the best um you know singers we had. I got to It will come to me in a minute. But um BF- Did you have a um a special name on the air? AF- Well, at first, I just told them I want to be known as Andrew Fields, cuz I was Andrew Fields the third, but I didn t use the third. And so, later on, Jimmy made my name be as a thang that we had to do for he had me out there called the Money Man BF- The Money Man? AF- Money Man. We had to go all over town, every day, five days a week from 6 o clock til 9 o clock. BF- In the evening? AF- Morning. BF- In the morning? AF- Morning. Yeah. Jimmy was on the Drive Show. BF- Okay. AF- And. Uh. He started out at 5. But I didn t start til 6. BF- Um hum. AF- And we d go from town part from neighborhood to neighborhood, and we didn t have the freeway at that time. BF- Didn t have what? AF- The freeway. BF- Okay. AF- We had to go the old way. And man, I was fifteen minutes, I was in one part of town; ten minutes, I was somewhere else. I was right there BF- What were you doing? AF- We was giving out money. Five dollars a whop, as they called it. If I was sitting in front of your house, and tell Jimmy where I am, and call your address, you came out, I would give you a certificate for five dollars. BF- A certificate for five dollars. AF- Um hum. BF- Now how old were you when you started working for WJLD? AF- Forty, I mean twenty-one thirty-one years old. BF- Thirty-one years old?

AF- Um hum. BF- And. Um. What do you remember about Jimmy? AF- Jimmy was a hard-hitting man, when it come to radio. BF- Um hum. AF- He Uh knew his radio. And he taught me a whole lot. And one thing I ever ever Even though, sometime I cain t talk good now, but he told me that, Andrew. He walked in the studio one day, and I thought he was at home. But he walked in there and the door went, Wham! He said, Andrew, It is not Bummingham, its Birmingham. BF- Made you pronounce the words right. AF- That s right. From that day on, it was Birmingham with me. (laughing) BF- No doubt. So, Jimmy was more of a perfectionist, too? AF- Yes, he was. BF- But he wanted people to develop. What do you remember about Ronald Jaye? AF- Ronald Jaye was a guy that is um BF- Is that his real name? AF- Yeah, but he used Jaye. His name was Ronald but he used Jaye. I can t remember his last name. But he said that um He was sorta like um a go lucky guy. You know. He was nice BF- When was he on? AF- Uh He s on the Um. He would He did the noon day show. BF- Noon day show. So, that was what noon til AF- Three. BF- Three. Who did the evening drive? AF- Uh the guy was Sam Double O Moore. BF- And. Uh. What do you remember about Sam? AF- Sam? Sam was a Sam was a good man. (short laugh) And he He always told me said Andrew, you know what? Radio is like dog eat dog. And said If you don t bite, you will you will be ate up. So, what he was trying to tell me was that look out for your back, because it s a number game. If you don t have the numbers in the ratings, you got to go. Somebody gon take yo place. That s what he was trying to tell me. BF- Um. Hum. AF- So I kept them numbers for the whole while I was here. They said every, every rating period I would come up a little bit more. BF- And that was in the evening overnight?

