Mal Sondock

German-American Radio DJ and Pop Music Promoter

American discjockey, radio presenter, producer and singer, born 4 July 1934 in Houston, Texas, USA and died 9 June 2009 in Cologne, Germany. His distinctive voice and style were iconic for a whole generation of listeners especially in Germany. After starting to work for the radio at the age of 17 he came to Germany as a soldier for AFN, and in his spare time he organised dance parties with recorded music instead of a live band, this is recognized as the birth of the discotheks in Germany. He then joined the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), first as a backup for Chris Howland and since 1967 with his own program 'Diskothek im WDR', which was broadcast live, with the audience participating in the choice of music via 'Hit oder Niete' (hit or not?). For many years this was the favorite source of thousands of listeners for private taping of popular music from radio programms.