Doug Tracht

Doug Tracht is an American radio, television, and movie personality.

He is nicknamed "The Greaseman".

Tracht was born and grew up in the South Bronx with his younger sister, Diana, and parents, Alfred and Gertrude Tracht.

His father was a native New Yorker who sold dental supplies; his mother was a Lutheran immigrant from Germany who stayed home to raise her two children until they were in high school, then became a noted educator.

Tracht attended DeWitt Clinton High School and graduated in 1968.

He majored in broadcasting at Ithaca College and landed a job at the college radio station.

"From the first day I got on the air, I was trying to do comedy bits and tell jokes. After my first year in college, I had this station (WYSL) in Buffalo, New York, offer me a big time job."

Tracht got a job at WTKO, a low-power top-40 station in Ithaca.

The following year, he had moved up to night DJ at a larger station in Binghamton, New York, WENE.

Tracht graduated from Ithaca College in 1972

and married Marie Massara who was the sales secretary at WENE.

The Greaseman pseudonym originated while he was in college.

"In those days of top 40, everybody who was on the radio was 'cookin'; cookin' with the Temptations, cookin' Four Tops, that kind of thing. Which meant they were really rockin'. One day I said I was cookin' with heavy grease. It was my way of saying I was out-cookin' the other guys. I said it enough times, so one day one of the other deejays referred to me as The Greaseman."

His radio name had been Dougie T, but when he became The Greaseman, a different personality surfaced.

His voice deepened and he projected the image of a middle-aged tattooed truck driver with a beer belly and a cigar.

In reality, Tracht was 6 foot 2 and 150 pounds.

He used the radio as an alter ego; a guy with a swaggering bravado.

At WENE, he was asked to do remote broadcasts from a sponsor's business and listeners were disappointed to see that he looked like a wimp.

In later years, Tracht took up bodybuilding to improve his physique.

"The Greaseman Show" is a fast-paced array of what he terms "bits."

Calls from listeners inevitably lead to a story of a recurring character from his repertoire, and no topic is taboo.

He calls his deep voice his "basso grosso" or "basso profundo."

As The Greaseman, Tracht invented a clever way of getting around limits on indecent language by using slang terms for body parts and functions that he invented.

His listeners knew the meanings of the terms.

In this way, he managed to directly discuss very explicitly adult topics without alerting censors, or alarming parents who did not understand the private language.

Tracht went through a string of stations including WAXC in Rochester, New York, WRC in Washington, D.C., and WPOP in Hartford, Connecticut.

He lost his job at WPOP when that station switched its format from pop music to all news in 1975.

He lost the job at WRC because program director Gordon Peil wanted Tracht to drop The Greaseman personality.

The frequent moves from city to city were a major reason for the end of his first marriage, after less than two years.

Tracht found a home at WAPE in Jacksonville, Florida, in August 1975 and became the dominant radio personality not just in northeast Florida but in the Southeastern United States.

While in Jacksonville, his true identity was kept confidential because the public was disappointed that the booming, macho voice belonged to a young guy who was skinny and shy.

The station turned Tracht's request for privacy into a marketing ploy.

Curtains were hung in the window of the broadcast booth, a TV interview showed only his lips, and Tracht wore a gorilla costume at personal appearances.

Tracht was named as the top radio personality in the United States for 1977 and 1980.

In 1979, he signed a five-year contract worth $1 million.

He was an early shock jock, but Tracht denies the label: "I'm telling jokes. The bottom line—it's a comedy show."

"I'm creating characters and stories, I'm weaving a tapestry of humor. The others are just saying nasty things."

However, his show was outrageous and edgy, which offended some people.

Tracht kept his stories from violating FCC obscenity regulations by using "code words" for certain anatomical features (hydraulics for male genitalia, fudge packing for anal sex, for instance) and sound effects for physical acts.

Allen Moore, WAPE's news director, was also a bodybuilder.