Marion Elbridge Herrington (July 18, 1935 – November 16, 1997) (also known as Mikel Hunter Herrington), best known as Captain Mikey (and also known by the air names Mikel Hunter, Motorcycle Mikel, Lefty, Hot Rocks Hunter, and Oil Can Harry), was an American disc jockey; voice-over actor, who was the national voice for Sears; and innovative radio program director, who "pioneered album-oriented rock formats at San Jose's KOME and Los Angeles' KMET","KLIV Radio 1590: The Top 40 Years: San Jose, California", http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/kliv/index.shtml and was described as "one of the very best programmers in Top 40 radio as well as what we called progressive rock on FM."Claude Hall, "Gone and Also: A Work in Progress", http://www.firststrategy.com/claudehall1.htm
In October 2007 he was inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame,"2007 Inductees", http://www.sanjoserocks.org/inductees.htm and was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame"Celebrating the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame Class of 2008!", http://www.bayarearadio.org/hof/2008/index.shtml ; "Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame", https://kavasradiosoup.blogspot.com/2008/07/great-list-of-bay-area-radio-hall-of.html ; Ben Fong-Torres, "Radio Waves", (7 September 2008), http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-09-07/entertainment/17161134_1_radio-waves-satellite-radio-abc-radio-s-fm on October 1, 2008.
Herrington inspired the fictional characters of program director Jeff Dugan in the 1978 movie FM, and program director Andy Travis on the 1980s television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati."Deaths", Billboard (6 December 1997):64.
Herrington also managed and promoted a San Jose rock band People!, and produced a hit record for them, People!'s cover of the Zombies' "I Love You," which reached #14 on the Billboard charts in June 1968.
Despite popular misconceptions, he has no known connection to the "Captain Mikey" of WPNR 90.7FM at Utica College who hosted shows regularly from 1995 to 1999, and returned to those airwaves again regularly in 2012.
Personal life Captain Mikey was born on July 18, 1935, as Marion Elbridge Herrington in Florence, South Carolina, the son of Carl Elbridge Herrington (born July 27, 1900, in Carteret County, North Carolina; died November 3, 1950, in New Bern, North Carolina),North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975 Record for Carl Elbridge Herrington a brakeman for the Atlantic & East Carolina Railroad, who was killed after being run over by a freight car in an accident at the New Bern rail yards in November 1950,Ancestry.com. North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975 and Margaret Lucile Edmondson (born April 24, 1903; died December 2, 1988, in New Bern, North Carolina),Source Citation: Number: 241-48-1505; Issue State: North Carolina;Issue Date: 1951. Social Security Death Index: Source Vendor: NC Department of Health. North Carolina Deaths, 1988-92; Ancestry.com. California Death Index, 1940-1997; Source Citation: Place: Alameda; Date: 16 Nov 1997 and the younger brother of Robert Carl Herrington (born January 25, 1928, in South Carolina; died June 4, 2005, in St. Augustine, Florida).Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census; Census Place: Florence, Florence, South Carolina; Roll 2196; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 13; Image: 903.0; Ancestry.com. United States Obituary Collection, St. Augustine Record (9 June 2005); Social Security Death Index: Source Citation: Number: 242-32-4795; Issue State: North Carolina; Issue Date: Before 1951.
In 1953 Herrington married Barbara Ann Allen in Florence, South Carolina. They had three children: Jeffrey Allen Herrington (born December 27, 1954, in New Bern, North Carolina), Michael Craig Herrington (born June 27, 1958, in Dallas, Texas),Ancestry.com. Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997. and Tracey Diane Herrington (born April 14, 1962, in Nashville, Tennessee). His next marriage was to a Miss Haro, and they had two children: Jeremy Joseph Herrington (born October 9, 1963, in San Diego, California) and Brooke M. Herrington Killian (born May 6, 1966, in Santa Clara, California).Ancestry.com. California Birth Index, 1905-1995 On June 24, 1984, Herrington married Janet Eileen Rew (born December 2, 1954, in Whittier, California)Ancestry.com. California Birth Index, 1905-1995; http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/r/e/w/Scott-A-Rew/GENE6-0017.html in Dublin, California,Ancestry.com. California Marriage Index, 1960-1985 with whom he had two children: Trent Elbridge Herrington, (born October 6, 1989, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and Kelsey Rose Herrington (born January 25, 1993, in Vallejo, California).Family Tree Maker Captain Mikey died on November 16, 1997, of leukemia at age 62 in Fremont, California.Ancestry.com. Social Security Death Index; Ancestry.com. California Death Index, 1940-1997; Source Citation: Place: Alameda; Date: 16 Nov 1997; Social Security: 238485188; http://www.sanjoserocks.org/i_mikel_hunter.htm San Jose Rocks bio; "Mikel Herrington (Hunter)", Variety (3 December 1997), http://www.variety.com/article/VR1116678714.html?categoryid=25&cs=1
Herrington was described as "a handsome guy with a very ballsy voice that women loved. Michael was about five foot ten, with brown hair, and he wore round, wireless glasses like John Lennon. ... He was strikingly handsome, with big, warm blue eyes, and when he spoke, a rich, friendly person, took command."Claude "Hoot" Hooten, Drunk & Disorderly, Again: My Name Is Hoot, I'm an Alcoholic (Wordclay, 2009):114.
