The Greaseman
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| The Greaseman | |
| Birth name | Douglas Tracht |
| Born | August 1, 1950 The Bronx, New York, United States |
| Station(s) | WWDC |
| Time slot | Saturdays, 8-noon |
| Show | web based |
| Station(s) | getalife.tv |
| Website | greaseman.org |
Doug "The Greaseman" Tracht (born August 1, 1950 in Bronx, New York) is a radio, television and movie personality. Tracht is best known for his morning show on WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C. during the 1980's where he took over the morning drive time slot from Howard Stern and his controversial comments made on that show.
[edit] Career
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- WRC AM 980 1973-1974 (Washington DC)
- WPOP AM 1410 1974-1975 (Hartford, Connecticut)
- WAPE AM 690 (now FM 95.1) 1975-1982 (Jacksonville, Florida)
- WWDC FM 101.1 1982-1993, 4/5/2008-present (Washington DC)[1]
- WZGC FM 92.9 1991-1996 (Atlanta, GA)
- WYSP FM 94.1 1993-1996 (Philadelphia)
- WJFK FM 106.7 1993-1997 (Washington, DC)
- WARW FM 94.7 1997-1999 (Washington, DC)
- WDMV AM 700 2002-2005 (Washington, DC)
- WMET AM 1160 2005-2007 (Washington, DC)
- syndicated 3/5/2001-4/5/08
- web-based radio, 11/07-Present getalife.tv
During his time at WXRK, he was syndicated to several other Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS Radio) stations (such as WYSP 94.1 in Philadelphia). In fall 1996, his show returned via syndication to Jacksonville over WTLK "Real Radio" 106.5, where it lasted until January 1998, when the station changed owners and formats. During this Jacksonville run, Greaseman's show changed origination from a California studio, to WARW in Washington, DC. With this change, he again incorporated music into his program.
In 1985, while with WWDC in Washington, Tracht created an uproar by making an on-air crack about the Rev. Martin Luther King holiday, saying, "Why don't we plug four more and get the whole week off?" followed by, "Come on, now, you know I don't mean nothing!"
In February 1999, while at WARW (now WTGB), Tracht made a comment about James Byrd, who was murdered in 1998 by being dragged behind a pickup truck by two white supremacists. The Greaseman had been playing a song by Lauryn Hill. Tracht then stated, as a reference to the quality of her music, "and they wonder why we drag them behind trucks." He immediately stated after the comment he "didn't mean nothing." This incident proved catastrophic to his radio career, igniting a firestorm of protest from listeners of all races, including Donnie Simpson, who savaged Tracht on his morning show on sister station WPGC-FM. Not only was Tracht quickly fired from WARW, he lost his position as a volunteer deputy sheriff in Falls Church, Virginia.
Starting in 2002, he returned to the air from his home studio, broadcasting on WDMV-AM 700 (previously WGOP) near Frederick, Maryland, and was soon afterwards syndicated to numerous other stations in the region. He then held the morning show slot on WMET-AM 1160 in Gaithersburg, Maryland until November 2, 2007. Selected Greaseman bits are heard during late PM drive on WGRX-FM 104.5 in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. On March 31, 2008, WWDC announced the Greaseman show would be returning on Saturday mornings beginning April 5, 2008.[2]
Tracht also appeared in two television movies produced by close friend and associate Brian Dennehy [1] -- Jack Reed: A Search For Justice (1994) and Jack Reed: Death And Vengeance (1996). He made a film, inspired by Pulp Fiction, called The Last Mango.
[edit] References
- ^ "Greeseman Bio", WWDC. Retrieved on 2008-05-03.
- ^ Boyle, Mike. "'Greaseman' Returning To DC101", Radio and Records. Retrieved on 2008-04-03.
