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Is Every Weekend Radio Time Slot For Sale?
(April 15, 1999) Bartering broadcast time was the exclusive purveyor of daytimers or regional stations for years. In Southern California, over the years KIEV, KALI and KMNY have accepted fees for a daily or weekly show. The rulebook has now been thrown out. Who would have thought that L.A. CBS stations would change much of their local programming to paid infomercial broadcasts on the weekends? What price do the stations and we as listeners pay for this bartered time? Can a program director listen to all of the content every week before it airs? If it is live, do the hosts come under the same restrictions and guidelines that guide the salaried talk show hosts? The recent debacle at KIEV with "Kaptain Kaos" playing "unacceptable" music and the cancellation of his 3+-year program focuses on the problem. Recently Norm LaFave lost his KLSX "Autotalk" show to paid informercials. "Jack Silver [KLSX pd] left me a message on my pager," emailed Norm. "Jack stated in 20 seconds or less that he had bad news, Autotalk was put on hiatus. He said the powers that be decided to run infomercials in my time slot, and it was not something he wanted as a programmer. I called back and spoke to Jack Silver. He said his hands were tied, and the station elected to run infomercials for the dollar income those shows pay." Norm was disappointed that he lost his exposure on KLSX and hopeful that another station in town will take his show. Is the positive side of bartered shows that the public gets exposed to ideas and product for a very niche and narrow audience? As we approach the new millennium, a time when many will reflect on where radio has been, where it is now and where it is going, one cannot help but think that deregulation and the ownership of radio stations held by a handful of corporations have dramatically affected the future of radio. What do you think?…You’ll love my new book, The Best of LARADIO.COM - 1998! I printed 3,000 copies. Yesterday there were orders for 122 books, leaving 2,878 after one day. There will be no reprints, so when they are gone, they are gone. I say this modestly, if you love this Web site, you’ll love this book!…When Valentine finishes his afternoon drive shift at KIIS, he moves over to another studio to cut the next day’s morning shows for two Ohio Jacor stations using the new Proffit computer system. "Soon it will be much more than a few small stations. Watch the top 25 markets," emailed Valentine…Colin Hayes from Men at Work appears with Brandon at KYSR tonight on "Midnight Snack."…One of the Divas on the heavily promoted VH-1 show Tuesday night was a LARP…Larry Miller’s Sit ‘n Sleep has advertised with Michael Jackson for 14 years, most of that time with KABC and now with KRLA…KFI’s Wayne Resnick will be performing tonight at the Highland Grounds in Hollywood. You can protest tax day with Wayne live as part of "Third Thursday," an ongoing series showcasing the finest Los Angeles songwriters. The show is free and starts at 8:30...Earlier this week Dennis Prager appeared on ABC’s Politically Incorrect…Tonight KROQ’s Dr. Drew Pinsky and Adam Carolla appear on CBS’s Craig Kilborn show…For the past few years, Jim Roope has shepherded the format changes for the Saul Levine owned stations. Meet the operations manager for the Saul Levine group of stations. Born in Cincinnati, he worked at four Ohio stations before joining KWST in 1980. "I've been floating around L.A. ever since," said Jim. "I'm married to Rosie with three young kids, Ryan 8, Megan 6 and Tyler 20-months. Tyler has a rare neuromuscular disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. It's one of the 40 diseases under MDA. We live in Burbank and we are members of St. Francis Xavier Parish and my kids attend school there." Jim is a baseball coach for the local schools in the Burbank area. "I've wanted to be in radio since I was 5 years old and I can still remember the day I decided radio was my thing," recalled Jim. He put the all-News KNNS (1260AM) format on the air as well as serving as operations manager, news director and midday anchor. Jim coordinated the seven-month all-Beatles format as well as the ShowTunes experiment and all-Traffic at KKTR. Prior to KGIL taking on the Pop Standards satellite service, he orchestrated an all-Nat "King" Cole format…Every Thursday this month, KROQ is sending a winner and their guest on a very nice trip. Today Kevin & Bean will be giving away a trip to Paris to see the Beastie Boys. Last Thursday K&B sent a lucky listener on a trip to see the Smashing Pumpkins in six U.S. cities. My KROQ correspondent, Vincent, teases that an upcoming trip will be to see Beck in Japan…Mr. KABC’s nightly one-hour show will be extended tonight until midnight. It’ll be a taxing night as he broadcasts from Landings at the LAX Hilton. Tax experts will be on hand, forms to file a tax extension, refreshments, stamps for those who forget and KABC will pay for the hotel parking…Chaka Khan was the LARP who appeared on VH-1’s Divas broadcast on Tuesday. Born Yvette Stevens, Chaka Khan worked evenings at "B-100" (now "Mega 100"). In 1984 she had a huge hit, I Feel For You…There is a wide potpourri of mail that will be featured this weekend on Email Saturday. We’ll learn the real story behind the Coke at Burger King, another reader voices disgust at the bogus death story at KFI and one woman reexamines her Jewish past after reading about Johnny Magnus and his childhood in Germany…On Monday, there will be a fascinating story on the salaries of radio people.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Jerry Trowbridge (during the 1970s Jerry worked at KUSC, KLVE, KPOL and KZLA)Turning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. KABC entertainment talk show host Rod Lurie shares his experience.
I must say that I owe it all to Peter Tilden, who appreciated my sense of humor and irreverence from Los Angeles magazine and saw the translation that could be made to radio. Peter had me on his show, basically carried me with his own wit and made me look good. –Rod Lurie
Mark & Brian Brought in to Match Tom Leykis’ Ratings
(April 14, 1999) Bill Ogden lives in the Northwest and regularly visits <LARADIO.COM> and reports that there is still lots of ink in the local press regarding Mark & Brian’s arrival at KIRO and the demise of 4 ˝ year morning man Pat Cashman. "I think Mark & Brian will do well in the NW I've listened several times over the past week and the guys are great communicators, and very relatable to the demos that they are targeting," emailed Ogden…My buddy Stan White sent me the front page of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with the headline: "Advertisers join fans in protesting dumping of KIRO-FM's Cashman." Reporter John Marshall reports that two advertisers, including one spending "tens of thousands of dollars a year," have canceled their spots on KIRO ("the Buzz"). Marshall writes: "Cashman’s legions of outraged fans have rallied to his defense, with a non-stop barrage of telephone calls, emails and calls to action, ranging from advertiser boycotts to public rallies urging other local stations to resurrect the show. His removal has prompted a most adamant and prolonged response since his morning show was replaced with a syndicated talk show from Los Angeles." The pd of KIRO said that Cashman was replaced because his show was not drawing the same audience as the top-rated afternoon show of Tom Leykis, which "lures young male listeners with its sexual content." Cashman told the reporter that he was "shocked" by the listener response but didn’t expect it to result in being reinstated at KIRO…"Warning! You have approached a restricted admittance area. Bubble-punk geeks not allowed. This is the all-new "Y107." KLYY promo…Billy Burke, recently departed from KIIS/FM, was heard on KIIS delivering a commercial for Laser Eye Center…"Radio has never left my blood." This was how my extended phone conversation with Chuck Randall started. Before Chuck started in radio, he loved radio. During his time at KROQ, KMET and KNAC, he loved radio. Now, as a tour manager for the Neville Brothers, Little Feat, Kenny Loggins and Bob Weir of the Grateful dead, he still loves radio. Born in Los Angeles, Chuck is a 3rd generation California native and grew up in West Covina. "Radio was always there. Every time they conducted one of those school-job surveys, it always came back that entertainment was for me," Chuck recalled. For his school paper he interviewed KMPC’s Dick Whittinghill, at the time the #1 dj in Southern California. He was impressed with how accessible the dj was. "My magic kingdom was radio. The Boss Jocks, KRLA 11-10 Men and the Weedy One," he enthused. After graduating from Mt. San Antonio College with a business management degree, he joined Mattel in the industrial engineering department. "I hated every minute of it. I couldn’t imagine 30 more years of it." So in the early 1970s he went to the Don Martin School of Broadcasting and worked overnights at KPFK. He received his 1st Class FCC license and joined KCAL-Riverside. "In addition to being a dj, they wanted me to sell radio time, which I hated and went to KVRE-Santa Rosa." In late 1977 Chuck was on the ground floor of radio history in the Southland. For three years at KROQ he worked various shifts. "We had no studios. When Shadoe Stevens was there, they worked out of a room at the Hilton Hotel in Pasadena. We had one cart machine, which played Leo’s Stereo spots and the trade-outs. I got there just as the studios moved across the street to the now famous 117 S. Los Robles." Chuck worked at the "mighty Met" during the days with Mary Turner, Jim Ladd, Ace Young and Paraquat Kelley. By the time Chuck got to KMET, he had a full-blown drug and alcohol problem. In a Billboard interview he recalled, "Every night on my way to KMET, I would stop at the liquor store and buy a little bottle of cognac to go with my little container full of blow, and I was on my way." Chuck ballooned up to 250 pounds. With those wayward days behind him, Chuck reflected on the folly of his addiction. "Here I was working the all-night shift. What did I have? Four breaks an hour times four. Sixteen times I had to talk and I had to get loaded to take on that immense pressure. What a waste!" After leaving KMET, he joined KNAC. He has since turned his life around. "I am blessed to be working with Huey Lewis and Aaron Neville and others. I’ve been to the Academy Awards, the White House and around the world. My life was spared." Chuck is working fill-in at the new "Y107." He said: "I’m very excited to be part of the new ‘Y107.’ It reminds me of KROQ in the early days. It’s fresh, innovative, irreverent and always pushing the envelope. ‘Y107’ is everything that radio is supposed to be." Kudos to pd John Duncan." Could there be even more radio in Chuck’s future?…KOST’s Mark & Kim are giving away a $100 gift certificate to Ontario Mills Mall and a dinner for four at Wolfgang Puck Café…KTWV is giving away a trip a day to Hawaii…The Top 5 List People at www.topfive.com had an interesting list this week wondering if classic rock songs would change if the artists decided to re-do them, and updating the title to reflect their current lives? Some highlights include:
14. The Eagles -- "Pantsful, Queasy Feeling"
13. Van Halen -- "Limp!"
12. Aretha Franklin -- "D-E-P-E-N-D-S"
11. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young -- "Suite: Betty Ford Clinic"
