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0377-MUS-11/2007
Don Logan
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Born at French Camp near Stockton, California, Don remembers his father, Carl Walker Logan, an Oklahoman, as "an excellent singer," and as "an adventurous type fellow." The elder Logan moved to California to find work in a sugar company in the 1930s, where he married and would have two children. Because his father moved around the country for construction work, Don grew up in one town after another, meanwhile, he was developing a love of music and learning to play the clarinet and guitar. His first time on the radio was in a town in Minnesota, where he recorded his songs, then announced each one as it was played on air. Throughout high school he played in bands for functions of organizations such as the Elks Club, as well as at school dances and in honky tonks. In Huntington, West Virginia, he appeared on a television talent show with his band "The Stardusters." In 1956 he graduated from high school in Poteau, Oklahoma, which he calls the family's old hometown. That summer he left for Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he earned fourteen dollars a week working as a restaurant dishwasher. He also sold advertising at a radio station, where he performed as a disc jockey for a rock 'n roll show, broadcast from a local drive in. "Girls and guys would come out there, and they really made me feel like, `Gosh, I'm somebody,'" he says. Don attended Eastern Oklahoma A&M (now Eastern Oklahoma State College) in Wilburton as a music major but left before graduating. He worked in Weatherford, Texas, at KCEY before joining KKSN in Grand Prairie, where he hosted a Saturday night show similar to Louisiana Hayride. He married Mary Gurley on June 4, 1958. (They would have four children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.) As a disc jockey, he used several on-air names, including Jesse James, Jeff Huntley, Carl Logan, and E. Peabody Rasmussen. In 1959, at the invitation of radio mogul Gordon McClendon, he joined KEEL in Shreveport as program director. He also played in a band at local clubs, and brought in musical acts he helped emcee, such as Paul Revere and the Raiders and The Monkees. He tried to bring in The Beatles, but was told Shreveport and its facilities were too small. "We also had The Rolling Stones, and that's the only time I ever went somewhere as a disc jockey with a gun," he recalls. Don says he's seen the music business change from days when producers observed artists at shows, pressed a record, got it played on-air, and supplied record shops with the product. "You could actually get a career started in any kind of music you wanted to by doing that," he says. In 1968, Don went to work for a record company owned by Stan Lewis who founded Jewel Records, Paula Records, and Ronn Records. There he worked in sales and promotions of products, including hit records Judy in Disguise by John Fred and his Playboys, and All These Things by Joe Stampley and The Uniques. Later, Don returned to radio, working for KCOZ. He spends much of his time running his website, www.dandydonlogan.com.