The Electrifying Mojo
Encyclopedia
The Electrifying Mojo (b. Charles Johnson in Little Rock, Arkansas
) is an American
radio personality. He was a disc jockey
based in Detroit, Michigan whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in Detroit and throughout southeastern Michigan
and Canada
and was of importance to the development of Detroit Techno
.
He is recognized for having introduced or "broken" many artists into the Detroit radio market, including Prince, The B-52's
, and Kraftwerk
http://music.aol.com/artist/the-electrifying-mojo/biography/1154963, and was occasionally thanked on-air by the artists for his support of their work. Prince granted Mojo a telephone interview http://princetext.tripod.com/i_mojo85.html following a sold out birthday concert at Cobo Arena on June 7, 1986, during an era when Prince rarely if ever granted interviews. He was visited in the studio by The B-52's
and The J. Geils Band with the latter thanking him for playing "Flamethrower" from their album Freeze Frame.
Most recently, Mojo is serving as Program Director for a handful of Detroit radio stations - he does not publicize which ones - and he is in negotiations to bring his show to XM satellite radio
in 2006, where he will not only begin a new show, but also air shows from his archive dating back to 1977.
market, his programming was an inspired blend of the best soul
, funk
, New Wave
, and rock
that defied standard radio industry formats and genres. He also wrote music, sometimes under the name "C. J. Surge".
After serving in the Air Force
, Johnson attended the University of Michigan
in the mid-1970s where he began broadcasting on the University radio station and then on Ann Arbor station WAAM
(at the time a popular Top 40 station). In 1977, he began broadcasting on WGPR
(107.5) in Detroit and soon gathered a diverse audience attracted to his "genre bending" format. Moving to WJLB
around 1982, Mojo gained additional listeners at the more easily found 97.9 frequency and billboards throughout Detroit touted the "Landing of the Mothership" at 10pm every night.
In what would become a trend with Mojo due to his refusal to adhere to radio station formats, he moved to WHYT
(96.3) in 1985 and then WTWR-FM in Toledo, Ohio
after a management turnover at WHYT in 1987. His show prospered there until 1990, when he accepted an offer to return to the Detroit airwaves at WMXD
. At this time, Mojo began doing remote broadcasts, driving around Detroit, talking to people in the city, while his Production assistant Wendell Burke kept the music going at the studio.
In October 1990, Mojo gave an exclusive interview to Finney High Today, a one page newspaper produced by the Journalism
class at Finney High School. The lengthy interview took up nearly the entire issue, and went deep into subjects ranging from his origins on AM radio in Ann Arbor, Michigan
to then current radio jockeys in Detroit. Mojo also addressed some of the reasons why he was bounced from station to station, ranging from his refusal to follow any station's genre or format, playing "white music" on "black stations" and vice-versa.
The mid-nineties found Mojo back at WGPR, again challenging ideas about the role of a broadcast DJ. His show, a weekend mid-day slot, consisted of a broad range of content, tied to a common thread of social and cultural awareness of the African-American community.
Musically, this included shows focused on single themes, such as symphonic music by black composers, a survey of the jazz and symphonic music of Duke Ellington
, and one alternating the music of Billie Holiday
with spoken excerpts from her autobiography. He, as before, frequently played recordings in their entirety.
In an unusual arrangement, Mojo was purchasing his air-time from WGPR and then finding his own sponsors for the show. His two primary sponsors at this time were a deli and an insurance agency. The spots for them produced by Mojo were loose and low-production, with plenty of booming reverb with Mojo's admonishment to "save on auto insurance!"
He also dedicated airtime to reading excerpts from his 500-plus page book, The Mental Machine (ISBN 0-9639811-1-0), a work of poetry and prose about community and societal ills. Both his on-air persona and his writing seemed to place a Christian
spirituality
closer to center stage than had his previous shows.
Sometimes Mojo would stop the music to talk, sometimes for half an hour or more, about whatever was on his mind, sometimes also taking live phone calls on the air about any given subject. The WGPR station managers, citing the fact that WGPR is a music station, not a talk station, combined with Mojo's penchant for playing Rock, Rap, Jazz, Classical, Techno and any other music genre, fired Mojo even though he was paying for his airtime.
The late 1990s brought Mojo to WCHB
for a stretch in 1998 where he began broadcasting his show over the internet for a short time. He also was making guest appearances on the now defunct WDTR
around 2004.
The trio of artists widely cited as the founders of Detroit Techno, Juan Atkins
, Kevin Saunderson
, and Derrick May have all made mention of Mojo's influence on their musical development, as have second generation Techno
artists like Richie Hawtin
(Plastikman)Tony (The Wizard) Spiliopoulos and Carl Craig
. Mojo was an early supporter of the Detroit Techno sound, playing tracks like Cybotron's (Juan Atkins) "Cosmic Cars," Derrick May's "Strings of Life" and "Good Life" by Kevin Saunderson's Inner City.
