JOCKO HENDERSON

Henderson began his broadcast career in 1952 at Baltimore station WSID-AM, and in 1953 began broadcasting in Philadelphia on WHAT-AM. He hosted a show called Jocko's Rocket Ship Show out of New York radio stations WOV-AM and WADO-AM and Philadelphia stations WHAT-AM and WDAS-AM from 1954 to 1964.

Henderson was known for a distinctive style of rhythmic patter in his voice, which he had learned from a Baltimore deejay, Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert. This fast-talking jive was exemplary of the style which emerged in the early 1950s after black urban stations switched to playing up-tempo music. With a heavy reliance on rapping and rhyming, the double entendres and street slang were a part of Henderson’s signature audience conversations.

Henderson continued on the stations WDAS-AM and WHAT-AM in Philadelphia until 1974.

In addition to Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore, Henderson was also broadcast on stations in St. Louis, Detroit, Miami, and Boston.