Doug Layton, a Birmingham radio legend who had a part in a Beatles-record-burning campaign in the 1960s and for nearly 30 years was in the broadcast booth for some of the University of Alabama's classic football victories, died Wednesday night in his Vestavia Hills home.
Mr. Layton, who had battled cancer for the past two and a half years, was 81.
In 1966, Mr. Layton and Tommy Charles, his radio partner at Birmingham station WAQY-AM, made international news when they encouraged their listeners to burn their Beatles records in a public bonfire after John Lennon was quoted as saying the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
Although no such bonfire was ever reported in Birmingham, Mr. Layton's notoriety for his role in the ban-the-Beatles protest followed him throughout the rest of his career, his wife, Villeta Layton, said.
"He would rather not talk about it," Mrs. Layton said this week. "He would roll his eyes (when he was asked about it). It was something that was said at the time, and it just ballooned.
"When that anniversary comes up every year, they call him from the BBC to talk about it. One year, they were going to fly him to England to be interviewed, but he didn't do it."
Later, as a color analyst and pre-game host on the Alabama football radio broadcasts from 1969 to 2001 , Mr. Layton called some of the iconic games and moments in Crimson Tide football history, including Paul "Bear" Bryant's 315th career win in 1981 and Van Tiffin's 52-yard field goal to beat Auburn in 1985.
Two of Mr. Layton's personal favorite games, his wife said, were the Tide's 1971 season-opening upset of Southern California, the game in which Bryant secretly unveiled the wishbone offense that would dominate a decade, and the Sugar Bowl thrashing of a brash Miami squad to capture the 1992 national championship.
"He loved Alabama so," Mrs. Layton said. "It was his heart. When he found out that his cancer had spread, he said, 'If I could just make it to the (upcoming) Wisconsin game on Sept. 5.' . . . He loved to keep up with them. He loved to support them any way he could."
Jerry Duncan, who was part of the Alabama radio team with Mr. Layton for more than 20 years, said Mr. Layton's dry wit brought color and levity to the broadcasts. Duncan recalled one especially memorable moment in Knoxville before an Alabama-Tennessee game.
"When you went to Knoxville, they had this ol' coon dog they would bring out; his name was Smokey," Duncan said. "Anyway, I was down on the field and Doug and I were talking. And while we were talking, the handler of the coon dog came out of the tunnel.
"And I said, 'Doug, down on the other end of the field, I see ol' Smokey coming out. And Doug said, 'Yeah, if I had my 30-aught-6, I could drop him from here.' "
In the broadcast booth, Mr. Layton worked alongside a trio of Crimson Tide play-by-play announcers -- - first John Forney, then Paul Kennedy, and finally, Eli Gold -- and his career spanned the coaching stints of Paul Bryant, Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, Mike DuBose and Dennis Franchione.
"Traveling around with John Forney and Doug Layton was like traveling with two movie stars," Duncan said. "You go into an airport, and everybody recognized Doug Layton and John Forney.
"They were icons," he added. "(Alabama) made a run in the '70s there when they won over 100 games in 10 years, and I don't think that had ever been done before. And Doug and John were a huge part of that. . . . They were the voice of Alabama football, at a period of time where Alabama, at that time, was at its greatest height."
For 11 years, Mr. Layton also doubled as the radio play-by-play announcer for Alabama basketball games, and although football was his first love, he knew his basketball, too, former Tide basketball coach Wimp Sanderson said.
"He lived and died Alabama football, and to some extent, he was very interested in basketball," Sanderson said. "He was an Alabama guy through and through."
After one particular down year on the court, Mr. Layton good-naturedly ribbed Sanderson in the locker room at Birmingham Country Club before a charity golf tournament.
"This is probably not funny to anybody else but me," Sanderson recalled. "But I was in one stall and he was in the other, and he said, 'Do you think you can teach them to dribble?' "
After Mr. Layton retired from the Crimson Tide radio team following the 2001 football season, his wife said, he remained a Tide fan, but being in the press box all those years spoiled him.
"He sat in the stands one time after that, and it was kind of raucous,'' she said. "He said, 'I don't think I like this.' For 32 years, he had been in the press box. So they presented him with a lifetime pass to sit in the press box. Since 2002, that's where we've been watching the games."
A ham at heart, Mr. Layton also was somewhat of a thespian, appearing in nearly a dozen plays and musicals for director Irving Stern at the Jewish Community Center and playing Big Jule alongside Joe Namath's Sky Masterson in a Summerfest production of "Guys and Dolls" in 1982.
Singing, though, was not necessarily Mr. Layton's strong suit.
"Doug has a nice voice, but he can't carry a tune," his wife said. "After one of his shows, the review came out in the newspaper, and they said there were eight beautiful voices and Doug Layton was funny."
Mr. Layton was born Douglas William Layton in Sylacauga in 1933, and he played football, baseball and basketball at B.B. Comer High School.