10. The Rolling Stones -- "(I Can't Get No) Satisfactory Erection"
9. The Who -- "(Talkin' 'Bout) My Operation"
8. Rod Stewart -- "Tonight's The Night (If The Viagra's Alright)"
7. Led Zeppelin -- "Chairlift To Heaven"
6. Three Dog Night -- "Jeremiah was a Bud Frog..."
5. James Brown -- "Papa's Got A Brand New Colostomy Bag"
4. Elton John -- "Saturday Night's All Right For Bingo"
3. Edwin Starr -- "Limited Engagement With No Clear Exit Strategy! What Is It Good For?!"
2. Yes -- "Owner of a Bypassed Heart"
1. Men at Work -- "Why Can't I Pee Now?"
…KYSR is giving away tickets to a private "Star Lounge" performance with Alanis Morissette…Kym Douglas was dishing gossip on the E! Gossip Show last weekend and she was ID’ed as being the KFWB entertainment reporter. Apparently she was somewhat premature. A deal with the all-News station has yet to be finalized…Jim Duncan was teasing yesterday afternoon about the upcoming 2nd annual KZLA Cookout…Tomorrow is the day set for a strike at CBS with news writers, editors, news assistants and graphic artists. CBS has insisted on a merit pay system at the discretion of the company. Also, CBS has revised the pension plan towards a system based on stock options. Other concerns were elimination of producers' fees, commercial fees to present employees and removal of paid lunch hours…Robert Hochberger has sent a memo to AFTRA members updating the April 12 membership meeting and negotiating session on behalf of Shadow Traffic. Robert wrote: "In a nutshell, those attending this morning's membership meeting were infuriated by management's response -- or lack thereof. So, the group decided that we would agree to the revised airborne insurance amount put forward by management [$750,000], and then send management's chief negotiator, Terri Lorenz, on her way. Furthermore, the group decided that, as a sign of protest, no members would be present during the brief discussion with management." AFTRA pushed management to "see what movement they could make before Wednesday’s negotiating session."…Rick Springfield appeared with Carolyn Gracie and Rick Diego on KBIG yesterday morning. He popped a string while singing acoustically…Check out our "One Year Ago Today" feature and notice the promotion that KRTH was doing. Sound familiar?…Tom Leykis abandoned his usual lessons in Leykis 101 at KLSX to talk about McDonald’s. The fast food giant is apparently not so G-rated in Europe. Tom said that there is a McDonalds’s in a porno theatre in Paris and along with your Grand Royale (1/4 pounder), you get red wine served in a paper cup. "You’ve got to like wine a lot to drink up red wine in a McDonald’s paper cup," quipped Tom…Gena Mason was listening to Tim & Neil on KFI last night. "They were talking about a story of a Burger King up in Sacramento where an employee was selling cocaine out of the drive thru window. They drove around to various drive thru restaurants and asked for a medium 'coke' emphasizing 'coke' to see if anyone would sell them the drug. Probably the funniest radio I've heard in a long time...except for the nightly Phil Hendrie show."Turning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. Ken Jeffries has been a news anchor at KFWB since 1989.
There are several people and several events. First, there is the late Jim Simon, who ran KGOE radio in Thousand Oaks. He taught me how to write for radio, and how to go out and gather news.
Then, there is Bob Steinbrinck, the former KMPC news director who sat down with me one afternoon and carefully critiqued my aircheck.
And, as far as life-changing incidents go, I was the first voice on KFWB to describe the Northridge earthquake. Our signal was carried on several other stations that day, so I'll never forget giving simultaneous legal ID's for KFWB, KTWV, and KZLA. And, I'll never forget the tremendous professionalism of the KFWB staff. - Ken Jeffries.
KNX's Tom Haule and Linda Nunez Haul in Another AP Award
(April 13, 1999) For the fifth consecutive year, KNX’s Tom Haule and Linda Nunez have won the Associated Press Award for Best Radio News Anchor Team in California. The KNX pair were in San Jose over the weekend with their respective spouses being honored by AP. Linda is a Southern California native and she graduated from UC Berkeley, where she double-majored in mass communications and sociology. She joined KNX in May of 1990. Tom is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and worked for the CBS stations in Chicago and San Francisco before joining KNX in 1982...Brian Belski of St. Paul passes on a fascinating story from the Pioneer Press. In 1997, former KLSX pd Andy Bloom, the man responsible for bringing Howard Stern to KLSX in the early 1990s, was sent to the Minneapolis/St. Paul market to work his programming magic. Andy proclaimed that "in 18 months Howard Stern will be the No. 1 radio show in the Twin Cities." Howard "tanked" and Andy is out of a job. Brian Lambert authored the Pioneer Press story and said, "Meanwhile, Bloom is polishing his resume. Lacking a dramatic improvement, Stern will be dropped by Rock 100 no later than next April. If Chancellor/Rock 100 decides to cut bait any earlier with Stern, they'll still have to pay him something close to $500,000 for 1999-2000. Bloom, on the other hand, says he's OK financially until December 31. So Bloom sits in the Lincoln Del out in St. Louis Park, where he used to work as a kid, and shakes his head. ‘If Howard Stern doesn't work against Tom Barnard, I don't know what will. We did everything to make him work here, and he might still, but it sure doesn't look like it.’ While the decision to bring in Stern wasn't Bloom's to make, it was his job to make it work. To that end, he was given a huge tv and promotional budget. It was Bloom who blanketed the town with those eye-catching/appallingly sexist billboards you see hanging out over every freeway and major intersection. No expense was spared on behalf of the Stern-Barnard competition. What Stern was paid to do is beat, or at the very least beat down, KQRS's Tom Barnard . . . in Barnard's home town. He hasn't even come close. Judged by audience share, Barnard is the most dominant morning-drive-time act in any major market in the country. Since Stern's arrival in April '97, Barnard has suffered marginal losses among several audience groups, most noticeably the younger males Stern was supposed to bring to Rock 100 in droves. But the disparity remains so large in Barnard's favor, three and four times Stern's numbers in some key categories, that the effect is negligible." One of the reasons Lambert cites for Howard’s failure to win in the Twin Cities is that Chancellor waited too long to bring Howard into the market…Record historian Steve Propes noted Joe Crummey’s historical reference to Surfin’ Bird. "It was literally ripped off from Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow and mainly from The Bird's the Word, both originally by the Rivingtons, an L.A. vocal group. It was done so blatantly that the Rivingtons got a cease and desist order against the Trashmen for the rip. They should have waited until the disc peaked," emailed Steve…Jason Insalaco was listening to the news in the first hour of the Tom Leykis show the other day when he could clearly hear the fire alarm sounding at Shadow Traffic during Anita Gevinson’s traffic report. "Like the pro she is, she delivered the traffic without reacting to the cacophony of sound in the background," emailed Jason...Casey Bartholomew is very upset that Brooke Shields and Andre Agassi have broken up. During his KFI Scott & Casey show, Casey confessed that he had seen Blue Lagoon 12 times and had become quite infatuated with Brooke. Casey should have stayed with his innocuous self-deluded love affair than the night they falsely announced that fellow KFI Talker Debra Rich had died. Tough to see the humor in carrying out this sick prank...Tonight Show host Jay Leno made a surprise call to the Conway & Steckler program on KLSX last night. He called to talk to guest Full House star Dave Coulier, according to Jason Insalaco. Jay admitted to being a fan of the Conway & Steckler show. Leno remarked that he pulled over on the 101 freeway in his Lamborghini Countash to talk with Tim, Doug, and Coulier. "If only more talk radio cell callers would obey such etiquette. Jay's announcement of his location soon led to a barrage of listener honks and yell which could be heard over the air," remarked Jason…Former KEZY morning man John Fox is doing some reporting and writing for all-News KFWB… CBS Radio News is reportedly dropping six news anchors including Claudia Marshall, former nd at KRTH, according to a story in the New York Daily News…Mutual News Network is expected to fold this week. Mutual has been around forever…Frank Lozano recently celebrated 10 years with KPWR. "I'm doing the weekend morning shift and have been named Community Service Director," emailed Frank. "I've been acting lately too. I was on NBC’s Profiler this past week. I'm now a spokesperson for a video editing manufacturer and I have done several industrials." Frank is working a pilot for his own tv show…You can meet Suzanne Ansilio tonight from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Yankee Doodle’s in Long Beach. It’s all part of the Long Beach Grand Prix Pre-Party activities…Whatever happened to Laurie Howell? Laurie studied political science in graduate school at the University of Colorado. She drove to Los Angeles in 1991 from the nation’s capital with no money, no job prospects and everything she owned jammed in the back of a pickup truck. "KNX took a chance and hired me – within a month of my arrival. That’s probably been my biggest break ever in the business." Laurie stayed at KNX until 1995 and joined the Mark & Brian morning show at KLOS for two years. She’s currently working with Joe West on a Y2K project and they are doing an ad campaign for Great Expectations. She's also started her own syndicated radio show called "The GreenScene," which has already been picked up by her first station in Boulder, Colorado. Laurie and Joe are working with Mark Gura at Blue Sky Radio developing new projects, as well as producing current shows like Excedrin's Tax Tips and American Express's tips for small businesses…Scott Thrower, former weekend dj at KBIG, is the new swing jock at KMLE-Phoenix…Former LARP Ira Sternberg noticed that Bobby Vinton turns 64 on Friday. Ira is expecting Bobby to record another version of his hit, Roses Are Red, called "Roses Are Red, Viagra Is Blue."
Turning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. Since 1969, Gary Marshall has worked at KRLA, KEZY, KWIZ, KUTE, KSRF and KRTH.
Trying to choose the person who has most influenced my career makes me feel like I'm standing before six thousand Academy members at the Oscars and have only fifteen seconds to thank everyone who helped me win the Best Actor Oscar (an old dream).
Jesus Christ has had the most profound impact on my life as a whole. My first wife Patti struggled alongside me for seven years from one small market station to another till we finally hit the "BIG TIME"! Al Jarvis, Gary Owens, Bob Crane and Hunter Hancock were jocks I grew up listening to every day, and copied shamelessly for years. Johnny Hayes, Mark Denis and The Real Don Steele became friends as well as inspirations and encouragers.
