This influential Detroit deejay helped put these musicians on the map, developed techno music, and expanded the tastes of his listeners.
by Rich Watson
He was born Charles Johnson from Arkansas, but on the radio he was “The Electrifying Mojo,” a deejay who frustrated program directors but inspired his Detroit listeners.
During his heyday in the eighties, he dabbled in a wide variety of styles, from electronic dance to funk to new wave to rock and hip hop and beyond. In a region known for Motown, Bob Seger, Iggy Pop, Ted Nugent, and other rock legends, he cultivated a new genre: techno music.
The musicians he promoted have acknowledged the debt they owe him in spreading the word about their music.
The Electrifying Mojo: captain of the Mothership
In the seventies, Johnson served in the Air Force and attended the University of Michigan, where he first became a radio deejay. In 1977, he joined WGPR, a primarily-black Detroit-area station, when FM radio was still fresh.
As Mojo, his evening program was characterized by the nightly “landing of the Mothership” into downtown Detroit. In the tradition of the band Parliament Funkadelic and other Afrofuturistic influences, Mojo presented his show like a transmission from outer space. It attracted black and white listeners.
Anything went on his show, including:
- entire album sides,
- “battles” between artists,
- a large degree of listener participation, and
- techno and new wave records before anyone knew what those genres were.
Here are some examples:
1. Kraftwerk
Electronic music trailblazers since the early seventies, the German group broke out in 1974 with their album Autobahn. Black audiences, on the radio and in the clubs, picked up on their sound thanks to DJs like Afrika Bambaataa and Frankie Crocker.
Detroit was special. In this 2015 Rolling Stone interview, singer Ralf Hütter acknowledged as much:
…in the very early days, the Electrifyin’ Mojo played our music, the [1981] Computer World album, on radio. Our music wasn’t always played on radio; it was not so popular, apart from Autobahn in the 1970s. In the late Seventies it started again in Detroit. So there’s this spiritual connection….
If this concert from last year is any indication, Kraftwerk’s connection to Detroit remains powerful.
2. The J. Geils Band
This rock band from Boston loves Detroit. In the 2017 obit for guitarist and bandleader John Warren Geils Jr., the Detroit Metro Times said:
It seems that the entire Creem staff were fans; [editor] Lester Bangs even played a ‘solo’ onstage on a typewriter during one of their songs…. Even their later and new-wavier, MTV-era material got airplay from the Electrifying Mojo, and you can’t rack up higher Detroit cred points than that.
The band came to the station once during Mojo’s show. They thanked him for playing “Flamethrower,” a song from their later, new-wavier 1982 Freeze Frame album.
3. The B-52s
The quirky party band from Georgia were known in the late seventies for their cult single “Rock Lobster,” from their self-titled debut album. They toured not only in America but in the UK, where they were very popular. John Lennon called the B-52s his favorite band. His Double Fantasy album is said to be inspired by them.
They also visited WGPR to hang out with Mojo once. “Mesopotamia” was a favorite of his.
Vocalist Fred Schneider has discussed what happened when black people began listening to their music:
Our ex-manager, for reasons I think were suspicious, asked why we wanted to change our personality. I said we wanted everyone to like us. I like soul and funk better than I like rock and roll, so who cares?
4. A Number of Names
Mojo was directly responsible for the club popularity of this early techno outfit. High schoolers Paul Lesley and Sterling Jones put together their single “Sharevari” in 1981, a seminal year for Detroit techno. The title was a play on the name Charivari, a local club.
When Mojo heard it, not only did he put the song in heavy rotation, he invited the duo into the studio. They told him they didn’t have a collective name for themselves. Mojo suggested “a number of names,” and the duo chose the phrase as their actual name.
5. Prince
The one musician about which Mojo was perhaps the most passionate. Prince’s debut record, For You, came out in 1978 (he played all twenty-seven instruments on the record), followed by Prince a year later and Dirty Mind the year after that.
Moderate Billboard hits like “Soft and Wet” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover” went over huge with Mojo and his crowd. In addition, he’d play deep cuts from those albums, including B-sides and rarities.
By 1981, Dirty Mind went gold. Prince appeared on Saturday Night Live.
In 1986, after he had become an international superstar, Prince called Mojo on the air after a concert at the Cobo Arena (now called Huntington Place). They were good friends, and through Mojo, Prince’s affection for Detroit was evident. Here’s a Detroit Free Press compilation of reviews from his shows.
Mojo’s later years
Mojo left WGPR in 1982. He shuffled between several different stations throughout the eighties. His bosses did not approve of his selective playlists. Sticking to the commercial, mainstream material, however, would’ve been anathema to the spirit of his show, much like Tom Donahue when he left Top 40 radio behind.
Mojo did return to WGPR during the nineties. He had a more streamlined approach and a special arrangement with the station, in which he bought his own airtime and acquired his own sponsors.
During the in-between years he wrote a book about the state of modern black culture. He would read excerpts from it on the air.
Around the turn of the century he had broadcast online for a time. There is a Facebook page devoted to him.
But his current whereabouts appear to be unknown.
His spirit remains, in Detroit and around the world, wherever the party is.
@byrichwatson
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Did you listen to the Electrifying Mojo during his time on the radio?
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