R.I.P.: Radio Pioneer Reggie Lavong

Reggie Lavong

Radio pioneer Reginald N. Lavong Sr., died on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017.

He was 84, according to urbanradionation.com.

He was born on April 5, 1933 in Gainesville, FL. After graduation, he attended Temple University as a journalism major. At Temple he worked as a radio announcer for the college radio station WRTI. He was hired to work at a small commercial radio station in Vineland, N.J., during his junior year.

Lavong’s talent for broadcasting and his growing fan base made it possible for him to work at WRAP in Norfolk, Va., at WAMS in Wilmington, Del., and as the nighttime broadcaster for WHAT in Philadelphia. In 1960 he landed back on the east coast in New York City as the legendary “Dr. Jive” on WWRL after having worked in Chicago on WHFC.

Lavong joined NBC in New York as a personality on WNBC in the mid-1960s. He changed his on-air name to “Just John” and developed an even larger fan base as part of the national network.

In 1964, he and Georgie Woods became the first Black men in the United States to be part owners of a television station. He and Woods, in partnership with Aaron Katz and Leonard Stevens, purchased WPHL Channel 17 in Philadelphia.

In 1986, he and Miller Parker, owners of Maine Line Communications, purchased Philadelphia’s local radio station WHAT from Independence Broadcasting. The station changed to an African-American-orientated talk and nostalgia format.

WHAT became the first 24 hour All African American talk radio station in the country in 1986. The hosts on the station at the time included Reggie Lavong, along with local powerhouse Philadelphia radio personalities Mary Mason, E. Steven Collins, Georgie Woods, Karen Warrington, and Reggie Bryant. The station continued with the black talk radio format after Lavong and Parker sold it in 1989 to former WDAS General Manager Cody Anderson.

In 2007, 1340 AM WHAT, known as the "Voice of the African American Community," was sold to Marconi Broadcasting and thus ending the station's longtime African American-focus and it's talk radio format started by Reggie Lavong. The talk radio format continues in Philadelphia on WURD radio at 900 AM and 96.1 FM.