In deference to the Marine Sergeant in charge of the Radio/TV section at MCRD San Diego in 1959 who told me after my first radio audition to, "Forget it, Marshall, you'll never make it in radio," I'd have to say that the one person who has impacted my broadcast career the most is Jay Stevens (KRTH's Steve Jay). We first worked together and became friends at our first full-time commercial jobs, a 250 watt daytimer in Victorville, KCIN in 1962. Jay helped me land my first "Boss-Radio" job at KYNO- Fresno in 1968, and along with Doug Cox and Johnny Darin brought me "home" to L.A. and KRLA in 1969. Jay and his wife Marlene have most importantly been my friends and encouragers through some difficult times in both my personal and professional life. If I had to name one person that I couldn't have gotten here without, it would have to be Jay Stevens! - Gary Marshall
Star Wars Battle between "Y107" and KROQ
(April 12, 1999) "Y107" jousted with KROQ for position in the Star Wars line in Westwood. Last Thursday night, Daniel Alter, the first Southern California kid in line for Star Wars was seen on all the tv news broadcasts. New marketing honcho at "Y107," Joe Soto jumped into action and sent a member of the "street team" to Westwood with tee-shirts. The next morning, Anthony, who is part of the morning show with Mark Wilson, drove down to Westwood and the drama unfolded. Frank Murphy, part of the morning team, picks up the story: "Anthony dials us up on the ‘Y-107’ cell phone and we start interviewing Daniel on the air. While we are talking to Daniel, his personal cell phone rings. Daniel tells us it's probably KROQ calling to set up a phoner. Anthony answers Daniel's phone and pretends to be Daniel. Meanwhile, we get Daniel to promise to mention ‘Y-107’ during his KROQ interview. KROQ hears about what we're doing and BEGS Daniel not to mention ‘Y-107’ on the air. Daniel says to them: ‘I don't have a contract with you.’ KROQ scrubbed their phone interview [which apparently they had pre-promoted all morning]. I think they told Daniel they would send someone down to interview him in person [so they could edit out ‘Y-107,’ I assume]. The whole thing played out live on our show. Our listeners heard all about KROQ begging Daniel not to mention us, etc. We told Daniel to go ahead and do the KROQ interview without mentioning us, but to try to give us a plug in any tv or newspaper interviews." And he did. The Times story on Saturday quoted Daniel, "I think they'll let me stay. All the Mann people know me because I'm always here. And if they ask me to move, the people at ‘Y107’ radio station are going to start a campaign to make them let me stay." Thanks to Frank Murphy for the behind-the-scenes story…About 8:35 Friday morning, Rick Dees almost had a $1 million winner in the KIIS Birthday Game. The caller had the right month and day, but she was 1978 and the winning year was 1950. Well, maybe they weren’t so close…Thanks to Frank Bresee and Lina Romay for asking me to host the premiere of the new fall series of nostalgia nights at the Pioneer Broadcasters Speaker Night…Karel & Andrew at KFI put the "Broad back into Broadcasting."…OJ Lawrence, formerly with KFI, died April 9 of cancer. Born Larry Wansley, he had been working afternoon drive for the past nine years at KyXy in San Diego. According to Randy Dotinga of the San Diego North County Times, OJ was also a Baptist minister. Services will be held at the Mira Mesa Baptist Church on Thursday April 15th. Any cards, letters or flowers can be sent in care of KyXy radio. He was 49…Yesterday’s posting about the book on Gordon McLendon prompted a number of emails. From Scott Shurian: "McLendon's foray into all-News radio actually started in a dirt field on the road between Tijuana and Tecate, about a mile past the old bull ring. I know because I was there. McLendon hired me in Dallas while I was with WFAA. My first boss at ‘XTRA News’ was Russ Barnett. I stayed at XTRA for a year and half, breaking almost every international radio law there was at the time until I was ‘discovered’ by Loyd Sigmon, Hugh Brundage and the other folks at KMPC. Love your site even if I don't know 90% of today’s L.A. radio folks," wrote Scott. Steve Bessette reads <LARADIO.COM> from Fitchburg, Massachusetts every morning. "Radio needs a few Gordon McLendons today. They wouldn't be appreciated though, because now people like Howard Stern are deemed as the brilliant visionaries," emailed Steve…Beginning today KRLA will air a Food Talk Minute each day at noon. "The features are similar to my old ‘Food News Notebook’ that I did at KNX for nearly nine years," emailed KRLA’s Melinda Lee. The features contain little intriguing tidbits, practical information, amazing facts and folklore related in some way to food…"We’re building a radio station for people just like you. Our djs are talking to you, not at you. Prizes you might actually care about. The great Alternative music you grew up with. Today’s best modern rock without all the kid stuff. Finally a radio station built just for you. The all-new Y-107."…Whatever happened to Mark Whitlock who worked weekends at KFI in the early 1990s?…I had lunch last week with the "host who loves you most," Johnny Magnus, at the very trendy Gordon Biersch Bistro in Burbank. Johnny’s journey to the United States from his German birthplace is a story of heartache, disappointment, terror and eventual joy. His father owned a bakery about 30 miles from Frankfurt. When the Nazi party came to power, they demanded that Mr. Magnus hang a Nazi flag over his bakery and place a sign in the window saying Jews were not welcome. Johnny’s mother was half-Jewish and many of their friends and customers were Jewish and Mr. Magnus refused the Nazi request. As political pressure and the threat of losing his life accelerated, Mr. Magnus had to flee the country leaving his wife and children behind. Johnny’s mother was so distraught that she thought of suicide by drowning practically every day. After school, Johnny would run down to the river looking for his mother. After five terrifying years, the family was reunited in upstate New York. Johnny fell in love with radio and that’s how he learned English, listening to "The Shadow" and "The Green Hornet." He spent two decades working as a high-profile personality at MOR station KMPC. His signature bits include "Weather with a Beat." Johnny is currently working the "Standards, Swing and Big Bands, Too" format at KLAC…We mentioned last week that Joe Crummey reworked the Trashmen song Surfin’ Bird to Surfin’ Serb and aired it on his KABC morning show. Joe emailed: "At the time of Surfin’ Bird, I was just a student and my teacher heard us talking about the song 'cuz we thought it was cool. [And still do.] He said that the Trashmen did it as a joke just to prove anybody could do it and that they really WERE trashmen! BTW, was Surfin’ Bird inspired by Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow? Incidentally, that was me on the vocals. I spent an afternoon gargling with razor blades to get the sound and I can tell you the vocal is a little more complex than the casual listener might think. I'm not so sure ‘just anybody could do it.’ Did you happen to catch my version of Kosovo sung to the tune of the Beach Boys Kokomo? Don't worry. I won't quit my day job," wrote Joe…KRTH’s "Shotgun Tom" Kelly was in Lancaster on Saturday for the annual Poppy Festival. "There were no poppies," Tom said. "It has been so cold, they haven’t bloomed yet but we had a trivia contest with the great people there. They love it when I go blippity blip."…This past weekend former LARP Joel Siegel sat in the Gene Siskel chair with Roger Ebert for the second week in a row…I was backstage at the 5th Dimension’s sold-out performances last Friday night at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center. The group and I go back to the 1960s when I was gm of W4 and later WDRQ in Detroit. The group has been traveling and performing all over the world and hadn’t performed in their hometown for years. The show was terrific! I asked Lamonte McLemore, one of the founding members of the group, what radio station he listens to when he is home. "We have Rick Dees on in the morning," Lamonte responded…Did KYSR’s Leah Brandon get to a zoo this weekend?…Westwood One’s Zack Taylor gives us a Monday funnie: "Carmen Electra has filed for divorce from Dennis Rodman. Dennis was so upset that he went right out and had an entire tub of cheerleaders."
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Bill Browning, Todd Parker, Waco Pat and Steve RayTurning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. Responding to the "Turning Point" stories at this Web site, Michelle Kube, KFI, sent the following email, which reminds us of the combination of passion and grit and luck sometimes required to get started in this business. We're sharing as much as space allows because her email left us both inspired and, frankly, very tired.
The turning point in my professional career: It was June 20, 1994, the day I met David G. Hall. I became an intern at KFI Radio on June 10, 1994. I never EVER wanted to be in radio. Since I was 9 years old, I wanted to be a television editor, eventually moving on to be a producer or a director. But in college, I had to apply for an internship and I couldn't get one at any television station in the city. A radio internship would suffice, so I called KFI radio every day for 3 weeks before I arranged for a meeting with Stella Marroquin, Executive Assistant to the tyrannical David G. Hall. I expected him to be old and overbearing, basically a big asshole, but I was so surprised at how young he was and how much he knew. He became my mentor, and through his teaching I started to take on other responsibilities. As an intern, I opened mail, made dubs, re-wrote PSA's, basically did all the piss-ant work, and I really liked it. I never knew there was so much behind-the-scenes work to do in radio. I always figured it was just a host going on the air with his topics.
This is how much I loved it: From 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., I trained with the Bill Handel Show to learn how to screen, then I drove home to Orange County to work as Manager of a Wet Seal store in Westminster Mall, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m., then went to school 2 nights a week from 8 p.m. – 11 p.m. I loved every minute of being at the radio station. In August, I was officially hired at KFI as the screener for the Handel show. I was producing weekend shows too. I quit the store and pursued a career in radio, where I am today.
I've gone from unpaid intern, to paid screener, to part-time producer, to full time morning show producer to Executive Producer in 3-1/2 years. I continue to learn new things and take on new challenges. I've taken on the new task of The Tim & Neil show. I can quite honestly say in the last almost 5 years never ONCE did I open my eyes in the morning, afternoon or evening (depending on which shift I worked) and say, I don't want to work today or I don't like my job. This is what I was meant to do and I never would've known that if I hadn't met David G. Hall. – Michelle Kube
Quintessential Book on Gordon McLendon
(April 11, 1998) When I was doing research for my book, Los Angeles Radio People, I would frequently be asked about my radio background. Part of my radio journey includes working as a pd, national pd and gm for Gordon McLendon. "Gordon who?" was a frighteningly familiar response.
I am a believer that your future is restricted if you have no idea where you came from. Gordon McLendon: The Maverick of Radio by Ronald Garay is one of the best tomes to document one of the true pioneers of contemporary radio. Gordon once said: "Radio is the eighth and perhaps greatest wonder of the world." In this day and age of consolidations of radio stations, meet a radio genius who really cared.
The book travels with Gordon to Pearl Harbor, where as a Yale graduate and an expert in the Japanese language, spent a half-year interrogating Japanese prisoners and translating captured Japanese documents.
We assume jingles have always been a mainstay of music radio stations. Not so until Gordon popularized the singing jingles on his Texas facilities.
Gordon created the Liberty Broadcasting System that within three years had 458 affiliates and ranked second in network size only to the Mutual Broadcasting System. Sports was the focus of the network. Jerry Doggett, longtime Dodger announcer, was the first director of sports for LBS. As director of football, Gordon recruited Lindsey Nelson.
