Jerry Lingerfelt
One of Elvis Presley's "Memphis Mafia" worked a stint at a Chattanooga radio station. Local radio and TV veteran Jerry Lingerfelt recalled when Elvis put in a call to the station to ask his friend to come back home.
Mr. Lingerfelt tells the story:
"Marty Lacker was a midday DJ on WDXB for a while. He also was one of Elvis's Memphis Mafia members and was best man at Elvis' wedding.
"He wanted to see if he could make it as a DJ, but he wasn't very good and he knew it.
"One day when I was program director, the lady who answered our phones told me there was a guy on the phone who said he was Elvis and wanted to talk to Marty. I suspected it might be a gag or something but I also knew of Marty's history with Elvis so I asked Lydia to put him through to me.
"A voice on the phone said Hi Jerry, this is Elvis, can I talk to Marty? I knew the voice was that of Elvis so I passed the phone on to Marty who was on the air the time. It was Elvis and he wanted Marty to come back to work with, which he did after giving notice.
"Marty was a nice fellow. He passed away at age 80 on Feb. 13, 2017."
Jerry Lingerfelt paved the way for most of us youngsters who loved radio. A Chattanooga High School graduate who went to work for WDXB out of high school, he later moved to WDEF Radio (as he says as Luther’s assistant). Then he was at WGOW-WYNQ and finally at WTVC TV as general manager where he retired.
Jerry played those Elvis records and brought us many hours of clean entertainment. We still remember the Friday night high school sock hops after football and basketball games with Jerry and his friend Larry the legend Johnson.
Click here to see Marty Lacker's story.
Elvis and Marty Lacker