When he was 15, he got his start in radio hosting an afternoon show called "Digging with Doug" on his hometown station WMLS-AM.
After attending Jacksonville State University and serving in the U.S. Navy, Mr. Layton was on the radio in Montgomery before he came to Birmingham to be a disc jockey at Top 40 station WSGN-AM in 1960.
He subsequently teamed with Tommy Charles, first at WYDE-AM and then at WAQY-AM, where they launched their Beatles protest.
"It's one of my first memories," recalled J. Willoughby, whose father, John Ed Willoughby, became Mr. Layton's radio partner years later. "I was real young, 5 or 6 years old. I was such a Beatles fan even back then. I remember thinking it was mandatory that, if you lived in Birmingham, you had to go burn your Beatles records. And then my mom told me that was not the case, that I didn't have to go burn my Beatles records if I didn't want to."
Neither did Charles or Mr. Layton. A city ordinance banned any such public bonfires, Willoughby said.
"Doug said he could have made a fortune in all of the Beatles albums that people sent him to burn that they didn't actually burn," Willoughby said. "And Doug always liked the Beatles, too. He kind of went along with Tommy on that, as far as I could tell."
Nearly three decades later, after Charles died in 1996, Mr. Layton teamed with John Ed Willoughby, who also had been Charles' on-air partner, to co-host a morning radio show on WERC-AM and later on WAPI-AM. They were on the radio together for nearly 20 years, and in more recent years, after retiring from their morning weekday routine, they continued to host a Saturday-morning sports-talk show on WJOX-AM and WYDE-FM.
Mr. Layton's death comes less than four months after his on- and off-the-air buddy John Ed Willoughby died in March.
And with their passing, so, too, went another link to Birmingham's past.
"It's a bygone era," J. Willoughby , John Ed's son, said. "The thing about Dad and Doug's show, the one they did on Saturdays, it was just them. They didn't have a producer or anything. And it was no- holds barred.
"It was the last remnant of just old-school, turn-the-mikes-on, let-the-phones-go Birmingham radio. It was just neighbors (talking). People felt comfortable hearing their voices."
Mr. Layton is survived by his wife of 53 years, Villeta Layton; a daughter, Tyler Layton; a son, Doug Layton Jr.; two sisters, Delores Layton Andrews and Dorothy Layton Brown; and a brother, James Dale Layton.
A celebration ceremony for Mr. Layton will be at 10 a.m. Monday, July 20, at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church, 2061 Kentucky Ave. Visitation with family and friends will follow the service in the church sanctuary.
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/07/alabama_radio_legend_doug_layt.html
Mr. Layton, who had battled cancer for the past two and a half years, was 81.
In 1966, Mr. Layton and Tommy Charles, his radio partner at Birmingham station WAQY-AM, made international news when they encouraged their listeners to burn their Beatles records in a public bonfire after John Lennon was quoted as saying the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
Although no such bonfire was ever reported in Birmingham, Mr. Layton's notoriety for his role in the ban-the-Beatles protest followed him throughout the rest of his career, his wife, Villeta Layton, said.
"He would rather not talk about it," Mrs. Layton said this week. "He would roll his eyes (when he was asked about it). It was something that was said at the time, and it just ballooned.
"When that anniversary comes up every year, they call him from the BBC to talk about it. One year, they were going to fly him to England to be interviewed, but he didn't do it."
Later, as a color analyst and pre-game host on the Alabama football radio broadcasts from 1969 to 2001 , Mr. Layton called some of the iconic games and moments in Crimson Tide football history, including Paul "Bear" Bryant's 315th career win in 1981 and Van Tiffin's 52-yard field goal to beat Auburn in 1985.
Two of Mr. Layton's personal favorite games, his wife said, were the Tide's 1971 season-opening upset of Southern California, the game in which Bryant secretly unveiled the wishbone offense that would dominate a decade, and the Sugar Bowl thrashing of a brash Miami squad to capture the 1992 national championship.
"He loved Alabama so," Mrs. Layton said. "It was his heart. When he found out that his cancer had spread, he said, 'If I could just make it to the (upcoming) Wisconsin game on Sept. 5.' . . . He loved to keep up with them. He loved to support them any way he could."
Jerry Duncan, who was part of the Alabama radio team with Mr. Layton for more than 20 years, said Mr. Layton's dry wit brought color and levity to the broadcasts. Duncan recalled one especially memorable moment in Knoxville before an Alabama-Tennessee game.
"When you went to Knoxville, they had this ol' coon dog they would bring out; his name was Smokey," Duncan said. "Anyway, I was down on the field and Doug and I were talking. And while we were talking, the handler of the coon dog came out of the tunnel.
"And I said, 'Doug, down on the other end of the field, I see ol' Smokey coming out. And Doug said, 'Yeah, if I had my 30-aught-6, I could drop him from here.' "
In the broadcast booth, Mr. Layton worked alongside a trio of Crimson Tide play-by-play announcers -- - first John Forney, then Paul Kennedy, and finally, Eli Gold -- and his career spanned the coaching stints of Paul Bryant, Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, Mike DuBose and Dennis Franchione.