World War II had delayed TV's introduction into the consumer marketplace but by the early 1950s, TV set production was zooming and radio listening was eroding. The book chronicles these delicate days and how Gordon responded with the emergence of KLIF as a purveyor of playing a Top 40 format with exciting news, promotions and personalities. Gordon said: "We all can buy the same records, play them on the same type of turntable, and we can all hire someone to talk. The difference in radio is like the difference in soap - it depends on who puts on the best wrapper."
Not everything Gordon touched was a hit. The book takes us through the birth of the first all-News station in the world, which served Southern California from Rosarita Beach, Mexico. At the zenith of his Top 40 successes he bought a station in San Francisco, KABL, and confounded the industry by launching the first Beautiful Music station to become #1 in a major market. His format failure came in the late 1960s when he bought 103.5FM in Los Angeles and attempted the first all-Want Ads station, calling it K-ADS.
Gordon has produced movies, owned movie theaters, ran for the Senate, major stockholder in Columbia Pictures and author of Getting Really Rich in the Coming Super Metals Boom. It's all here in Garay's book. If you wonder where radio is today, you might revel in the history of one of the true radio giants and how he revolutionized the industry, virtually single-handedly. The book is such a tasty read. – Don Barrett
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Ric Lippincott and Kenny MorseEmail Saturday
(April 10, 1999) We Get EMAIL…
** No Angels at KLAC
"Do you have any idea what the story is behind KLAC's farming out of Angels games that conflict with Lakers games to a station that is not even receivable in most of its service area? I understand why the games are farmed out, but not why they chose KIKF 94.3FM. As you know, there's a Spanish-language station broadcasting out of San Fernando on the same frequency that trumps KIKF's signal.As an Angel fan that listens to the radio broadcast even if I'm watching the game on tv, I'm infuriated! Of the first four games, only one was on KLAC. At least the first two games were on tv, so I didn't miss them, but tonight's [Friday's] game isn't, so I am shut out entirely. Of course, there's always the Internet, I can hear you saying--but no, some dope forgot to switch the feed, so the Angels Web site is broadcasting the Lakers game! I hope the Lakers appreciate it.
The real tragedy of the Internet screwup is that people all over the country depend on that feed to keep up with the Angels. How do I know that? Well, yesterday, the only regular-season game KLAC has broadcast, there was a long rain delay during which they had Larry Kahn taking calls from listeners to pass the time. There were calls from all over the country— Indiana, Cleveland, and even Florida! I would say a third of the calls were from out of state. Someday, some radio station is going to figure out how to make that coverage pay in terms of ad revenue. At any rate, my point is that as an Angel fan I feel that when KLAC took on the job of broadcasting the Angel games, they assumed a moral responsibility to all Angels fans to make every game available on the radio in their service area. KIKF-FM just doesn't cut it here in Culver City. I would do better to stick my head out the window and listen for the crowd noise.
I realize that KLAC is probably contractually obligated to give precedence to Lakers broadcasts, but I am surprised that the Angels acquiesce in this abandonment of most of their radio audience. I can't believe KLAC couldn't find some other station with better coverage to carry the games. Perhaps they don't want the competition? What really infuriates me is that they proudly, loudly, and frequently crow about their being ‘The Official Station of The Anaheim Angels.’" - Rob Spencer
** Getting the Handle on Bill Handel
"It has been awhile, so I thought I'd say hi, and comment on this mornings column [4/7], featuring that report on radio. It seems to me to be a perfect example of people listening for a small amount of time, and forging a rock solid opinion based on nothing. Example, Bill Handel. ‘Leaning hard to the right,’ ‘conservative pit bull?’ Tell that to the thousands of people who railed against Bill because of his stand on the recent impeachment trial. Or his complete support of current policy in Eastern Europe. Like most great hosts, he is not pinned into one side or position, as anyone who listens for more than one day will be able to tell you. The beauty of the business of radio, is the variety, and anyone who tries to put a label on a particular show without lots of listening time, is doomed to failure." – Mike Nolan** Mark & Brian in the Northwest Prompts Editorial Cartoons
"I remain continuously entertained and informed with your great site. It's a must read everyday and I pass it along to everyone I stay in contact with, even those who don't work in or around radio. The latest buzz in Seattle radio is at ‘The Buzz.’ Your LARP Mark & Brian replaced the Pat Cashman show. This has prompted a cartoon editorial in the Seattle PI, letters to the editor, several email addresses where disgruntled Cashman fans can get hold of David Field, CEO of Entercom. I caught M&B on their first day on ‘The Buzz.’ They introduced the ‘Old Lady Farting from a Tugboat in the Fog," which they described as one of their classic bits. I'm sure it will become a local favorite in Seattle as well. Fog, tugboats and little old ladies are already up there on the list in Seattle. Seattle being the gentile place that it is, passing gas has not risen to it's proper position of prominence but with the arrival of M & B, I'm sure that flatulency will become a cornerstone of Seattle culture and society. It will be fun to watch M&B and see how they do in Seattle. Keep up the great work." - Bill Ogden, Puyallup, WA** Response to Steve Parker’s Letter about Dr. Laura Schlessinger
Re: ‘Doctor Double Standard’ by Steve Parker [5 Apr 99]
"Do your homework. Radio personalities do not always have control who else is broadcast from a station, especially when syndicated. I seriously doubt if Rush Limbaugh would also approve of the language sometimes used by other KFI ‘personalities.’It sounds like Parker is just another liberal who refuses to be held accountable for his actions." - Dr. David Nahrstedt, Westlake Village
** Rick Dees Da Man
"I agree with all those who wrote this week in praise of Rick Dees' morning show. Rick knows ‘funny,’ from his Candid Phone Calls to his Jokes of the Day. Nowhere else can you find a better blend of buoyant, topical morning fare. Cheers to Rick, Ellen K and their entire team! Now if they could just dump the KIIS music." - Dawna Kaufmann, Hollywood
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Mario Devoe and ShanaPoorman Moving to TV
(April 9, 1999) Today is the last day for Poorman’s Anti-Radio show at KMNY (1600AM). What’s next for the creator of the Loveline show at KROQ? "I’m pursuing an ‘Anti-TV’ project with KRCA/Channel 62," said Jim Trenton, aka the Poorman, who had just come in from a morning of surfing when I called. "I’d like to do a half-hour show each night airing tv pilots from shows that, for one reason or another, weren’t corporately correct." Always on the cutting edge of new ideas, the Poorman hasn’t ruled out moving to another market for a radio gig. "I’m a 4th generation Californian, so I’m probably going to stay here or some place in California."…Didjaknow that twenty-five years ago yesterday, Henry Aaron hit his 715th homerun? You might have known that, but didjaknow the historic homerun pitch was thrown by a LARP?…Film critic Leonard Maltin appears on AM/FM Live Sunday morning at 7 on KIEV with Alicia Flannery…Former KIQQ morning man Mike Butts has left the morning slot at WPRO/FM-Providence after almost seven years…Tomorrow night at KRLA between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Kenny Morse and Reed Berry interview radio critics, pds and talent…"Mega 100" promotion honcho Rob Riddlemosher has moved to Dallas. He was spotted in town last weekend picking up his wife and the last of his belongings…We know how our local talk show hosts feel about the war, but we rarely get to hear how our top djs feel. KLOS’ Jim Ladd said the other night: "I’m still kinda gathering my thoughts about the war. I didn’t just want to come out with kinda knee jerk reaction. I’m trying to formulate my opinion on this thing. In the meantime for those of us lucky enough not to be in a refugee camp in some part of the world in Kosovo or Uganda or other hot spots for those of us lucky enough to be in one of the most sought-after places in the world, Southern California, we’ve got to count our blessings, you know what I mean? We’ve got to overlook the little stuff in our life, count our blessings and get on with it. So that’s kind of neat. The mode for the evening is going to try and make you feel good."…Joe West’s niece (his sister’s daughter) is traffic reporter Meghan Reyes...Beginning this morning with Kevin & Bean and running all weekend, KROQ is giving away a DVD player and 3 DVD movies…"Arrow 93's" sports guy Scott St. James thinks if one of the recommended nicknames for the new NFL football team, Road Rage, is picked, it would be very L.A....Sky Walker is giving away weekends in Las Vegas to his "K-Lite" morning listeners...Dustin Hoffman appears with Rod Lurie on KABC tomorrow morning at 10…Rich Johnson was listening to Joe Crummey on KABC yesterday. "Joe played something that I'm still laughing at. He had some very clever people do a remake of the 1965 Trashmen's song, Surfin’ Bird replacing the word ‘bird' with ‘Serb’! ‘Well everybody's heard about the Serb. Serb, Serb, Serb, Serb is the word.’ It sounded like the original group [as bad as they were]. Interesting to note the group, The Trashmen, was a Minneapolis band. Doing a surf song? I knew cause I was there."…KIEV has a new line-up on Sunday nights. At 6, the Jackie Mason Show followed by Radio Movie Classics with Jeffery Lyons. At 8, Kris Erik Stevens hosts Radio Super Heroes featuring "The Lone Ranger," "Batman" and "Superman"…Record promoter extraordinaire Tony Richland was reading the story of the restaurant flap involving Frankie Valli and Frankie Avalon that is currently in the courts. During a dispute over a check, Frankie tried to explain to the restaurant owner who Valli was but she didn’t know who he was. She told the court said, "I thought he said Frankie of the Valley." Tony said, "Fame is certainly fleeting, isn’t it?"…The Kinleys will perform at the Riverside Orange Blossom Festival on Sunday, April 18 as part of a KZLA celebration in downtown Riverside…For over 30 years Barry Rohde worked as feature reporter, traffic, weather, sports editor and afternoon anchor at KNX. He retired in the summer of 1997 and moved to Florida. Barry emails: "I got a cancer scare on botched up lab tests. Everything appears fine now. Thanks for all your efforts in keeping us folks up to date on happenings in the market." You can reach Barry at almbar@aol.com …KFWB morning drive anchors Dan Avey and Kathleen Sullivan are pictured with Larry King in the current issue of R&R… This morning at 11, Nic Harcourt, host of KCRW’s "Morning Becomes Eclectic" interviews Lee Perry, the narrative voice of the explosive hit, Everyone's Free to Wear Sunscreen…We met KNX’s Dick Helton after announcing that his wife, KABC morning drive newslady Carol Ramos, was pregnant with their first child. Where did Dick come from? He moved to Los Angeles last year after 29 years in Chicago that included 13 years anchoring the afternoon drive program for WBBM, the CBS all-News station. He began his broadcasting career in college, at station WKID, and as host of a classical music program on the university's own radio station. He graduated with Honors from the University of Illinois in 1966 with a B.S. degree in journalism but also with majors in political science and economics. He then went to work for the Illinois Radio Network before joining WBBM in 1969. He was, at the time, the youngest news anchor ever hired by the station and one of the original newsmen when the station went all-News. "My year at KNX has been very rewarding, especially as part of a great staff. They've provided me with a warm welcome to California," emailed Dick…ELO is featured Sunday night on the syndicated "Off the Record" show with "Arrow 93’s" Joe Benson…KACE’s Gillian is writing a book about her life. "I’ve based it on a true story, mine, and can’t get to the end. The story just goes on."
