‘Squeekin’ Deacon’ : Carl Moore; Country Music Disc Jockey and Band Leader

Veteran country music disc jockey and band leader Carl (Squeekin’ Deacon) Moore died of cancer Tuesday in Huntington Beach. He was 83.

Born in Paragould, Ark., Moore began his show business career when he booked his small dance band into tobacco warehouses in the South after World War I. He began playing the hotel dance band circuit in the Midwest in the 1920s.

By the 1930s, he was a regular feature in the ballrooms of Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Louisville. Doris Day sang with Moore’s band when she was an announcer at Cincinnati radio station WLW. When fronting his band, Moore assumed a hillbilly character who wore a tuxedo.

Moore moved to Southern California in 1947 and joined the staff of Los Angeles’ then-only country music station, KXLA in Pasadena (now KRLA) as a hillbilly disc jockey. He worked with Tennessee Ernie Ford, Cliffie Stone, Merle Travis and other prominent country-western artists of the day at that station.

During the early 1950s, Moore had a daily show on KNBC-TV. During the 1960s, he was a disc jockey on KFOX in Long Beach.

After retiring in 1967, Moore lived at Salton Sea and at Huntington Beach.

Moore is survived by his wife, Marge; a daughter, Carole Hermann, and three grandchildren. Services will be at 10 a.m. today at Westminster Memorial Park.