AF- Um. Hum. BF- And that was like 11 What did you say, 11 to 5? AF- Um. Hum. BF- Did the show have a name? AF- Naw. It just Um. Well, I gave it one, after I got they gave it to me. I called it The Andrew Fields Show. BF- That makes that s logical sense. AF- (laughs) BF- What did you do? What kind of work did you do during the week? AF- Well, I was a crane operator. And I Um I did that I did I worked I did that at night cuz my other job was 3 til 11. BF- Why did you want to come into radio in 1969? AF- Well, I tell you what. I the reason why I did what I did One day I was coming from my job, one night, about 12 o clock I said, Lord, you know its something I can do better than what I m doing now. In other words, I was looking for something to get some Uh upper. You know, want to do something In life. The guy told I was on listening to Uh. WSGN WSGN. They had a commercial on about Columbia School of Broadcasting. I said, Um. And they told me where it was. I said, I m going out there and check that out tomorrow. So, I went down there and told the guy what I wanted to do. And he want to tell me that, Okay, we ll sign you up, and it ll cost you $500 dollars. And then you go home, and take the material, and sit down, and study and get you a tape recorder, and do what it say and bring us the tape, and we ll critique it. I said, What! For what? For $500? I said, Naw, baby. I said, Naw, I m not gon do that. So, I turned around and came out of the building, on 1 st Avenue and 21 st Street. And met a friend of mine that I went to school with, and I told him about it. And he said, Aw, man! Go down there to WJLD. They looking They need a disc jockey, right now. Go down there and talk to them. And that s where I started right there. Paul Daniels and Willie McKinstry and Uh Lil Walter Jimmy all of them was right there John Street(er) all of them right there. Johnny Austin. He on that picture. Johnny Austin, you know, he got killed in Florida back here about 5 years ago. And so Hey We all just BF- Now what do you remember of Shelley Stewart? Shelley was there for a while. AF- Okay. I was there with Shelley. And Shelley told my brother, one time they was at my brother wife and his wife was cousins. They had a get together. And I was on for one night a week. And my brother asked Shelley, cause at that time he was program director BF- Your brother or Shelley was? AF- Shelley. BF- What year was that? AF- In 19. That was 1970. BF- 70?

AF- Um. Hm. I say. He say, Shelley, why are you not letting Andrew Fields be on the air no more than what he do? Aw, man! I don t let no body do He said, told my brother say, I ain t gon let no body be better than me. BF- When? Was he on the air? AF- Naw. He wasn t on the air when he said that. BF- Uh. Huh. AF- They was at the park. BF- No. I mean. But when. When was he on the air? He wasn t on morning or evening drive. AF- Yeah. He was Shelley was on the morning drive, at that time. BF- In 1970? AF- Um. Hm. BF- So who did he replace? Because you said somebody else was on morning drive, didn t you? AF- Uh. Yeah. BF- Jimmy Lawson. AF- Jimmy Lawson, took his spot cuz, see, at the time, you see, Shelley was the program director. But he was doing thangs that they didn t like, Johnston didn t like. BF- Like what? AF- Going to conventions and taking the credit card and running it up. (short laugh) So, Ms. Johnston told him said, Naw, Shelley. We didn t give you that for that. Now you got a big ole bill for a whole week on this card at a hotel somewhere. BF- I didn t know that had credit cards back then I guess they did American Express AF- Yeah. So, they got into it. That s when Shelley left and went to WATV. BF- Well, now, WATV didn t get started until 1977. AF- Well it was WENN then. BF- To WENN? AF- Um. Hm. BF- And so, how long was he at JLD? At this time. AF- At that time, he was there when I got there. Cuz he use to call me at my house, and wanted to know what happened to certain records. I said, Man, I left them all in the studio. I said, What are you trying to say? Yeah. I said, I don t steal. I didn t take no records. The music room got enough records in it for me to get one out without taking out of the control room. I said, What s going, what s going on? Ah. That s okay. I... I found out later that he was trying to mess me up to get me out of there. BF- Why?