Turning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. For decades Steve Arvin worked as entertainment reporter at KMPC.
After the Korean conflict, I became a juvenile officer with a special group of university- trained personnel in the Cook County sheriff's department. Among other things, we handled juvenile crime. There was plenty to keep us busy, which meant a lot of contact with the Chicago area media. We became friendly and several reporters suggested that I had the training, background and intelligence to become a journalist…and the demeanor and voice to succeed in radio or tv. I heard it often enough, particularly in high profile cases, to make me curious about my potential. I met with various media people to confirm what I had heard. I went to a small radio station in downstate Illinois and from there to a medium size radio tv station in Iowa, then to the West Coast and finally to Los Angeles. This all happened because of the kind words and support of some of the most hardboiled, cynical reporters Chicago had to offer. - Steve Arvin
People Moving In, People Moving Out
(April 8, 1999) KIIS middayer Billy Burke has left his shift to do voice work and concentrate on his syndicated Victory show that airs on KIIS on the weekends. KIIS will now be commercial-free music from 10 a.m. to noon…I wonder if La Opinion covers Spanish radio as well as the LA Times does?…KRTH’s "Shotgun Tom" Kelly was standing in line at Pink’s Hot Dogs the other day and Howard Hesseman, the Johnny Fever character in WKRP in Cincinnati, was standing in front of him. Turns out they both love jazz…Evan Luck has left "Mega 100." He joined the station when it was KIBB ("B100") and for the past year has hosted the evening show, "Between the Sheets." The station has been auditioning potential replacements…One of the stars of Suddenly Susan, David Strickland, recently committed suicide. David’s last known interview was with Jamie, Frosty & Frank at KYSR…This morning KRTH’s Charlie Van Dyke played a song by a group that hit #1 on the Pop charts with their first record. And never did it again. Remember Do Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann?…KROQ’s new guy Ted Striker is filling in for Adam Carolla on Loveline until this Sunday. Striker comes from an Alternative station in Tucson…Alan Oda called the KLAC engineer asking why the station was not broadcasting in AM Stereo. The engineer was shocked that anyone had noticed and he said the stereo will be back up next week…Dennis Martinez, parttimer at "Mega 100," has moved to afternoons at KDON-Monterey…New Times Los Angeles excellent writer Keven McAlester wrote the cover story in last week’s issue about the Sammy Sosa/Mark McGwire homerun hoax. Keven emails: "Was just perusing your Current News column on the LARADIO.COM Web page, and noticed the item about our home-run race April Fool's story. Just wanted to thank you for the coverage and say that it might be a good idea to explicitly say that it was an April Fool's thing so your readers don't believe it without reading the story itself, which as you know makes it clear by the end that it's a joke." Keven’s imagination weaved such a wonderful tale. At one point as the homerun collusion is beginning to unravel, the principals are on a ship when Rupert Murdock gets so upset, he shoves Ted Turner off the ship and into the water. Great stuff! Mr. KABC was subbing for Dennis Prager yesterday morning and had Keven on as a guest. It was fun...KFI airborne reporter Mike Nolan checked in to say he misses winter. The weather was better!…Tonight Jim Ladd broadcasts live from New York City. He hosts an interview with Tom Petty and will track from Petty’s new album, Echo…Remember Joe West doing the morning drive news at KABC/KMPC/KTZN? Joe has a Web site: www.hereontheweb.com that is a nice one-stop cool links service. Joe studied music at the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley. After college he became the entertainment director for the Denver Gold in the now defunct United States Football League. When the league folded, Joe joined the navy, where he served in Operation Desert Storm and was highly decorated. After returning to the states, Joe joined KNX as a news writer and went on to anchor the news at KRTH, KMPC and KABC. He has recorded thousands of "thank you for holding" type messages for AMS Messages-On-Hold. "I’m working on a YK2 show that hopefully will start airing nationwide within a few months," emailed Joe…Todd Leitz started at KNX yesterday. He worked at 103.1FM when the station was jazz, KABC, KYSR and KRTH…"Mega 100" morning crew, Danny Romero and Irma Blanco, have been broadcasting all week aboard the Disney cruise ship Disney Magic. Every hour they run the "Mega Match Game to Cruise Disney" contest. Winners win a trip to Orlando for DisneyWorld and a few days on the Disney Wonder while cruising the Bahamas. Contest is to match the lucky cabin numbers…Joe Soto joins "Y107" as director of marketing and promotions. Good move for the newly retooled KLYY. Joe comes from stints at KROQ and doing promotional work for Coke, Coors, Audi, RJ Reynolds and Blue Note Records. He has been freelancing for Dreamworks Films…On Tuesday Robert Dornan filled in for Michael Reagan at KIEV. Robert reminisced about his days as a Los Angeles television host and KABC talk commentator...Lady Diana Rigg will present excerpts from Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, a defining book about Yugoslavia, this afternoon at 1 p.m. at KCRW…This morning Joe Crummey gave his KABC morning audience the definition of rock and roll. "It’s an old term that jazz musicians and blues musicians used to use. If you found a lovely lady in a bar one night, you took her home and you would rock and roll all night long."
Turning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. Pat Kelley, better known as "Paraquat Kelley" during his time at the "Mighty Met," KMET, remembers his big break in 1977.
Probably the one person in a position to really help me get started in L.A. radio was Ace Young at KMET. Ace and I hooked up at Dodger Stadium during the playoffs in 1977. We hit it off right away. At the time, he was news director at KMET and I was doing a brokered sports program "The Parade Of Sports with Pat Kelley," on this little AM station KGRB. My deal was, I provide the station with a sports program, and they give me one spot a day, which I would sell to make money. The show was a funny, tongue in cheek look at the world of sports. John Felz was a contributing editor to the show. Anyway, Ace heard the show, liked it and sold me to the gm at KMET, David Moorhead and as they say "The rest is Fishtory."
Not only was Ace the one who, "found" me, he was the one that really taught me a lot about the way we did news. I am forever grateful. Thanks. - Pat Kelley
WATCH THIS SPACE
(April 7, 1999) An almost half-page ad appeared in Daily Variety yesterday:
Watch this space
for a series of wonderful and expensive ads
introducing a new
Los Angeles radio Show
Concept.
(The ads start tomorrow.
Catch ‘em.
We’re gonna ask questions.)In the right hand corner of the ad is a caricature of a male, with mustache and goatee, reclining and leaning on his hand…Veteran sports broadcasters Fred Wallin and Peter Vent are close to signing on as co-hosts of an afternoon drivetime sports talk show…Wonder what talk radio sounded like 2 ˝ years ago? In April 1996 Buzz Magazine (now defunct) ran a six-page story on "The Truth about Talk Radio," by Sandra Tsing Loh. Some highlights from almost three years ago:
* "Most L.A. talk-radio hosts lean hard to the right. Every day of the week, you can hear Bill Handel on KFI and Bob Heckler on KMPC.
* "Leaning hard to the left are…very few hosts at all. After KMPC literally pulled the plug on Tom Leykis in the middle of what was to be his last broadcast anyway, Michael Jackson became the only avowed liberal host out there on weekdays. Feminist sisters such as Gloria Allred and Susan Estrich are relegated to the much lower-rated weekend.
* Mark & Brian: "These guys make us nostalgic for the good old days – when we were young and rowdy – and when morning drive-time djs were fun-loving, friendly guys who chatted with celebs, did comedy bits, played music, took our calls...maybe even made them for us. Can you believe there was actually a time when people called Mark and Brian’s live stunts ‘stupid?’"
* Ken & Barkley: "‘Oh my God! They’re still alive? How old are they – a hundred?’ is the thought that shoots across the adult mind when it comes across the mellow-voiced Ken and Barkley. This is kinder, gentler radio."
* Peter Tilden and Tracey Miller: "Excuse me for saying so, but I think these two provide more laughs, more celebs, more news, and just plain more fun than a drive-time audience deserves. Peter is hilarious. Tracey is the only enduring female in L.A. drive-time radio. Tracey once wailed: ‘If we were on FM, we’d be huge.’"
* Bill Handel: "A conservative pit bull, ever in trouble with the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans or GLAAD. His show is about middle America ranting on and on about itself.
* Michael Jackson: "He is well-read. He is compassionate. He is witty when the occasion calls for it. He is a man you’re not embarrassed to hear interviewing major guests."
* Dr. Laura Schlessinger: "There is a desire deep within us to be whipped by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Well, at least within some of us – the faithful, the constant, the rabid. We know Dr. Laura is the dark genius of radio, every call a Joe Frank-like minidrama, with violent turns."
* Larry Elder: "He’s one big beautiful black brother! We think we can say that. We think he’d approve. Larry is smart, funny, and conservative…but in this really humane way."
* The Regular Guys: "They can actually whip listeners into heated discourse. We’re talking amazing live radio moments, ones that truly make you ponder the future of America in kind of a thrilling, frightening way."
