He mentored "Soul Train" host Don Cornelius when the TV icon first got started in broadcasting.
He grew up in the Ida B. Wells housing project in Bronzeville (in the Douglas area around IIT). As a child he became interested in radio, building makeshift devices out of toilet paper rolls, crystals, wires, and earphones.
He taught broadcasting and communications at Chicago State University on the Far South Side.
He got his first job in radio while he was a student at Hyde Park High School, hosting a classical music program for WBEZ.
He was the longest-running DJ in the history of radio and a fixture on Chicago airwaves for more than 70 years.