DC's Fraternity-of-a-Band Called The Stratophonics

In 1982 WHK 1420 am radio became Malrite Communications' oldies station in Cleveland. They asked Dennis Chandler if he and his band "Steel" would serve as their houseband in support of their oldies format. It was Dennis' suggestion to rename his band in a nod to the station's early "Reverberating sound", introduced back in 1959 as "Stratophonic".

Dennis' renaissance wasn't new then, either. Bandleader Dennis had history repeating itself. Another group of his served as a radio station houseband, too. It was years earlier (1964) that he, Glenn Schwartz, Ron Harkai, Pete Dragas as The Pilgrims got to work for the legendary regional radio powerhouse CKLW. Program Director Dave Shaffer had the band backing live performances of artists such The Isley Brothers, Supremes, Temptations, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells, Ronnie & The Daytonas, Freddie Cannon, Del Shannon, Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels,Dobie Gray, Little Eva, Gary "US" Bonds, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, to name just a few! Those days playing around the Detroit-Windsor area then, made that scene Dennis' Music Graduate School, earning him an early Doctorate in Diversity, too, so to speak.

But, back to when D.C. returned home to Cleveland. Becoming such a strong backup brought him lots of work (or shall we say play) with artists as diverse as Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby Vee, Fabian, The Cadillacs, Coasters, Crests, Drifters, Jive Five, Jan & Dean, The Rivingtons, Tom King & The Starfires/ Outsiders, James Gang. His band called Steel aka The Stratophonics got gigs backing Leslie Gore, Lou Christie, Brooklyn Bridge, Vito & The Salutations, The Secrets , The Regents among others.

That work earned an invitation from Malrite to become WHK Radio's houseband. In turn, bandleader D.C. was reunited with some of his early rock 'n' roll "teachers". He also helped collect over 200,000 of the 600,000 petition signatures for the all-media campaign to "Bring the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum to Cleveland". (Click on the "Rock Hall Song" page to learn more.)

He especially recalls the station gigs that reunited him with some of his very favorite musical mentors i.e, rock pioneers, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Lonnie Mack. Speaking of the legendary songwriter-singer-guitarist Chuck Berry, it was at the station's "Moondog Coronation Ball" that Berry told the audience, "Dennis is my favorite piano white piano player".

That deep feeling is something Dennis still shares to this day. It's in whatever the band does musically and at all gigs, big or small. It is pleasing to see that the living-room-learning-format utilized to give a little history behind those hits from the past, goes over so well with audiences of all ages. That's why Dennis is called "The Edu-tainer". The term is rooted in a philosophy best espoused by American actor Samuel L. Jackson when he said, "One must entertain but educate, too!" For many years Dennis has done that and more with his brand of a "Blues in the Schools" concert / lecture series. It's taken them from inner-city to outer-suburb, teaching children where the music of today came from: yesterday's blues. Now they get to pass the music on. Music Dennis was taught, in most part, firsthand by the bluesmasters themselves.

Using the time-honored Oral Tradition, they would invite Dennis to "Come, sit, learn" at their knee, so to speak. Albeit his baptism-by-fire, he holds precious the many memories that included lessons hard-learned but always lovingly taught, "Good, good... now try it this way..." He earned great respect for America's Music and for the musicians who made the music and for those who shared the music with him i.e., Muddy Waters, Luther Allison, Albert King, James Cotton, Roosevelt Sykes, Sunnyland Slim, Mike Bloomfield, Charles Musselwhite, Paul Butterfield, Elvin Bishop, Bill "Honky Tonk" Doggett, Robert "Jr." Lockwood and of course, we'd be remiss to not list Dennis' "second father", B.B. King. (Why is he more than a teacher? B.B. calls Dennis "A fabulous musician. I call him my adopted son 'cause I like to think I raised him" and for 40 years he has. Click on the page titled "B.B.King - Lucille" to learn more.)

Playing so many special events associated with early rock and blues has enabled all the original bandmembers to return often to their love of making music. Enjoy as they share this love with you.