Career
Disc Jockey and Program Director Under various names, Herrington worked as a disc jockey and later as a program director at radio stations in New Bern, North Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; Dallas; Boston; Tucson; San Diego; Los Angeles; Phoenix; Philadelphia and even an ill-fated journey to Iran. Other stations included KLIF, Dallas Texas; KELP, El Paso, Texas; and KSRO, Santa Rosa, California.Duane Wadsworth, "Anyone know where Mikel Hunter a.k.a. Mikel Harrington is?", (12 September 1994), rec.radio.broadcasting; Duane Wadsworth, "Where is Mikel Hunter?", (23 January 1996), rec.radio.broadcasting
Herrington was described as one of those "people who made the station click" in Tucson,Claude Hall and Barbara Hall, This Business of Radio Programming: A Comprehensive Look at Modern Programming Techniques Used Throughout the Radio World (Billboard Publications, 1977):32. and "a walking almanac of rock and roll".
San Diego Herrington was working in San Diego in 1963.
San Jose (1966–1969) Herrington was both program director and a disc jockey (as Captain Mikey) at radio station KLIV in San Jose, California from 1966 to 1969, making Top 40 KLIV (1590) the first San Jose station to beat its San Francisco competitors".Brad Kava, "Mikel Hunter Herrington", http://www.sanjoserocks.org/i_mikel_hunter.htm Herrington positioned the station as a "surfer station", featuring the music of such musicians as The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and The Surfaris."KLIV Radio 1590: The Top 40 Years San Jose", http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/kliv/index.shtml Working as the nighttime DJ at KLIV, Herrington's wild antics, promotions, pranks and in-studio guests brought the small San Jose station into leadership in the competitive San Francisco Bay Area radio market during the heyday of the late 1960s—the Summer of Love era when San Francisco was a cultural center. Among his promotional activities was "providing listeners with hot dogs, buns, and soft drinks for weekend caravans over Highway 17 to the beach at Santa Cruz, and the creation of the station's mascot Norman, "a snooty surfer boy".http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/kliv/index.shtml . For view of the logo, see "KLIV's 'Norman', 1960s", (April 27, 2009), https://classicdjradioscrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/04/oldies-plus.html(
While working at KLIV, Herrington also managed and promoted the band People!, producing their 1968 hit I Love You and the Syndicate of Sound with their hit Little Girl.Discogs Both bands and Herrington himself are members of the San Jose Rocks! Hall of Fame.San Jose Rock Music Hall of Fame
Los Angeles (1969–1976) Herrington was a disc jockey on the following Los Angeles radio stations: KFI, 1969; KLAC, 1970; KRLA, 1971–72; KMET, 1972–74; and KGBS, 1975–76.Don Barrett, "Where Are They Now? Los Angeles Radio People: H", http://www.laradio.com/whereh.htm
KFI (1969) By January 1969 Herrington was recruited to radio KFI in Los Angeles by Dave Moorhead,Los Angeles Times (January 8, 1969):K18. where he was on air from 6-9pm. However, Moorhead accepted a position at rival KLAC by March 1969."Vox Jox", Billboard 1(5 March 1969):37.
KLAC (1970) Herrington was at KLAC in 1970 during the ultraconservative "chicken rock" format,Don Barrett, "Where Are They Now? Los Angeles Radio People: H", http://www.laradio.com/whereh.htm; Donald G. Godfrey and Frederic A. Leigh, eds., Historical Dictionary of American Radio(Greenwood Publishing Group):241. which was the antithesis of "hard rock" and a forerunner of the Mellow and Soft Rock stations of the 1970s.Michael C. Keith, Radio Programming: Consultancy and Formatics (Focal Press, 1987):45.
KRLA (1971–1972) After being recruited by program director Shadoe Stevens,Claude Hall, "Vox Jox", Billboard (12 February 1972):16; "KRLA Strives for Entertainment", Billboard (11 December 1971):26, 28. Herrington moved to KRLA by January 1971,Claude Hall, "Vox Jox", Billboard (23 January 1971):29. for the progressive rock "underground" format, where he called himself "Hot Rocks Hunter", (and later "Motorcycle Mikel"), and worked the 9.00pm to midnight shift."KRLA's Dave Diamond (Late 1971)", (21 October 2008), https://classicdjradioscrapbook.blogspot.com/2008/10/krlas-dave-diamond-late-1971.html; "KRLA's Mikel Hunter (1972)", (October 19, 2008), https://classicdjradioscrapbook.blogspot.com/2008/10/krlas-mikel-hunter-1972.html
KMET (1972–1974) In late 1972 Herrington (as Mikel Hunter) became the director of operations and programming at KMET-FM in Los Angeles,Billboard (11 August 1973):43; Broadcasting Yearbook (Broadcasting Publications, 1974):B-23. and as a disc jockey (as "Motorcycle Mikel") from 7am to 11am, positions he held until at least September 1974."KMET-FM's Turner: She's 'Spontaneous'", Billboard (28 September 1974):24. Herrington carried, what one might consider "the lunatics in charge of the asylum,", attitude to Los Angeles radio station KMET. Billboard Magazine (February 9, 1974) During his stint as program director of KMET, "the Mighty Met," the environment was as irreverent as the music. The KMET jocks had a wall full of "nude" pictures of listeners, and the ceiling of the studio was a mural with the moon and stars on it. The 1978 film FM, written by Ezra Sacks who had worked at KMET. about Jeff Dugan, who led the resistance to corporate takeover at a fictitious radio station, was based on Herrington and his times at KMET,"Deaths", Billboard (6 December 1997):64; Michael Learmonth, "Kingdom KOME: Less than two weeks remain until the letters fade away", Metro (June 4–10, 1998), http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/06.04.98/cover/radio2-9822.html; Don Barrett, "Where Are They Now? Los Angeles Radio People, H", http://www.laradio.com/whereh.htm as was the character of program director Andy Travis on the popular 1978 sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.