…KACE is the official radio station of the 1999 African-American Women on Tour Conference…Christian B, who was the midday host on "Groove 103.1" until that station closed its doors last year, has just landed his own format, non-playlist driven, Friday night dance show on 102.7 KIIS/FM…Neil Grant, KABC newsman, received a copy of a fan letter sent to the station from Thuy Hoang. In the process of complimenting Neil, Mr. Hoang calls him Newt Grant and then threatens, "Don’t ever think about replacing him OK? I will protest in front of KABC if such thing happen." Newt, I mean Neil, emailed: "GOOD MORNING VIET NAM!!!! It's Newt to me. What did I do to deserve this? Could it be the fact that I said, during the video store protest in Westminster, ‘That someone lobbed the incredible eatable egg at Tran Van Truong [spelling?] and bulls-eye right in the kisser?" Gives new meaning to fan mail…"Arrow 93’s" Joe Benson will meet and greet Toyota Grand Prix fans at the Yard House in Long Beach tomorrow night…This morning Bill Handel conducts a Millennium Baby Show at the Vagabond Inn in Costa Mesa. Couples who want their child to be born on January 1, 2000, will need to conceive in the second week of April. KFI has organized a Millennium Baby Show to discuss the possible risk of being in the hospital on "Y2K" day. This morning, 30 pairs of lucky KFI listeners will get free use of hotel rooms for 640 seconds each. I checked the calendar and it is not April 1…KEZY (on-air imaging is Mix 95.9 until FCC approves new call letters) continues to be jockless but former morning co-host Liz Pennington is behind the scenes running the board and hopeful that she will be part of the new broadcast team. "I wish my ex-partner John Fox all the luck in the world with his new endeavors," emailed Liz. "He will land on his feet! We worked together in mornings for more than four years and it's a hard habit to break! On the flip side, I am excited about opportunities at the New MIX 95.9, love the variety in the play list, and our new program director Ron Price. He has so many new ideas on how to connect with our Orange County/LA listener base." Good luck to Liz and everyone connected with the station. We are observing first hand the uncertainty of what we read about in the trades. New owners take over and the transition is a killer on everyone until the new plans are put in place…This morning, there is another half-page ad in Daily Variety, a follow-up to the one described at the top of this page, with the headline: "Talk Radio will Never be the Same (Thank God)." The ad features a photo of Marty Ingels and information about his show, "Talk to Marty," which appears on KIEV Saturday nights from nine to midnight…Jay Cook, former KIIS gm from 1979 to 1980, passed away at his home last week in Palm Harbor, Florida, following a battle with cancer.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Greg SimmsTurning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. Randy Thomas has worked at KMET, KEDG and KTWV. She was the first woman to announce the Academy Awards telecast and has done so four times.
As I reflect upon my past 13 years in L.A., I recall that it was pretty difficult to get a leg up (so to speak) in this town. Radio in 1986 was very competitive and it was the last year before KMET went under. The next year was even more difficult because not only was I out of work but I was in the same situation as Jim Ladd, David Perry, Cynthia Fox, Pat Kelley as well as Sky Daniels. So here I was a relatively unknown disc jockey out of work with some pretty legendary rock jocks.
In late 1987 I wound up working on KMPC/FM, which was where I first started working with JJ Jackson. At first he was hired as a jock and md then he became the pd of "the Edge." He was a big supporter of mine and he took me from nights to middays. I will always remember the encouragement he gave me in my quest to get into the voiceover business.
At that time I had just begun my career as the spokeswoman for Hooked on Phonics. (Thankfully today I still have that first account.) I am glad to share with you now what a great friend and mentor JJ was to me and still is! – Randy Thomas
Former Los Angeles Radio DJ Sells Stations for $142 Million
(April 6, 1999) Former KBBQ dj Buck Owens sold his two Phoenix radio stations for a whopping $142 million. By 1970 Buck owned four radio stations, four ranches, a travel agency, a recording studio, a million-dollar publishing company and a syndicated tv show that was shot in Oklahoma City. The son of a sharecropper, he left school in the ninth grade to work in an Arizona nightclub. His first big recording was Under Your Spell Again in 1959. A big break came in 1963 when the Beatles recorded his song Act Naturally. The single that launched his singing career was Tiger by the Tail…"It’s impossible to put something big inside something small. But KROQ doesn’t listen and jams the Smashing Pumpkins into the tiny Roxy on Sunset.’ KROQ promo for winning concert tickets before they go on sale…On Friday, "Star 98.7" morning crew Jamie, Frosty & Frank celebrate their new CD, Three-Ring Circus, at the Santa Monica Pier for a private three-ring circus party for KYSR listeners. Last Sunday Virgin Megastore took out a full two-column page ad promoting the CD’s exclusivity at Virgin. The net proceeds from the $12.99 CD donated to The American Cancer Society… KYSR afternooner Ryan Seacrest teased his partner Lisa Foxx unmercifully yesterday for not knowing what a sortie was. She thought it was a plane. Turned out that half the callers who called during that segment had no idea either…KTWV is halfway through a very successful spring concert series at Royce Hall. Last weekend Bobby Caldwell sang to a sold-out audience. On April 11th, the Series concludes with Norman Brown and Marienthal. "The Wave" is prepping Kenny G’s first L.A. appearance in years…Every year students get in touch with KLSX’s Tom Leykis to complete a term paper on broadcasting. Recently Tom had a student on the air to ask questions and Tom was asked if he would do anything differently in his career. "If I would have known that there are stations that throw people on the air with no experience, I would have gone right to them and applied for a job instead of wasting my time in Stanford, Virginia," responded Tom…The love affair between homerun king Mark McGwire and KLOS’s Mark & Brian continues. Mark called in yesterday to say hello and that he was excited about the start of the new baseball season. He had his son Matt with him who was still sleeping. Mark & Brain suggested that he should go throw some water on him, but he didn't…"Give Bobby Chulo sixty seconds and he’ll give you the secrets to love, money and breathing control while having sex." KPWR promo…The current issue of New Times Los Angeles features a cover story claiming that last year’s homerun run between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire was a hoax. The story claims that three owners conspired by putting up weak pitchers against Sosa and McGwire. XTRA Sports 1150’s Newy Scruggs has been busy and on the road. He was in Indianapolis three weeks ago for the NCAA Tournament and then to Phoenix for the NFL owners meetings and a week in Vero Beach with the Dodgers. "As for the theory? Hogwash! Major league baseball wouldn't be smart enough to make up that kind of race. These owners will do nothing to help themselves, as a group so there is no way they could come up with this home run chase. The 1998 baseball season was what 1994 would have been if they did not have the strike. We were well on our way to the same hr chase and it looked like Ken Griffey or Matt Williams would break 60 home runs. The Montreal Expos were primed to go to world series. They were that good and that talented. And if baseball would have ‘schemed’ up the home run chase, why did it just happen in the National League? Sosa and McGwire packed ballparks. The American League owners would have wanted a fat piece of the attendance pie too," emailed Newy. Dodger second baseman Eric Young is scheduled to work with the "Dawgpound" during the baseball season…Wonder how many opening day Dodger fans left before the 9th inning yesterday to beat the traffic. They missed a helluva ending. KFWB’s Ken Jeffries told fellow co-anchor Tammy Trujillo a wonderful story about wanting to leave the 1988 World Series early only to be coaxed into staying by his wife. That was the game when Kurt Gibson hit it out of the ballpark in one of the most incredible visuals in sports history as he rounded the bases…I mentioned yesterday that KABC’s Carol Ramos is in the third trimester of her first pregnancy. I received the following email: "Carol is in her second trimester. As her husband, I'm rather pleased, too." The note was from KNX news anchor Dick Helton. In a related note from Diane Thompson at KNX: "That turkey hasn't bothered to share the news with any of us that he's going to be a new daddy!! We had to read about it on the L.A. Radio People Web site! The only ‘kids’ he tells me about are their cats!," emailed Diane…Ira Fistell's show at KRLA is now called, "The World of Ira Fistell." Last night he kicked off new classical music for the bumpers. During his show, two callers vented about what they called "the hate radio over at KIEV." Ira said this was a symptom of the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine…KLAC Swing Lounge features music from the Big Band Voodoo Daddies to the Brian Seltzer Orchestra and follows all Laker games…Cult film Death Race 2000 starring David Carradine, Sylvester Stallone, and The Real Don Steele is playing at the New Beverly Cinema in West Hollywood tonight. Don’s widow, Shaune, emailed: "Don has quite a big part and is great in it, very over-the-top in true RDS style! Sly ain't bad either!"…Gary Franklin read about the Minyards taking a group of their listeners to China. "Congratulations. That should be wonderful for improving relations between Hollywood/Washington and Beijing, especially in view of the many nice and conciliatory things local talk-show hosts have said about China. Despite that, I'm afraid I'll have to take a pass," emailed Gary…KROQ and the City of Hope have joined together for a series of music concerts in support of the national medical center and research institute beginning tonight at the Derby with the Atomic Fireballs.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Fred WallinTurning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. Dick Kazan writes a weekly column for R&R. He worked at KABC/KTZN from 1993-95.
In 1968, my partner, Chuck Stanley and I started a software company. It struggled at first, but was doing reasonably well. This was a time of tremendous civil rights activity and Chuck, who is black, got a great idea. He wanted to place and train members of the so-called "hard core unemployed" in the computer industry, which at that time employed few black people. His premise was that we would get commitments from substantial companies to each hire one or two people in their data processing operation. This meant on day one, each person knew he or she had a job, income and a real opportunity. We would screen and select the candidates for the employers to choose from and would be paid for our effort. Good computer people then, as now, are in short supply, so this was worthwhile for these large companies, who in most cases, employed blacks largely in menial roles.
Our problem was that we couldn't afford to launch this project. One night, I was reading a Fortune magazine profile of a successful young entrepreneur. In it, he expressed his desire to become involved in social causes. I discussed this article with my partner and we agreed that the next day I'd call this man. I did, reached him immediately, presented the project and he was so interested, that he flew us at his expense, to his Dallas headquarters.
After we made our presentation, he liked what he heard well enough to shake our hands and hand us a check for $30,000 (about a $125,000 in today's money). There was no contract nor did he charge us interest. He said to repay him whenever we could and that the money would be due and payable if we ever sold our company. He had never met us before and relied upon our integrity to make effective use of his funds.
