Born 98 Years Ago Today in the Hawkeye State, the Advertising Executive Who Took a Fictional Country Star to No. 1

Advertising executive William Dale Fries Jr., better known as C.W. McCall, created a fictional truck-driving singer whose song “Convoy” became a major hit in 1976. Inspired by the US citizens-band radio craze, the song helped popularise trucker culture and later inspired a film.

Born in Audubon, Iowa, on 15 November 1928, Fries created McCall for a successful advert campaign for Old Home Bread with composer Chip Davis. “Convoy” topped the US pop chart and spent six weeks at No. 1 on the country chart; Fries later released a dozen songs that reached the country chart, then retired from music in 1979. He went on to serve three terms as mayor of Ouray, Colorado, and died there in 2022, aged 93.