BODINE, LESLIE E. “LES” (c.1910-1969)

Les Bodine was a country deejay for forty-two years. He worked at WSMK, WHIO, WONE, and WING in Dayton. At country and bluegrass music’s lowest ebb in the late 1950s, after rock ‘n’ roll hit, Les played the only country and bluegrass music in Dayton, daily from 5:00 to 6:00 a.m., on WING. He moved to WGIC in Xenia and later turned WBZI-FM in Xenia into an all-country station in 1967. His DEEJAYs were local music personalities Herbie Smith, Jack Bartley, Chad Chester, and Al Freeders. On his early morning show, Les always talked about having his coffee and a cream horn. As a musician, Les was at WONE when it went on the air in 1948, playing with Lew Wampler and the Midwesterners. Later, he had his own band and did barn-dance-type shows on WING and at the Labor Temple on Wayne Avenue. In the 1950s, Les had a music store at 609 East Fifth Street in Dayton and started his own record label, BMC Records, that recorded Red Allen, Red Spurlock, and Frank Wakefield as “The Red Heads” and also Glenn and Vivian Watson.

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