We did and soon had our first class of 15 people. Our company went on to place and train others and when we sold our firm to a large organization, we repaid our generous benefactor in full. In the years since, this man has become well known. His name is Ross Perot. – Dick Kazan
"They Bugged My Phone!," says Johnny Grant
(April 5, 1999) New Times Los Angeles has a very interesting article in the current issue about Johnny Grant, former KGIL and KMPC personality, who handles the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. In a story written by Susan Goldsmith, she writes that for much of last fall, a CNN crew worked on an investigative story about the Honorary Mayor of Hollywood. The story was to delve into how funds for the walk are being spent, how the trust is administered and what criteria are used to determine who gets a star. Johnny claims the tv crew planted a listening device in his penthouse. The article refers to a piece written by the LA Times’ Patt Morrison that pointed out that stars were going to John Tesh and Rin-Tin-Tin rather than artists like Meryl Streep and Sam Shepard. In response to the critical Morrison piece, Johnny attacked Morrison’s journalistic integrity as well as her ever-changing array of hats. The New Times piece ended with a quote from MTA activist, John Walsh. "Johnny Grant is fighting for his celebrity life. Without the walk of fame, Johnny Grant is just another senior citizen."…An email from AFTRA’s Robert Hochberger to Shadow AFTRA members dated March 31st updates the ongoing discussions between management and the union. The union presented new proposals in the area of 401(k) participation and Airborne Insurance. Management would agree to provide "no less than" $500,000 airborne insurance while the union is seeking at least $850,000. There are two negotiating sessions set for the week of April 12…KLSX Automaniac trivia question last night. What was the list price of a 1957 Chevy Bel-Aire convertible?…KFWB morning co-anchors Dan Avey and Kathleen Sullivan are part of the 1st Annual SPCALA PETelethon next Sunday afternoon on UPN/Channel 13…While watching the Dodger/Yankee game on tv yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice the excellent position of the XTRA Sports 1150 banner. The camera view from the outfield to the batter had a great shot of the signage…Last Friday the Long Beach Press-Telegram saluted this Web site. Bob Keisser, radio/tv columnist, emailed: "Fred Wallin faxed me a page of it [your site] that referenced KXTA a few months ago, and I've visited at least once every week or so since. I work with Doug Krikorian [and have for 25 years, at the Herald before the PT] and I'd love to see he and Joe become a team again on a talker. But radio mgmt these days seems less interested in sports talk hosts with info as much as they are hosts who are [very bad] comedians. Stunt radio." Thanks, Bob. It is interesting to note that Top 50 voting at this site has a new #1 radio personality covering the period of 1957-1999, and it is a sports radio personality…There was no radio column in the LA Times again this past week, however, there were a number of radio related letters to the Times that were printed on Saturday. A Mar Vista reader wrote in response to a March 25 article on KFWB’s goal of more personable presentation of the news. "I am appalled at the transformation of KFWB from its reputation as a hard-news haven for those of us who reside in a city whose airwaves, both radio and tv, are awash in ‘happy news.’" The KFWB noon business hour is a problem for an Arcadia reader: "I used to listen to the station on my way in to work; it gave me a chance to know what was going on along with the traffic and weather. Instead there is all this business news that I don’t care for, plus mostly they interview Times business reporters instead of doing their own reporting." Another letter writer supported Tammy Bruce on her recent lawsuit. The final radio related letter in the Saturday LA Times dealt with the loss of "Showtune Spotlight" at KGIL. "The loss is the final nail in the coffin of the all-show-tunes format KGIL debuted in August 1997. It’s a shame there can’t be one radio station devoted to the music of Broadway and Hollywood," wrote a Canoga Park reader…The hosts of Minyard & Minyard host a cruise for KRLA listeners down the Yangtze River in China. Ken and his son Rick will be taking their wives and guests in late August…Tonight’s Becker on CBS is directed by former LARP Ken Levine. Ken said that he is proud of "some wonderful camera angles."…Randy Tivens, host of Rockit Radio and head of the Southern California Aircheck Convention, takes me to task for missing other radio April Fool’s pranks. Randy wrote: "One was very cool. John Ireland and Derrick Hall at KXTA did a bit where they ‘broke’ a news story that the football Raiders were returning to Los Angeles. To make it sound more real, they even had interviews from the NFL offices and Al Davis' office. Of course, most of us who are into sports could spot the joke but it was very cool to hear the extent they went to to get the joke across! Across the dial, the MASTER of April Fool's pranks, Rick Dees, did a very subtle one. He advertised in his 6 o'clock hour that he would have Monica Lewinsky on for one hour only from 7 a.m. – 8 a.m. He had her in and they proceeded to take questions from the audience. It sounded very real. There were some weird questions asked but ‘she’ answered them all. Sounding very real, it almost convinced ME but I know Dees' style. NO WAY you could sneak an April 1 past the guy without him doing SOMETHING crazy. At just before 8 a.m. he asked ‘Ms. Lewinsky’ if she had any questions for him. She said, ‘Yes, just one, is there some reason you had me on your show April 1st? IS this some kind of joke?’ To which the very cool Dees replied, YES [long pause] because YOU'RE actress Jennifer Shaeffer. Then he goes into a grocery store commercial playing his JOKE OF THE DAY liners all over the spot. Very subtle for Dees, but very cool. Last year he pulled a wild 'candid phone' on a poor guy pretending that he was the IRS and that the guy was in trouble for back taxes! That was very funny." Thanks Randy…If you live in San Diego, there is an excellent writer, Randy Dotinga, who writes a weekly column on San Diego radio for the North County Times. He is the only writer in North San Diego County assigned to write on radio. The 96,000-circulation daily paper prints Randy’s column on Friday. You can read his current column by clicking http://www.nctimes.com/preview/radio-static.htm l…KABC’s Rod Lurie snagged the only post Oscar interview in the United States since Roberto Benigni’s return to Italy. He talked with him on last Saturday’s show. Roberto told Rod that he is in principle opposed to Life is Beautiful being dubbed in English because of what it may do to the performances. "He apologized for not thanking me at the Oscars but said he would do it ‘twice’ the next time he won. I congratulated him on his confidence," emailed Rod…The only other regular Southern California entertainment talk show is on KLSX and hosted by Leo Quinones. Too bad it is buried late Saturday nights. Leo worked at KIIS for over a decade and hosted Cinema Sunday Night. Leo appeared in Volcano and started out as an intern for the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown." "I was a huge fan of Rick Dees. As a listener, my buddy and I took a Dees trip to Puerto Vallarta in the late 1980s. I told Rick’s writer a joke and five minutes later, Rick did the joke as Willard Wizeman. That was it. I was hooked." I’ve long been perplexed why there is not more entertainment talk programming in the entertainment capital of the world, other than a couple of hours on the weekend. There’s plenty of talent available…In the ninth inning of the final spring broadcast from Vero Beach last week, Dodger broadcaster Ross Porter started saying thanks to Floridians who have meant so much to the extended Dodgers family. Given ownership's ongoing negotiations about a new site in Arizona, this figured to be the time to say goodbye to Dodgertown. In the midst of his memories and best wishes, Ross suddenly tore into a local dry cleaner for losing or ruining hundreds of dollars worth of his clothes. After spending a few minutes ranting, he concluded by saying the business, which was called Touch of Class, had been misnamed…KABC’s Carol Ramos is in her last trimester of her first pregnancy…After Rick Dees signs off at 10 each morning, KIIS plays 102 minutes of continuous music marathon…Trivia answer: ’57 Chevy Bel-Aire convertible listed for $2,511…Former LARP, Ira Sternberg writes a weekly column in Las Vegas. "You know it's Daylight Savings Time when search crews are sent into casinos to find clocks so they can be set forward an hour."
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Suzanne Ansilio; Bob Maryon, Michael MooreTurning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. Former KHJ and KWST dj, Bobby Ocean is the imaging voice for stations everywhere.
I was still in my teens, a disc jockey in Monterey (KMBY, where I found old Robert W. Morgan airchecks in a huge cardboard box in the production room) when I got an offer to do mornings in Pittsburg...California! I accepted, gleeful at the promotion from nights and the salary increase of perhaps $50 more a month, and started immediately. It wasn't until about three months later that a large bundle of mail arrived, forwarded from Monterey, where I had neglected to leave a mail change notice. Among the pile was my draft notice. "Greetings! You were supposed to report for duty a month ago and now you're AWOL."
The Sales Manager of the radio station, a gray-haired handsome gentleman they all called "The Silver Fox," Roy Cordell, saved me. He was quite a character. He managed to put me in contact with a local unit of the National Guard, where I was able to brush aside paperwork and enlist without having to report to basic training for another much needed six months. I still think of Roy and his taking the time away from his regular duties to help me. I also learned a lot about copy writing and producing spots from him. Wish there more like Roy Cordell today. - Bobby Ocean
(April 3, 1999) We Get EMAIL…
** Doctor Double Standard?
"I LOVE this stuff about Dr. Laura Schlessinger not wanting to be on the same outlet with Howard Stern. Meantime, the Jewess Doc's flagship station, KFI, regularly allows words like 'nigger' and 'fag' and worse on the air, and now they're in this lawsuit with Tammy Bruce, but that's okay with Laura! Funny how morality can slip out of your pocketbook." - Steve Parker** Quarrel with Talk Radio
"I have no quarrel with the letter on March 27 about the nice comments about Jim Roope at KGIL. But the broader picture is what is wrong at KGIL and at KABC and other stations. The answer is ‘impatience’ and ‘ego.’ Operators of radio do not give a format a chance to grow; if ratings do not improve in the blink of an eye, boom, out, change. KGIL has great talent, problems are not their fault. There is a loyal core of listeners, and I think the station makes money, but probably not enough to satisfy the owner, Saul Levine. KABC ditto, but add the ego factor: it isn't enough to have ratings and make money, but to be NUMBER ONE in the market at the same time. That will not happen if the same opinion is expressed six times a day by six different hosts. It’s not going to happen. In essence KABC, and KIEV are narrowcasting in the talk arena; they preach to the choir. By the way, I would be sued if I expressed my feelings about John & Ken. What a waste of radio!" – John Hindsall, LaCrescenta** Has Barrett Gone the Leonard Tose Route?
"Have been a regular reader of the page for over a year and have your book. Have listened to L.A. radio since the days of Al Jarvis and Dick Haynes in the '50's, but my only ‘professional’ connection is having written and produced commercials for clients. I think the page is fascinating and I don't let a day go by without checking it. However, there seems to have been an unfortunate trend in the past couple of months.
To paraphrase Jim Healy's comment about Leonard Tose, why have you gone the Howard Stern route? Day after day there are lame scatological jokes and sexual innuendo [and not-so-innuendo]. I don't even know where KYSR is on the dial but I already know WAY more about Jamie White's sex life than I ever wanted to. I'm not a prude by any means and love a great dirty joke but most [really, all] of what you've been throwing in is simply sophomoric and crude, barely even funny. I can't imagine you haven't heard this from anyone else -- the audience for your page CAN'T be the same demographic as Stern's.In any case I'll keep ‘tuning in’ - just had to get this off my chest and see if anyone else has commented similarly." - Bob House, Whittier
** Radio Line-Up
"Well it's been a little over a month since you published my dream line-up on your site, I thought I would share some of the queries and comments I got about it.
