SIDEBAR - AL BENSON

Critic and historian Nelson George called Al Benson, who worked at several Chicago radio stations beginning in the mid-1940s, one of the most influential black deejays of all time. While many of his African-American peers were indistinguishable from white deejays over the airwaves, Benson, who was nicknamed Yo' Ol' Swingmaster, never tried to mask what he called native talk. By most accounts, however, Bensonwho was known to drink while on the airwas often unintelligible. Yet for all the derision he drew, Benson attracted listenershe was voted the most popular deejay in Chicago in a 1948 Chicago Tribune polland he wielded enormous power. In The Death of Rhythm and Blues, George quotes one of Benson's fellow announcers, who said of him, He sounded black. They [the listeners] knew he was and most of us were proud of the fact. Here's a black voice coming out of my little radio and we know it's him.' Ben Fong-Torres