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Joshua Brooks, who brought underground rock to D.C. airwaves, dies at 73
Obituaries
Joshua Brooks, who brought underground rock to D.C. airwaves, dies at 73
By Adam Bernstein
Obituary editor
Feb. 10, 2020 at 9:21 p.m. EST
Joshua Brooks, an original member of the Washington DJ trio known as Spiritus Cheese, which helped transform WHFS-FM into a haven for underground rock and a respite from Top-40 blandness that pervaded the music scene, died Jan. 30 at a rehabilitation center in Frederick, Md. He was 73. ... The cause was complications from lung cancer, said his son, Zachary Brooks.
WHFS began life in 1961 as a 2,300-watt station in Bethesda, Md., that beamed the string instrumentals of Mantovani, the serene pop of Patti Page and other easy-listening favorites. Some wags suggested that the station’s call letters, an acronym for Washington High Fidelity Stereo, stood for We Have Frank Sinatra.
General manager and part-owner Jake Einstein, an advertising salesman who came of age in the 1920s and ’30s, had not grown up a rock enthusiast but had instincts for profitable radio.
Mr. Brooks and Weasel (Jonathan Gilbert) hosting the “WHFS Farewell to Josh/Root Boy Slim Record Release Concert” in 1978. (Peter Dykstra/RipBang Pictures)
“Then a guy named Frank Richards came in one day wearing cutoffs and a leather vest, played me a tape of rock music from Los Angeles,” Einstein told The Washington Post in 1983, adding: “We were losing so much money that another couple of dollars couldn’t hurt, right? So we put him on. My God, the calls! I never knew we had an audience!”
He became convinced he could drive up ratings — a paltry 800 listeners a night — by changing to a more contemporary format. He was receptive when three young Bard College friends and aspiring DJs — Joshua Brooks, Sara Vass and Mark Gorbulew — walked into WHFS in July 1969 and proposed a free-form blues and rock program they wanted to call Spiritus Cheese. They also agreed to pay Einstein for the privilege, $160 for each segment, to run four consecutive Saturday nights.
“We had spent our years in college being stoned and listening to music, and we wanted to be able to continue that,” Mr. Brooks told The Post in 2005. “We just wanted to get the music out there and make enough money to sustain ourselves.”
{snip}
Mr. Brooks, Vass and Gorbulew spent their days scouring local record stores, recruiting advertisers and interviewing musicians at clubs and festivals. They managed to get backstage at Woodstock that August, thanks to a musician friend of Mr. Brooks. “We had access to anybody we wanted,” he later told the Frederick News-Post, noting Jerry Garcia and Neil Young among the acts who agreed to interviews.
{snip}
Read more Washington Post obituaries
Don Dillard, a freewheeling DJ who championed rock and roll in D.C., dies at 74
Tommy Keene, power-pop songwriter and star of ’80s D.C. music scene, dies at 59
Mirella Freni, showstopping opera star for more than five decades, dies at 84
Bob Shane, founding and last surviving member of the Kingston Trio, dies at 85
Joshua Brooks, who brought underground rock to D.C. airwaves, dies at 73
By Adam Bernstein
Obituary editor
Feb. 10, 2020 at 9:21 p.m. EST
Joshua Brooks, an original member of the Washington DJ trio known as Spiritus Cheese, which helped transform WHFS-FM into a haven for underground rock and a respite from Top-40 blandness that pervaded the music scene, died Jan. 30 at a rehabilitation center in Frederick, Md. He was 73. ... The cause was complications from lung cancer, said his son, Zachary Brooks.
WHFS began life in 1961 as a 2,300-watt station in Bethesda, Md., that beamed the string instrumentals of Mantovani, the serene pop of Patti Page and other easy-listening favorites. Some wags suggested that the station’s call letters, an acronym for Washington High Fidelity Stereo, stood for We Have Frank Sinatra.
General manager and part-owner Jake Einstein, an advertising salesman who came of age in the 1920s and ’30s, had not grown up a rock enthusiast but had instincts for profitable radio.
Mr. Brooks and Weasel (Jonathan Gilbert) hosting the “WHFS Farewell to Josh/Root Boy Slim Record Release Concert” in 1978. (Peter Dykstra/RipBang Pictures)
“Then a guy named Frank Richards came in one day wearing cutoffs and a leather vest, played me a tape of rock music from Los Angeles,” Einstein told The Washington Post in 1983, adding: “We were losing so much money that another couple of dollars couldn’t hurt, right? So we put him on. My God, the calls! I never knew we had an audience!”
He became convinced he could drive up ratings — a paltry 800 listeners a night — by changing to a more contemporary format. He was receptive when three young Bard College friends and aspiring DJs — Joshua Brooks, Sara Vass and Mark Gorbulew — walked into WHFS in July 1969 and proposed a free-form blues and rock program they wanted to call Spiritus Cheese. They also agreed to pay Einstein for the privilege, $160 for each segment, to run four consecutive Saturday nights.
“We had spent our years in college being stoned and listening to music, and we wanted to be able to continue that,” Mr. Brooks told The Post in 2005. “We just wanted to get the music out there and make enough money to sustain ourselves.”
{snip}
Mr. Brooks, Vass and Gorbulew spent their days scouring local record stores, recruiting advertisers and interviewing musicians at clubs and festivals. They managed to get backstage at Woodstock that August, thanks to a musician friend of Mr. Brooks. “We had access to anybody we wanted,” he later told the Frederick News-Post, noting Jerry Garcia and Neil Young among the acts who agreed to interviews.
{snip}
Read more Washington Post obituaries
Don Dillard, a freewheeling DJ who championed rock and roll in D.C., dies at 74
Tommy Keene, power-pop songwriter and star of ’80s D.C. music scene, dies at 59
Mirella Freni, showstopping opera star for more than five decades, dies at 84
Bob Shane, founding and last surviving member of the Kingston Trio, dies at 85
WHFS
The last I heard, Weasel was at WTMD.
