Wiley Price, Jr. – Legacy
Wiley Price, Jr. got his first job in radio in 1944, when he was 31 years old. WTMV, licensed to East St. Louis, gave Price a regular, daily program, thus making him the first African-American in this market to host a radio show. A military veteran, Wiley Price was responsible for selling the ads on his program and was expected to pay the station for the airtime. He had subsequent shows on KXLW and KSTL under similar financial arrangements. Calling himself “Mrs. Price’s boy Wiley,” Price focused on what was then called “race music,” but he left the radio business when the station owners insisted he play the new music form, rock and roll.