This episode of Radio Roaming features archived segments from The Electrifying Mojo, originally broadcast on Detroit radio stations WGPR (107.5), WJLB (97.9), and WHYT (96.3) between 1980 and 1986.

"WHEN I PLAY MUSIC
IT’S LIKE MAKING A MOVIE, EVERY SONG IS A SCENE.

IT’S LIKE PAINTING A PICTURE, EVERY STROKE IS STRATEGIC."

- Charles Johnson AKA The Electrifying Mojo

On April 1st, 1977, a visionary musical alien descended from the Mothership and began to create a late-night, underground mythology on Detroit’s new FM radio frontier. Five nights a week from 10PM-3AM, The Electrifying Mojo ruled the airwaves.

No one ever saw this Mojo behind the microphone; he refused to be photographed. It was important that his persona never come between you and the music. He was the one using the music to create the movie in your mind. He wasn’t in the movie. He was behind the microphone, making it happen for you.

Using the language of funk, he gathered a family of listeners each night when he called to order a session the Midnight Funk Association. Mojo would ask members of the MFA to “please rise. Wherever you are, the funk is upon you. Each night at midnight, the world comes to life. If you’re in your car, honk your horn. If you’re at home, go and turn your porch light on ... ” The MFA was a way for people to connect through Mojo’s music. He encouraged everyone to show some solidarity with the MFA and to get down with everyone else. His signature phrase was “Hold on tight don’t let go. Whenever you feel like you’re nearing the end of your rope, don’t slide off. Tie a knot. Keep hanging. Cause there ain’t nobody bad like you.”

Sometimes, after the Midnight Funk Association segment, Mojo would do a segment he called Star Wars, where two artistis would “battle” one another and listeners would call in to vote for the winner. This evolved into a segment called the Mixadome, a city-wide DJ mixtape competition. People would call in and vote on the best mix. Mojo often took requests from callers and put them on the air. On his 28th birthday (June 7, 1986), Prince was in Detroit to play a concert at the Cobo Arena. He called in to the Electrifying Mojo show, and they chatted on air for 20 minutes. It was the first radio interview that Prince ever did, and one of the only interviews he did between 1985 and 1987. Mojo was an early champion of Prince, and also of the new wave band B-52’s. He played all types of music in the early days of FM. He has said “I was fortunate enough to have spent my entire radio career, never having a music director, nor an empowered program director over me, directing my programs or music.” Mojo played everything: New Wave, Rock, Funk, Jimi Hendrix, Visage, Kraftwerk, J. Geils Band, Funkadelic, David Bowie, Thomas Dolby, Devo, film scores, and even classical music. He would play entire sides of records. He was the first DJ in Detroit to play Prince, long before Prince’s music was popular.

The Electrifying Mojo laid down the rich soil into which the seeds of Techno Music would be planted and grow. Derrick May famously tells the story of when he was 14 years old, he waited for Mojo at a deli during the small hours of the morning. After his radio show, Mojo would sometimes go to this deli. May handed Mojo a cassette tape of music made by his friend Juan Atkins and Mojo played it on his show. Atkins, May, and their friend Kevin Saunderson - later known as the Belleville Three, after their suburban Detroit neighborhood - would go on to birth a new form of electronic dance music called Techno that today, 40 years later, rules the planet. Funky machine music, based on the grooves and patterrns of music they heard on the Electrifying Mojo show, when they were teenagers. “I think without The Electrifying Mojo, we wouldn’t have had Detroit techno the way that we know Detroit techno,” says Carl Craig, legendary Detroit DJ known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

This episode of Radio Roaming collects pieces of each segment of an Electrifying Mojo episode:

- The Landing of the Mothership, an array of space-like sounds accenting Mojo’s descent to Earth
- The Awesome segment at 11PM, devoted to exposing listeners to the burgeoning sounds of Detroit’s underground; a trip into the Future of Music
- Lover’s Lane at 11:30PM, a short, slow jams segment “for all the lovers out there.”
- And the Midnight Funk Association from Midnight until 3:00AM, when Mojo would spin the newest, freshest, funkiest cuts.

At the end of this episode, we’ll hear a song from each of the Belleville Three:

- “Alleys Of Your Mind” by Cybotron (Juan Atkins)
- “Nude Photo” by Derrick May
- “Good Life” by Kevin Saunderson

The Electrifying Mojo segments heard in this episode were originally broadcast on Detroit radio stations WGPR (107.5), WJLB (97.9), and WHYT (96.3) between 1980 and 1986.

Radio Roaming bounces across the electromagnetic spectrum, exploring the many possibilities of experimentation with sending and receiving. Produced by Wave Farm staff members, each episode features a selection of contemporary and/or historical radio and transmission art, with the aim of expanding the Wave Farm Radio Art and Transmission Art Archives.