Roger Christian: the car enthusiast admired by The Beach Boys
Rodger Christian was one of the most beloved American radio disc jockeys of the 1960s. He had a gift for putting listeners at ease and had such an ear for radio gold that he wound up writing hit records with The Beach Boys. The collaboration rested on Christian’s love of cars, which he bonded with Brian Wilson over, with the two espousing their love of ’32 Ford’s on ‘Little Deuce Coupe’. It was Wilson’s favourite song.
For such an obvious radio natural, Christian’s big industry break was something of a happy accident. In the mid-1950s, he’d saved a radio executive’s wife from nearly drowning whilst working in New York as a lifeguard. By 1959, he was working in the Californian sunshine, not as a lifeguard, but in a San Bernadino radio station. After working briefly at an oldies station transmitting the classics, he did a spell at a Top 40 station, settling for a few years as an announcer for Armed Forces Radio.
Colleagues described him as aloof, and memorials make mention of a battle with depression. Christian took immense pride in his work, maintaining a relentless schedule while working on his own creative projects. In an LA Radio retrospective, he was said to have been known for showing up for his shift after his first record of the day had already started.
In the early days of his career, inspired by WWOL Buffalo’s Guy King, Christian went by Mike Melody, but listeners responded best to his own personality and almost encyclopaedic knowledge of music. In 1964, The Beatles’ Story album he produced alongside Gary Usher shot to the top three charts, earning a gold record for sales. Always a musical man, when working at KFWB some years later, the station went strictly news. Christian was bereft, spotted by someone on the day in floods of tears.
While the music might have died that day, at least on KFWB, Christian’s influence on pop music can still be felt today. He co-wrote many pop hits, including ‘The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)’ for Jan & Dean and the Beach Boys’ songs ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ and ‘Little Deuce Coupe’.
Christian was a keen car racer known for a love of hot roads that saw him dubbed the ‘Poet of the Strip’. One night, when Murry Wilson, father to three Beach Boys as well as their manager, was listening to KFWB, he came across Christian, who was chatting to listeners about the intricacies of Beach Boys number ‘409’.
After Murry realised Christian clearly knew a lot about cars, he and his son, Brian, later met with him. They struck up a natural rapport and looked over his poems about cars. The resulting songs the pair wrote remain a favourite amongst car enthusiasts, even to this day. In 1991, Christian’s brother revealed the beloved disc jockey had succumbed to a periodic depression and committed suicide. His loss reminded listeners of the old outro on his show: “That’s all she wrote, sleep warm, later, lover”.
