John R.

John R. (born John Richbourg, August 20, 1910, Manning, South Carolina; died February 15, 1986, Nashville, Tennessee) was an American radio disc jockey who attained fame in the 1950s and 1960s for playing rhythm and blues music on Nashville radio station WLAC. He was also a notable record producer and artist manager.

Richbourg was arguably the most popular and charismatic of the four announcers at WLAC who showcased popular African-American music in nightly programs from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. (The other three were Gene Nobles, Herman Grizzard, and Bill "Hoss" Allen.) Later rock music disc jockeys such as Alan Freed, Wolfman Jack, and others mimicked Richbourg's practice of using speech that simulated African-American street language of the mid-twentieth century.

Richbourg's highly stylized approach to on-air presentation of both music and advertising earned him popularity, but it also created identity confusion. Because Richbourg and fellow disc jockey Allen used African-American speech patterns, many listeners thought that both announcers were actually African-Americans. The disc jockeys used the mystique to their commercial and personal advantages until the mid-1960s, when their racial identities as Euro-Americans became public knowledge.

John R. Little

John R. Little is best known as a writer of horror and dark fantasy fiction. He was born in London, Ontario, Canada on August 16, 1955, and he currently resides in Coquitlam, BC, Canada. John R. Little has a Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Western Ontario where his major was Computer Science and he minored in Math. He has been publishing fiction since 1982 with his work "Volunteers Needed" published in the February, 1982 issue of Cavalier magazine. John R. Little's short story "Tommy's Christmas," first published in Twilight Zone Magazine in 1983, was chosen by Isaac Asimov, Terry Carr, and Martin Greenberg to appear in their 1984 anthology 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories. "Tommy's Christmas" has since been published in many different countries and languages. John R. Little continues to currently write novels, novellas, and short stories. His recent work has received many award nominations including the Black Quill and Bram Stoker Award.

Awards and honors