Along with giving extended airtime to the new local sounds in Detroit, Mojo continued to embrace electronic music from techno and electronic music pioneers around the world like Kraftwerk
, Philip Glass
, New Order
, Yellow Magic Orchestra
and Afrika Bambaataa
in his sets.
There were periods later on where Mojo's popularity and influence on others would prove to be damaging to his own career. Other Detroit radio personalities imitated concepts from his shows during his absence from the Detroit airwaves in the mid-1990s. The "homage" was most obvious with WHYT
disk jockey Lisa Lisa, who produced segments on her evening show such as the "Midnight Mix Association" and her version of "Lover's Lane." For a brief period the Midnight Mix Association used a "spaceship" introduction which was similar to Mojo's show which was later replaced by an introduction that had a mixture of The Wizard of Oz
, church bell
s and a Civil defense siren
: "Were not in Kansas anymore...it's among the hour to come amongst you and amaze you with absolute incredible out of this world type sounds, look out here we go." Mojo also made calls to the Lisa Lisa show encouraging, as well as thanking her for continuing his "format" in a way that he could be proud of.
From 1:00am to 3:00am (2:00 am on Saturday nights), Mojo's show was different every night. Sometimes, the MFA would stretch well beyond 1:00am, other times Mojo would introduce segments such as:
At other times, Mojo would spend the last 2 hours of his show showcasing live mixes on two turntables, by bringing in local DJs to do the same. One such DJ, Tony Spiliopoulos, began his career with Mojo as "The Wizard." Mojo also would air music by local groups at this time.
Metro Detroit graphic designer, artist and tattooist Kenneth Burney approached Mojo in the early days of the Midnight Funk Association to employ promotions that included designs for A Midnight Association Membership Card and T-Shirts. Ken Burney is also known for designing logos for Detroit radio station WJLB FM 98, WCHB 1200 AM, Detroit's R&B group Ready For The World first logo and much more.
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
radio personality. He was a disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
based in Detroit, Michigan whose on-air journey of musical and social development shaped a generation of music-lovers in Detroit and throughout southeastern Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and was of importance to the development of Detroit Techno
Detroit techno
Detroit techno is an early style of electronic music beginning in the 1980s. Detroit, Michigan has been cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson...
.
He is recognized for having introduced or "broken" many artists into the Detroit radio market, including Prince, The B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
, and Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
http://music.aol.com/artist/the-electrifying-mojo/biography/1154963, and was occasionally thanked on-air by the artists for his support of their work. Prince granted Mojo a telephone interview http://princetext.tripod.com/i_mojo85.html following a sold out birthday concert at Cobo Arena on June 7, 1986, during an era when Prince rarely if ever granted interviews. He was visited in the studio by The B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
and The J. Geils Band with the latter thanking him for playing "Flamethrower" from their album Freeze Frame.
Most recently, Mojo is serving as Program Director for a handful of Detroit radio stations - he does not publicize which ones - and he is in negotiations to bring his show to XM satellite radio
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
in 2006, where he will not only begin a new show, but also air shows from his archive dating back to 1977.
History
Mojo's seminal radio show ran from 1977 through the mid-1980s, and while broadcast on stations marketed toward the African-AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
market, his programming was an inspired blend of the best soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
, and rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
that defied standard radio industry formats and genres. He also wrote music, sometimes under the name "C. J. Surge".
After serving in the Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, Johnson attended the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in the mid-1970s where he began broadcasting on the University radio station and then on Ann Arbor station WAAM
WAAM
WAAM is a radio station in Ann Arbor, Michigan that broadcasts on AM 1600. Known as "WAAM Talk 1600" , WAAM broadcasts with 5,000 watts of power. The station is owned by Coolarity A2, LLC. Until recently, the station broadcast in AM Stereo.-Early History: WHRV:The station signed on as WHRV in...
(at the time a popular Top 40 station). In 1977, he began broadcasting on WGPR
WGPR
WGPR is an FM radio station in Detroit, Michigan brodacasting a Mainstream Urban format. Owned by the International Free and Accepted Modern Masons and operated under local marketing agreement by Radio One, the station operates on 107.5 MHz....
(107.5) in Detroit and soon gathered a diverse audience attracted to his "genre bending" format. Moving to WJLB
WJLB
WJLB, is a Clear Channel-owned Urban Contemporary radio station in Detroit that broadcasts on 97.9 megahertz frequency. The station is known on-air as FM98 WJLB. This is the station that began the career of Urban radio legend and video jock, Donnie Simpson...
around 1982, Mojo gained additional listeners at the more easily found 97.9 frequency and billboards throughout Detroit touted the "Landing of the Mothership" at 10pm every night.