AF- I don t know. He just It was a thang. So, I didn t do anything wrong to cause that to happen. You know. But I told him. I said, Well, I tell you what. The way I feel about it. May the best man win. That microphone that mic and that switch Now, all that hooping and hollering you do And a lady told me, one night, he say she say, Andrew, who was that on the news just while ago? I said, Me. She say, Why don t you do your whole show in that voice? And my voice was way down on the news. I was resonant, you know. WJLD News (uses deeper, slower voice). And when I get on the show (makes sound in a higher pitch and faster speed). She say, Naw, don t do that. Why don t you try it. I said, Okay. And I did. And I started liking it. BF- Um. Hm. AF- I said, Whoa! BF- More professional. More laid back. AF- Just talk. She said, Just talk. In your regular voice. And just let the resonance come out. She say, You got a beautiful voice. I said, Okay. And that one lady did that to me, one night, I guess about one o clock. I did the news for that one that BF- Why? Why did you leave WJLD? AF- Well, I left Uh because Um BF- That was 1970? AF- 74, I think it was 75. No, 76. BF- 76. AF- Um. Hm. Because, see What happened was they let the DJs go. BF- They went into automation or something? AF- Yeah. And they had one man left. James Freeman. And they kept him to run everything. BF- The machines? AF- Uh huh. And so. We were gone. BF- But Uh. The day time and the evening time jobs, were they gone? AF- All gone. BF- Are you serious? AF- Um. Hm. BF- So, in the mid-day, in the mid-1970s, WJLD was automated? AF- Um. Hum. BF- And no personalities? AF- No personalities but James Freeman. And he messed around there and almost messed up every thang. They had this Bingo thang going on. And he had messed around there and (laughter) and mixed it so folk could win money and all that kind of stuff and they caught up with that. And so, I don t know but, I wind up going to BUL. And I went to BUL in 1978.

(Phone Rings) AF- And so, I left here in 76. BF- Well, when they were doing automation How Who was the voice of the disc jockeys? AF- Uh. The one they Let me see. What they were doing All were doing having James Freeman here. And any commercial or stuff like that, he was always on. And Uh Then they turn around Jimmy Jones and them, you know, they were. BF- Engineers. AF- Um. Hum. And they Um All they did They had what you call pre-recorded music all that. And Uh All James would do is sit back there and hit the buttons that s it. And me and Uh Well, a lot of us left here. Me and Jimmy. Who else? BF- Walter? AF- Walter, he left. And, of course, Um Willie died. And Uh. BF- What year did Willie die? Do you remember? AF- Let me see. Can I think. Well, Oh boy. Oh, and we was here. It had to be somewhere around 75, 74, 75 somewhere around there. Cause he had Willie had went and bought went and sold some time for the ball games, you know, down in Tuscaloosa. And he messed around and had a heart attack that night, listening at the game. BF- He was at the game? AF- Naw. At home. BF- At home. AF- On the radio. You know, how we do. We We sell the time, and we want to know how its going on. BF- Sure. AF- You know. And that s what he was doing. And Ah Something happened, and he was at home, had a heart attack and died that night. And so. BF- So you went to BUL? AF- Yeah. I left here and went to BUL. BF- And did anybody else go to BUL with you? AF- No. Well, Pope was already there. And he wind up over here. (laughs) BF- He came back here. So, what. The automation wasn t working out and they started to hiring jocks back? AF- Yeah. Cuz see They tooken That when Tall Paul came And Pope I don t know why or how he did it, but he came here. They wind up putting the line in his house, and he ran his show from his house. BF- Where was Pope before that?

AF- Uh. He was at BUL. BF- Oh. Yeah. AF- He went to BUL. He was at BUL, and left there and come here. And Uh Um hum Sho did. BF- So what kind of show did you have at BUL? AF- I had Uh. I was a mid-day man. I came in every morning at 9 o clock and we did it I did it until from 9 til 1. BF- What did you do? Play the same kind of music? AF- Yep. The hits of that time. You know. BF- Um. Hum. AF- Like Prince and all of them. And we did it. I stayed there at BUL from 1978 til 1982. Then right after that I just BF- Retired? AF- Um. Hum. And so Cuz see, I had a job. (laughs) So, my job start doing me six days a week, ten hours a day. That was enough. BF- Still doing crane operator? AF- No I m retired. BF- No, but back then? That job was still a crane operator. AF- Yep. So, I tell you radio was good to me, in more ways than one. It gave me a sense of What do you call it? BF- Self-worth? AF- Yeah. I though I could do something. I ll always look up to this station. JLD. BF- As a place where you began? AF- As where I began I say I use to walk around reading every thang. They want to know how you got better as good as you did so fast? I say, You know what? They told me when I was a young boy, you better read better learn how to read. And I did. And I used to sit around and read the newspaper, a whole, from the front to the back. Every thang in it. I could tell you every thang in there. That how I learned how to do it. BF- You ended up retiring from BUL in 1982? AF- Um. Hum. BF- What, if you look back, the most outrageous thing that happened while you were in radio that you either witnessed or that you participated in. AF- Mmm. Outrageous (spoken softly to himself). Well its not I never participated in outrageous things and really I didn t witness any thang. Its uh BF- You remember when Sam Double O Moore had a pet bear? Had a bear?

