Dewey Phillips, born on May 13, 1926, in Crump, Tennessee, spent most of his youth in Adamsville and attended school at the site of Adamsville High School, remaining a lifelong fan of AHS basketball. In 1949 he began broadcasting at WHBQ in Memphis, where he hosted the groundbreaking radio, and later television, program Red, Hot and Blue, mixing R&B blues, country, and pop with his comedic and often irreverent "Daddy-O-Dewey" style. The show drew controversy for its unapologetic integration of the airwaves but quickly became a hit with young audiences. By the time Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, who was not related to him, asked him in 1965 to play Elvis Presley’s first single on Red, Hot and Blue, he was already a household name and one of the most influential music tastemakers in the Mid-South. Widely acknowledged as the first rock ’n’ roll disc jockey, he helped launch the early success of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and many others. His deliberate crossing of racial barriers in broadcasting and his openness to all styles of music, at a time when the entertainment industry still separated records along racial lines, is considered an important precursor to the Civil Rights Movement. The Broadway musical "Memphis" is loosely based on his life and career.