"Well you can't turn him into a company man

[bobthedrummer]

You can't turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs
Just don't understand anymore

The top brass don't like him
Talking so much
And he won't play
What they say to play
And he don't want to change
What don't need to change

There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
Who says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
There goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ

Some folks say they're gonna
Hang him so high
Cause you just can't do what he did
There's some things you just can't
Put into the mind of those kids

As we celebrate mediocrity
All the boys upstairs want to see
How much you'll pay for
What you used to get for free

There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
Who says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
There goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ

Well, he got him a station
Down in Mexico
Sometimes it'll kinda come in
And I'll bust a move and
Remember how it was back then

There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
Who says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
There goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ"

The Last DJ- music and lyrics by Tom Petty

[UCLA02]

1. I'll subscribe to the urban legend of the inspiration of that song...

Jim Ladd of KLOS in Los Angeles.

Even if not true, a great story, since Tom and Jim are relatively tight. And given Jim's free-form radio shows, it does makes sense.

[bobthedrummer]

2. I recall the variety of DJ's in the past 50+ years

especially the progressive FM DJ's of the mid to late 1960's and the AM soul music DJ's-that's why I usually don't listen to the radio all that much.

College radio is still generally ok-but they do play a lot of junk today too.