AF- No. I don t know. I didn t remember No. At the time, he didn t do any thing like that. But Let me see now Cause we all was like up and up, you know. Everybody did the right thing. BF- Everybody did the right thing? AF- Yeah. BF- What do you remember about the Johnston Family? AF- Well, now, I m ah tell you, the Johnston Family. It was nice. They was nice. And George who was a guy that All he wanted you to do was ah do your job, be on time, and uh if you need his help, ask him for it. Don t take nothing. BF- Um. Hum. AF- And and ninety nine times out of hundred, he would comply with your wish. And Uh All he wanted to do... He wanted his men to be up, you know and uh he told me he told me one time, he say he wished the rest of em would address the job like I do. He say, You come here and look like yo shoes shine BF- Were you older than most of the people working there? AF- Um. Hum. Yes, I was. (laughs) Except anybody I mean Willie and me. Willie was older than me, and Walter was older. BF- Sure. Walter was older than everybody. AF- Uh. Huh. And Uh Then the rest of them was just young guys. BF- What do you remember about Walter? AF- Walter Anglin was a good man. My family and his family we commingled we got together. And we always would go you know, party and every thang. We We did good. He was a good man, though. If we had something going on like the talk show you got. BF- Yeah. AF- And it started out Now, Jimmy was the one that started here at JLD. And that young man had that thing revved up, boy where everybody in town looking to Uh listened to Sound Off. You remember? BF- Um. Hum. Sound Off with Jimmy Lawson. AF- And Uh He Uh He built it up there, boy, wide open. So the thing that I Uh witnessed at JLD that the people I worked with and for they brought it up from where it started from. And every thang At one time, WJLD was one of the #1 stations. BF- in the AM days... AF- And so, we we did pretty good. And the guys that we had like Sam Moore, Charles Gray...I m trying to think another one came in Larry. What Larry last name was? Oh Lord. He left here and went to WENN. Uh Bob Shivers and Larry. Oh Lord, have mercy. And Larry, know I can t remember his last name shoot. (Laughs) What Larry name was? (He says lower to himself). Lord, have mercy. BF- We We have it somewhere. Don t worry about it. We have it somewhere.

AF- But anyway, we all did pretty good. And the guys that came through here. They always go somewhere else. BF- Tall Paul (phone rings) I was going to ask you if you remember when Paul came back to WJLD? That might have been near the AF- I re I remember something vaguely but I was gone when he got back here. BF- Yeah. And were there any people in radio who were your idols, people that you wanted to fashion yourself after or people who you really though were great on the air? AF- Naw. I the only somebody (phone rings) The only one that I would thought about wanted to be like and the Uh man that I would have really liked to had was a man that I didn t even think about when I was a young man, that was Faush Erskine Faush. And when he first got I was that was in 1956 that s when I when I learned would hear him on the radio with the pastor s study. And I say, if I ever would do any thang like that, I would like that my voice cause he had a resonance that that just sunk in. And I think that what happened when the young lady called me and told me to go in my voice. Use my voice, all the time, not sometime, all the time, and you ll find out. And right to day, Rev. Faush recognize me when he walk up to me and shake my hand. BF- He s He s still the dean of radio in this town. Well, Andrew, thank you for taking the time