ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 25, 1991                   TAG: 9102250021
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


PEOPLE COLUMN

Early rock 'n' roll disc jockey Porky Chedwick, the self-described "Daddio of the Raddio," delivered a few trademark phrases at a Pittsburgh benefit concert in his honor presided over by Wolfman Jack.

Chedwick recently underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumor, and funds from Friday night's tribute before 3,800 people will pay for his medical bills.

Hank Ballard and Lou Christie sang, and Wolfman Jack, who made a cameo role as the disc jockey in the 1973 movie "American Graffiti," was master of ceremonies.

Like contemporary Alan Freed, Chedwick played a role in the development of rock 'n' roll by helping move black rhythm and blues into the American mainstream. He was disc jockey on Pittsburgh radio stations WHOD and WAMO from 1950 to 1965.

Bo Diddley, Dick Clark, Bobby Vinton, the Chantels, the Coasters and other early stars of rock 'n' roll delivered best wishes to Chedwick via letters, videotape and audio tape.

\ Scott Glenn, who plays a bull rider in his latest movie "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys," spurns animal-rights activists who say the bulls are cruelly treated.

"These animals are well-treated and well-fed," Glenn said in an interview published Sunday in The Tennessean. "They spend their entire working career in the ring doing what they love to do best - trying to kill human beings."

The actor said the riders are more in danger than the bulls.

\ Gloria Estefan, who broke her back in a bus accident nearly a year ago, begins her comeback on the national tour circuit with a concert Friday in Miami.

The Cuban-born singer was on the last part of a world tour when her tour bus was rear-ended by a truck on a snowy Pennsylvania highway last March 20. She suffered a broken back when she was hurled out of her bunk, but surgery and months of exercise got her back on her feet.

Estefan, 33, who burst into prominence with the Miami Sound Machine in 1985, will undergo full-scale rehearsals through Wednesday at the Lakeland Civic Center in Lakeland, east of Tampa. The tour will promote her new album, "Into The Light."



 by CNB