Murray the K

During the 1960’s, Murray Kaufman – who called his show “Murray the K and his Swinging Soiree” was the undisputed king of rock’n’ roll radio in metropolitan New York and became well-known throughout the US.

Millions of teenagers recognised his voice, followed his make-believe “submarine races,” and even learned to speak in a pig-Latin style he developed.

A native of the Bronx, Kaufman started his radio career at WMCA in New York in the 1950’s. He moved to WINS in 1958 as a Top 40 disc jockey, then on to New York’s first progressive rock station, WOR-FM, in 1968 as program director and disc jockey.

In the late 1950’s, Kaufman was credited with helping discover Bobby Darin and Johnny Mathis. Later he helped introduce dozens of popular entertainers, including The Righteous Brothers, Chuck Berry, Wilson Pickett, The Drifters, and The Ronettes.

During the early days of Beatlemania, he frequently referred to himself as “the fifth Beatle”. Murray the K made radio history with his innovative segues, jingles, sound effects, antics, and frenetic, creative programming.

Beginning in 1960, Kaufman’s rock ‘n’ roll shows at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater, Manhattan’s Academy of Music Theater on 14th Street and the Brooklyn Fox Theater provided an inter-racial environment where the performers and audiences both thrived.

The shows continued throughout the most explosive periods of civil rights unrest in the mid-’60s, culminating in Kaufman’s final show at the RKO 58th St. Theater in Manhattan with a line-up that included The Who and Cream in their American debuts.

Around 1970, he went to CHUM in Toronto, and in 1980 hosted a syndicated program called “Soundtrack of the 60’s,” a weeklythree-hour show featuring songs of that decade.

Kaufman died of cancer in a Los Angeles hospital a week after his 60th birthday on 21 February 1982.