On this day, December 2, 1957, was DJ Al Priddy at Portland's KEX fired after playing Elvis Presley's "White Christmas"?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Well, maybe. The article at the Elvis Information Network sheds a lot of light on the many stories about this album.

I report; you decide.

Hat tip, This Day in Music:

What Happened Today In Music

December 2nd

1957 - Elvis Presley
Al Priddy a DJ on US radio station KEX in Portland was fired after playing Elvis Presley's version of 'White Christmas' The station management said, 'it's not in the spirit we associate with Christmas'.

Secrets and Lies: Getting to the Truth about Elvis' Christmas Album

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18/01/2018 - Now Updated with Your Comments and MORE discussions - see below

Secrets and Lies: Getting to the Truth about Elvis’ Christmas Album

Probably more than any other album of his career, Elvis’ Christmas Album is generally regarded as having created the most controversy. Some would argue that the first album in 1956 did this, but actually there was relatively little backlash against it or Elvis in the press prior to the second Milton Berle appearance. Elvis’ Christmas Album, however, has stories of it being banned by radio stations, firings of DJs, and an irate Irving Berlin all attached to it.

Most fans will remember these stories being recounted by Charles Wolfe in the liner notes of the 1994 CD If Every Day Was Like Christmas. In the space of a single paragraph, Wolfe tells us a DJ was fired at KEX in Portland, that “almost all” Canadian radio stations banned the record, and that Irving Berlin ordered his staff to begin calling radio stations “to demand that they stop playing it.” These events make for great stories, have been often repeated, and only add to the legend of the boy from Tupelo taking on the establishment and coming out with a #1 album.



But are they really true?

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The Firing of Al Priddy

So, what of the story of the firing of Al Priddy, DJ at KEX radio in Portland? Well, here the waters are slightly murkier. To start with, the reason for his dismissal was not given as playing the Elvis track specifically but, according to the station, “intentional disregard for policy” (Variety, December 11, 1957). This opens up another question which we don’t have enough evidence to answer: Had Priddy been disregarding policy on other occasions, and had the playing of White Christmas (banned at the station) simply been the last in a string of such incidents? This is something we don’t know, but it seems a little odd that a well-known, well-loved DJ was fired after a single incident. ... But was Priddy was even fired at all?

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So, yes, the waters are still muddy. However, the facts are that Priddy was back on air at the station within a month, and confirmed in the Boule interview in 1987 that he had received full pay during all the weeks he was off-air, thus making it even more unlikely that the firing was real.





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Anyway, here's the song, which, I have to tell you, I don't think is all that good.

Elvis Presley - White Christmas (Official Audio)

Elvis Presley
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Elvis Presley performing "White Christmas"
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Lyrics:
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
"May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white"

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
"May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white"

#ElvisPresley #WhiteChristmas #OfficialAudio

Sat Dec 2, 2023: On this day, December 2, 1957, was DJ Al Priddy at Portland's KEX fired after playing Elvis Presley's "White Christmas"?

Hat tip, Floyd R. Turbo

Thu Dec 2, 2021: December 2, 1957📻

[ProfessorGAC]

1. A Publicity Stunt?

He got fired, but was back on the air a few weeks later,& got paid while off the air?
Things that make you go, "Hmmmm".