What the World Needs Now Is Love

Tom Clay

Tom Clay (August 20, 1929 – November 22, 1995) was an American radio personality and disc jockey. Clay was born Thomas Clague in New York, and in the 1950s he was popular in the Detroit area on WJBK-AM both as a DJ, and for his on-air comic characterizations; he became a local celebrity. In the early 1950s Clay, using the pseudonym "Guy King," worked for WWOL-AM/FM in Buffalo, New York; on July 3, 1955, he conducted a stunt in which he played "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets repeatedly from atop a billboard in Buffalo's Shelton Square, an incident that led to his firing and arrest (Danny Neaverth would later repeat Clay's stunt but would not suffer the same consequences). In the mid-1950s he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and was equally popular.… more »