In what would become a trend with Mojo due to his refusal to adhere to radio station formats, he moved to WHYT
WDVD
WDVD is a hot adult contemporary radio station in Detroit, Michigan, broadcasting at 96.3 MHz on the FM dial. WDVD's studios and offices are located in the Fisher Building near downtown Detroit. WDVD's transmitter is located in Oakland County in Royal Oak Township at 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue...
(96.3) in 1985 and then WTWR-FM in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
after a management turnover at WHYT in 1987. His show prospered there until 1990, when he accepted an offer to return to the Detroit airwaves at WMXD
WMXD
WMXD is a Clear Channel-owned Urban AC FM radio station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, that broadcasts on the frequency of 92.3 MHz. WMXD, which bills itself as "Today's R&B and the Best Old School Jamz," is consistently a very highly rated station in Detroit's Arbitron ratings reports,...
. At this time, Mojo began doing remote broadcasts, driving around Detroit, talking to people in the city, while his Production assistant Wendell Burke kept the music going at the studio.
In October 1990, Mojo gave an exclusive interview to Finney High Today, a one page newspaper produced by the Journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
class at Finney High School. The lengthy interview took up nearly the entire issue, and went deep into subjects ranging from his origins on AM radio in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
to then current radio jockeys in Detroit. Mojo also addressed some of the reasons why he was bounced from station to station, ranging from his refusal to follow any station's genre or format, playing "white music" on "black stations" and vice-versa.
The mid-nineties found Mojo back at WGPR, again challenging ideas about the role of a broadcast DJ. His show, a weekend mid-day slot, consisted of a broad range of content, tied to a common thread of social and cultural awareness of the African-American community.
Musically, this included shows focused on single themes, such as symphonic music by black composers, a survey of the jazz and symphonic music of Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, and one alternating the music of Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
with spoken excerpts from her autobiography. He, as before, frequently played recordings in their entirety.
In an unusual arrangement, Mojo was purchasing his air-time from WGPR and then finding his own sponsors for the show. His two primary sponsors at this time were a deli and an insurance agency. The spots for them produced by Mojo were loose and low-production, with plenty of booming reverb with Mojo's admonishment to "save on auto insurance!"
He also dedicated airtime to reading excerpts from his 500-plus page book, The Mental Machine (ISBN 0-9639811-1-0), a work of poetry and prose about community and societal ills. Both his on-air persona and his writing seemed to place a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
closer to center stage than had his previous shows.
Sometimes Mojo would stop the music to talk, sometimes for half an hour or more, about whatever was on his mind, sometimes also taking live phone calls on the air about any given subject. The WGPR station managers, citing the fact that WGPR is a music station, not a talk station, combined with Mojo's penchant for playing Rock, Rap, Jazz, Classical, Techno and any other music genre, fired Mojo even though he was paying for his airtime.
The late 1990s brought Mojo to WCHB
WCHB
WCHB is an American AM radio station licensed to Taylor, Michigan, at 1200 kHz, and serving the Detroit market. Owned by Radio One, WCHB identifies as NewsTalk 1200 WCHB and airs a News/Talk format.-AM 1440 WCHB:...
for a stretch in 1998 where he began broadcasting his show over the internet for a short time. He also was making guest appearances on the now defunct WDTR
WDTR
WDTR is a non-commercial, Christian FM radio station licensed to serve Imlay City, Michigan. It is owned by Michigan Community Radio, which is in turn owned by Jennifer and Edward Czelada. The station is part of their Smile FM network of Contemporary Christian music stations.The station came on...
around 2004.
Influence
Mojo's habit was to play entire recordings without interruption and regular listeners became deeply familiar with each recording. Detroiters from this era still speak of the diversity of Mojo's shows, and it is a common opinion that if someone is from the Detroit area, it's Mojo's fault if they are a Prince fan. Mojo would often play hours of Prince's music, not only his hits, but deep album cuts and b-sides and even played a mix of "When Doves Cry" that included bird calls (that Mojo may or may not have added himself.) When Prince was about to release a new album, Mojo would often play the album in its entirety, and this practice continued into the 1990s.The trio of artists widely cited as the founders of Detroit Techno, Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins is an American musician. He is widely credited as the originator of techno music, specifically Detroit techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson...
, Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson
Kevin Saunderson is an American electronic music producer. At the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins...
, and Derrick May have all made mention of Mojo's influence on their musical development, as have second generation Techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
artists like Richie Hawtin
Richie Hawtin
Richard Hawtin is an English-Canadian electronic musician and DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s and a leading exponent of Minimal techno since the mid 1990s...
