The Greaseman
| The Greaseman | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Birth name | Douglas A. Tracht |
| Born |
August 1, 1950 The Bronx, New York, United States |
| Show | Web based |
| Station(s) | getalife.tv (inactive) |
| Style | Drive time, Shock jock |
| Country | United States |
| Previous show(s) | The Greaseman Show |
| Website | www.greaseman.org |
Doug "The Greaseman" Tracht (born August 1, 1950) is an American radio, television, and movie personality.
Tracht was born and grew up in the South Bronx (New York City) 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 120 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.
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Wikipedia