"Traveling around with John Forney and Doug Layton was like traveling with two movie stars," Duncan said. "You go into an airport, and everybody recognized Doug Layton and John Forney.
"They were icons," he added. "(Alabama) made a run in the '70s there when they won over 100 games in 10 years, and I don't think that had ever been done before. And Doug and John were a huge part of that. . . . They were the voice of Alabama football, at a period of time where Alabama, at that time, was at its greatest height."
For 11 years, Mr. Layton also doubled as the radio play-by-play announcer for Alabama basketball games, and although football was his first love, he knew his basketball, too, former Tide basketball coach Wimp Sanderson said.
"He lived and died Alabama football, and to some extent, he was very interested in basketball," Sanderson said. "He was an Alabama guy through and through."
After one particular down year on the court, Mr. Layton good-naturedly ribbed Sanderson in the locker room at Birmingham Country Club before a charity golf tournament.
"This is probably not funny to anybody else but me," Sanderson recalled. "But I was in one stall and he was in the other, and he said, 'Do you think you can teach them to dribble?' "
After Mr. Layton retired from the Crimson Tide radio team following the 2001 football season, his wife said, he remained a Tide fan, but being in the press box all those years spoiled him.
"He sat in the stands one time after that, and it was kind of raucous,'' she said. "He said, 'I don't think I like this.' For 32 years, he had been in the press box. So they presented him with a lifetime pass to sit in the press box. Since 2002, that's where we've been watching the games."
A ham at heart, Mr. Layton also was somewhat of a thespian, appearing in nearly a dozen plays and musicals for director Irving Stern at the Jewish Community Center and playing Big Jule alongside Joe Namath's Sky Masterson in a Summerfest production of "Guys and Dolls" in 1982.
Singing, though, was not necessarily Mr. Layton's strong suit.
"Doug has a nice voice, but he can't carry a tune," his wife said. "After one of his shows, the review came out in the newspaper, and they said there were eight beautiful voices and Doug Layton was funny."
Mr. Layton was born Douglas William Layton in Sylacauga in 1933, and he played football, baseball and basketball at B.B. Comer High School.
When he was 15, he got his start in radio hosting an afternoon show called "Digging with Doug" on his hometown station WMLS-AM.
After attending Jacksonville State University and serving in the U.S. Navy, Mr. Layton was on the radio in Montgomery before he came to Birmingham to be a disc jockey at Top 40 station WSGN-AM in 1960.
He subsequently teamed with Tommy Charles, first at WYDE-AM and then at WAQY-AM, where they launched their Beatles protest.
"It's one of my first memories," recalled J. Willoughby, whose father, John Ed Willoughby, became Mr. Layton's radio partner years later. "I was real young, 5 or 6 years old. I was such a Beatles fan even back then. I remember thinking it was mandatory that, if you lived in Birmingham, you had to go burn your Beatles records. And then my mom told me that was not the case, that I didn't have to go burn my Beatles records if I didn't want to."
Neither did Charles or Mr. Layton. A city ordinance banned any such public bonfires, Willoughby said.
"Doug said he could have made a fortune in all of the Beatles albums that people sent him to burn that they didn't actually burn," Willoughby said. "And Doug always liked the Beatles, too. He kind of went along with Tommy on that, as far as I could tell."
Nearly three decades later, after Charles died in 1996, Mr. Layton teamed with John Ed Willoughby, who also had been Charles' on-air partner, to co-host a morning radio show on WERC-AM and later on WAPI-AM. They were on the radio together for nearly 20 years, and in more recent years, after retiring from their morning weekday routine, they continued to host a Saturday-morning sports-talk show on WJOX-AM and WYDE-FM.
Mr. Layton's death comes less than four months after his on- and off-the-air buddy John Ed Willoughby died in March.
And with their passing, so, too, went another link to Birmingham's past.
"It's a bygone era," J. Willoughby , John Ed's son, said. "The thing about Dad and Doug's show, the one they did on Saturdays, it was just them. They didn't have a producer or anything. And it was no- holds barred.
"It was the last remnant of just old-school, turn-the-mikes-on, let-the-phones-go Birmingham radio. It was just neighbors (talking). People felt comfortable hearing their voices."
Mr. Layton is survived by his wife of 53 years, Villeta Layton; a daughter, Tyler Layton; a son, Doug Layton Jr.; two sisters, Delores Layton Andrews and Dorothy Layton Brown; and a brother, James Dale Layton.
A celebration ceremony for Mr. Layton will be at 10 a.m. Monday, July 20, at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church, 2061 Kentucky Ave. Visitation with family and friends will follow the service in the church sanctuary.
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/07/alabama_radio_legend_doug_layt.html