(Plastikman)Tony (The Wizard) Spiliopoulos and Carl Craig
Carl Craig
Carl Craig is a Detroit-based producer of techno music, and is considered to be one of the most important names in the Detroit second generation of techno producers and DJs...
. Mojo was an early supporter of the Detroit Techno sound, playing tracks like Cybotron's (Juan Atkins) "Cosmic Cars," Derrick May's "Strings of Life" and "Good Life" by Kevin Saunderson's Inner City.
Along with giving extended airtime to the new local sounds in Detroit, Mojo continued to embrace electronic music from techno and electronic music pioneers around the world like Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
, New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
, Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
and Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa is an American DJ from the South Bronx, New York who was instrumental in the early development of hip hop throughout the 1980s. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the three originators of break-beat deejaying, and is respectfully known as the "Grandfather" and the Amen Ra of Universal...
in his sets.
There were periods later on where Mojo's popularity and influence on others would prove to be damaging to his own career. Other Detroit radio personalities imitated concepts from his shows during his absence from the Detroit airwaves in the mid-1990s. The "homage" was most obvious with WHYT
WHYT
WHYT is a non-commercial, contemporary Christian FM radio station licensed to serve Goodland Township and Imlay City, Michigan. The transmitter is located between Imlay City and Marlette, Michigan...
disk jockey Lisa Lisa, who produced segments on her evening show such as the "Midnight Mix Association" and her version of "Lover's Lane." For a brief period the Midnight Mix Association used a "spaceship" introduction which was similar to Mojo's show which was later replaced by an introduction that had a mixture of The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
, church bell
Church bell
A church bell is a bell which is rung in a church either to signify the hour or the time for worshippers to go to church, perhaps to attend a wedding, funeral, or other service...
s and a Civil defense siren
Civil defense siren
A civil defense siren is a mechanical or electronic device for generating sound to...
: "Were not in Kansas anymore...it's among the hour to come amongst you and amaze you with absolute incredible out of this world type sounds, look out here we go." Mojo also made calls to the Lisa Lisa show encouraging, as well as thanking her for continuing his "format" in a way that he could be proud of.
Segments
His shows during the late seventies to mid eighties had several segments each night. Although they would vary throughout the years, a typical Mojo night was:- 10:00pm – The Landing of the Mothership. This was the intro to each show with spaceship sound effects and related dialog. Sometimes the music heard during the first hour was indicative of what you'd hear that night; sometimes it would be completely random.
- 11:00pm – Awesome '84, '85. In the mid eighties, Mojo played an hour of brand new music (hence the year in the title) and a lot of new songs were introduced.
- 11:30pm – Lover's Lane. A half an hour of "slow jams" for lovers.
- 12:00am – The Midnight Funk Association. Consisted regularly of Parliament-FunkadelicParliament-FunkadelicParliament-Funkadelic is a funk, soul and rock music collective headed by George Clinton. Their style has been dubbed P-Funk. Collectively the group has existed under various names since the 1960s and has been known for top-notch musicianship, politically charged lyrics, outlandish concept albums...
, The Gap Band, ZappZapp (band)Zapp is a soul and funk band formed in 1978 by brothers Roger Troutman, Larry Troutman, Lester Troutman, Terry Troutman, Bobby Glover and Gregory Jackson [Cincinnati Ohio Funk Keyboardist]...
and other funk bands of the era.
From 1:00am to 3:00am (2:00 am on Saturday nights), Mojo's show was different every night. Sometimes, the MFA would stretch well beyond 1:00am, other times Mojo would introduce segments such as:
- Star Wars – A classic "artist vs. artist" set, where Mojo would alternate selections from two different groups or artists, and the listeners would call in to vote for their favorite.
- Journey – Sometimes a multi-night segment, where Mojo played songs by a single artist or group, spanning their entire career. This usually included a mix of hits and obscure songs by that artist.
- Shout-out – Everyone that called into the station during his show was the recipient of a "shout-out". He would go on for as long as it took rattling off the first names of every single person who had called in to the show.
- 35-35-35 – Mojo would take suggestions from listeners about their favorite artists and bands. He then would choose the three most popular groups that night and play thirty-five minutes, commercial-free, of each group. This segment often gave airtime to groups that no other radio station in Detroit played.
At other times, Mojo would spend the last 2 hours of his show showcasing live mixes on two turntables, by bringing in local DJs to do the same. One such DJ, Tony Spiliopoulos, began his career with Mojo as "The Wizard." Mojo also would air music by local groups at this time.
Metro Detroit graphic designer, artist and tattooist Kenneth Burney approached Mojo in the early days of the Midnight Funk Association to employ promotions that included designs for A Midnight Association Membership Card and T-Shirts. Ken Burney is also known for designing logos for Detroit radio station WJLB FM 98, WCHB 1200 AM, Detroit's R&B group Ready For The World first logo and much more.