Tom Donahue

Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue (May 21, 1928 – April 28, 1975), was an American rock and roll radio disc jockey, record producer and concert promoter.

Early life Donahue was born Thomas Francis Coman in South Bend, Indiana, United States. He was the son of Thomas F. Coman and his wife, Mary Jane. Both Mary Jane and Thomas worked in journalism, at the South Bend (Indiana) News-Times. When the A.P. moved Thomas Sr. to Washington D.C., the family relocated there, around 1938.

Early career Donahue's radio career started in early 1949 on the East Coast of the U.S. at WTIP in Charleston, West Virginia, then affiliated with the Mutual Broadcasting System. He hosted a morning program called "Coffee With Coman." Several years later, he was hired by WIBG in Philadelphia, where he also hosted the morning show. Donahue wrote a weekly column about top-40 music and reviewed some of the new singles. In addition, during the mid-1950s, he had a brief political career, as a leader in the Bristol Township Democratic Party. After nine years with WIBG, he suddenly left the station in early 1960. It was later revealed that Donahue left as a probe of payola at WIBG and other top-40 stations was getting underway. Documents made public during the payola scandal showed that he had been given more than $1,400 by Philadelphia's Universal Record Distributing Co. to play certain records during the period from 1957-1959. Donahue briefly worked at WINX in Maryland, from WIBG.

Later career In 1964, while a disc jockey at Top Forty station KYA (now KOIT) in San Francisco, Donahue and Mitchell formed a record label.

In 1969, besides his roles as a DJ, station manager, and live show producer, he also managed Leigh Stephens (former lead guitarist of the San Francisco psychedelic rock group Blue Cheer), Micky Waller (a British drummer who played in the Steampacket, Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity, The Jeff Beck Group, 1968–69), and Pete Sears in the band Silver Metre, and in 1970 Stoneground. Donahue, and his DJ wife Raechel also took over programming of free-form radio stations KMET and KPPC-FM in Los Angeles. In 1972, he moved to the role of general manager at KSAN, where he encouraged DJs to play music from different eras and genres interspersed with interesting commentary. In 2006, Donahue was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame as a member of the first class of broadcasters enshrined.

Donahue was inducted into the Rock Radio Hall of Fame in the "Legends of Rock Radio-Programming" category in 2014 for his work at KSAN and KMPX.