After discussing the line-up with a mixture of average listeners, the hosts involved and people who work in the ‘business’ the most common remark I got, ‘For a person my age [20] I tended to think like a programmer rather than an average fan.’
6 a.m. – 10 a.m.: Kevin & Bean
10 a.m.- noon: Regular Guys
Noon – 3 p.m.: Joe Crummey
3 p.m. – 7 p.m.: Larry Elder
7 p.m. – 9 p.m.: Al Rantel
9 p.m. - midnight: Mr. KABC
Midnight – 3 a.m.: Lisa Axe & Henry Phillips
3 a.m. – 4 a.m.: Best of Larry Elder
4 a.m. – 5 a.m.: Best of Mr. KABC
5 a.m. – 6 a.m.: Best of Kevin & BeanThe most asked questioned was, ‘Why would you skew [target] so young with Kevin & Bean in the morning?’ After I explained that the main reason that Kevin & Bean skew so young now is because of the music they play during their show. But if you pay attention, when they do quick topics and take calls, most of the callers are in their late 20's through their early 40's.
I also was fortunate to speak with 5 out of the 8 hosts in my dream line-up and they were very appreciative of being considered to be part of a dream line-up. They felt honored to be included in such a diverse and established group of radio veterans.
I did run into some good challenges when it came to explaining my opinion on News/Traffic Anchors and my preference for a 95% female staff, especially since some of my friends are male News/Traffic anchors. I did come to the conclusion that my goal of 95% was a little too high since their are some great male News/Traffic anchors and you know who you are." - Rob Ismael
** Missing Magnus
"I missed reading your column when I was vacationing in Las Vegas nearly two weeks ago. When I read Johnny Magnus was moved to weekends on KLAC, I thought to myself now I know why. I felt the reason they did that was because as soon as Angels baseball kicks into high gear with extensive pre and post game coverage, the station felt that Johnny won't be getting daily full 5-hour shows due to constant pre-emptions. So it's best that they hire a not-so-well known personality, Gary Thompson from KYSR, to take Johnny's seat. I know Johnny has thousands of loyal fans who want to hear what he has to say about the songs he plays and the stars who sang or instrumentalized them. It probably was a good idea. What do you think?" - John Kennedy, Bellflower** More Magnus
"It is a CRIME that Johnny Magnus is pushed to weekends and even MORE of a crime that he is #50 on your list. My vote for him won't push it up much, but here it is anyway. Faithful LARP reader." - Eric Cooper, Mission Viejo** Fan of Ken & Peter
"What a nice Web site! I am a [somewhat disgruntled] KABC listener who misses the Ken & Peter morning show. When I found out Ken Minyard had moved to KRLA with his son, Rick, I tried looking up the KRLA Web site but it seems they don't [yet] have one but I came across yours! I enjoy it almost on a daily basis!!! Do you know what is happening with Peter Tilden? I really enjoyed him and Ken in the morning. Will we be hearing him again soon?" - Sue Browning, Tustin** Former Clipper Caster
"I read the update on Rory Markas - here's a classic example of an underrated talent. Markas is a darned good play-by-play announcer, unfortunately he worked primarily for the Clippers. Markus is a solid tv sports anchor, unfortunately he was on the same station as veteran Jim Hill. I'm glad to still hear his work on KNX on a periodic basis." – Alan Oda** Cool Cole
"Whenever I see Chuck Niles’ name [and what a smooth, cool talent he is] I think of my old friend Bob Cole who worked as a ‘jazz jock’ with Chuck. I've known Bob since the early days of KPOI-Honolulu in 1967 or so. Several times each night he would put on a long song, and go outside for a ‘smoke.’ The record would end. . . . .chk. . .chk. . . . chk. . .chk. Seconds. Minutes. Then. . .Bob's mellow voice. We all loved those loose days of FM -- didn't we? In the early 70's Bob and I were in Las Vegas in the Hawaiian cast of Hair. In the 80s -- when I was at KFWB -- Bob was working with Chuck at the jazz station in Westwood. Now I've totally lost track of him. Anyone know where he be?" - Julie Tavares (aka Julie Chavez), Las Vegas** Former KNX Director of Engineering Dials In
"Saw Ted Shireman's letter lamenting the dearth of AM Stereo stations in Los Angeles.
I can remember the early days of AM stereo in Los Angeles [circa 1984]. Many of us began AM stereo transmission before there was a ‘standard.’ In fact, there were five different systems at the time. I can remember listening to KFI on my Sony SFR-A100 radio, which was able to decode any of the systems. KFI was using the Harris system.At KNX, we started AM stereo transmissions in late 1984 using the Motorola C-Quam system. The system is still on the air. Unfortunately, there just isn't any demand from listeners for AM stereo. Except for automobiles, where can you find an AM stereo radio?
We did have some fun with the stereo, even though we were a News/Talk station. The KNX jingles are in stereo. The CBS radio network used to provide us with Monday Night Football in stereo, which we would carry. Unfortunately, they stopped mixing the games in stereo in the early 1990's. KNX also mixed USC Football home games in stereo. We had two 15KHZ circuits out of the Coliseum.
We also mixed the Hollywood Christmas parade in stereo. The stereo mics were hung from the roof of Columbia Square looking down onto Sunset Boulevard. A reporter would go out on the street with a mono wireless mic. It was quite dramatic to switch from the anchor in the studio in mono to the reporter on the street in stereo with the crowd and the live bands going from left to right on your car radio. I would always get a few calls the next morning from people who didn't realize they had AM stereo on the car radio.
Maybe all of this will be a distant memory with digital broadcasting on the horizon. Hopefully, one of the proponents will actually make an AM digital system work.
Don...great Web site. It was a pleasure to meet you at the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters luncheon." - Michael Smith, Director of Engineering KCBS/KLLC, San Francisco, (Formerly DOE KNX/KCBS/FM)
** 12th Step Program for AAA
"Regarding Friday’s posting in your column: ‘KACD is adding personalities, per md and afternoon personality Nicole Sandler. Oz Medina, formerly with KQLZ and KROQ in 1993 has joined nights. Buzz Fitzgerald and Jen Sweeney join the AAA station for weekends. Early Sunday morning Nicole airs the lighter side of World Class Rock. It’s not quite acoustic, but really good Sunday morning music, emailed Nicole.’Actually, these personalities have all been heard on the schedule for a couple months at least. Yet if you go to www.channel1031.com and click Air Staff, it still only lists Nicole's afternoon drive slot! No mention there of her fantastic Sunday Sunrise show, of these other djs, or of weekend special programming like E-Town that I bet lots of listeners aren't tuning in simply because they don't know it's there. [I've yet to hear Jen because I have no idea when she's on.] Meanwhile, some of these new air personalities [at the very least Oz, who's on the air every afternoon at sister station KBCO Boulder-Denver] are neither live nor local, and to many of us it shows [way fewer songs ID'd per hour, generic ‘could be anywhere’ feel to the talk on their shift, etc]. Since KACD and KBCO are drawing on each other's resources [getting Studio C live performances from each other, etc], if they have to have things like inter-city staff sharing to keep costs down, I would prefer if KACD would admit it and find a way to treat it positively. For example, at night Oz could tell us about how living in Denver is different than living in L A, rather than telling us nothing in an effort to keep up the illusion he's here. Finally, we still want Mimi Chen! :-) - Stefan Daystrom, Los Angeles
** Former KABC Sportstalk Host Poses Question
"The old philosophy question comes into play here. OK, if a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody there, does it make a sound? Now expanding a bit, since the Dodgers radio station has just earned a .000 rating in the latest trends, does that mean that the Dodgers are really not playing? Just a thought." – Fred Wallin
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Robert Dornan (former talk show host at KLAC and KABC); Cynthia Fox (formerly with KMET); Bob Sims (KNX news director)"You’ve Done A Great Job, But…"
(April 2, 1999) I guess there is no easy way to let someone go. I reported yesterday that Scott Free didn’t work his board-op shift at Mix 95.9 (the old KEZY) but no official word on his fate. "Actually I did show up for work yesterday. I was told what a great job I had done during the transition and had stepped up to the plate and helped out and my work was very much appreciated. Then I was ‘let go.’" Scott will continue to do weekends at Westwood One, which he calls "a great gig" while looking for his next assignment in the Southland. Scott was born in Long Beach and returned to the Southland to work afternoon drive at KEZY in 1992 from K101-San Francisco…Carolyn Hogenraad emailed to say she may be staying with Mix 95.9…Yesterday was the day to conceive in order to be in contention for the first baby of the new Millennium. KROQ’s Kevin & Bean wanted the new baby made on their show. They solicited two listeners (one had to be ovulating) and invited them to the studios. There was chemistry between the two and they agreed to have sex. They had a doctor to check for AIDS and ovulation. Everything was OK. Kevin and Bean took the willing pair into the station conference room where there was a couch that folded down into a bed. They asked how long it might take so they could time out the rest of the program. They both giggled. All the lights were down and candles were scattered around the room. She retired to another room in order to get into "something more comfortable." After a commercial break, Kevin and Bean escorted the young lady back into the conference room where the male listener was standing naked except for his underwear. They flipped on the lights and yelled April Fools. What a dirty trick, but it was great radio for the imagination…Brian Beirne celebrated 23 years with KRTH yesterday…Mix 95.9 (KEZY/FM) is awaiting call letter approval on KXMX…Yesterday would have been The Real Don Steele’s 63rd birthday. Don’s widow, Shaune, hosted a gathering of friends last night at the Cat & Fiddle in Hollywood to celebrate his life. Colleagues from KRTH, KODJ and KRLA told some great stories. "Shotgun Tom" Kelley enthusiastically and informally emceed the night. Familiar friends included the "World Famous" Tom Murphy, KRTH pd Mike Phillips, Mike Daniels, Humble Harve, Jeffrey Leonard, Nancy Plum, Don Elliot, Birdie Bush, Carol Morgan, Amos (the KRTH parking lot guard), Pat Kelley, Melody Rogers and a longtime buddy from Hollywood High School….KROQ’s Richard Blade will be at Santa Anita Race Track tomorrow along with some of the morning crew including Kevin…The Greaseman returned to the airwaves yesterday in Jacksonville. Tommy R., broadcasting student and assistant gm at Osprey Radio, the campus station at the University of North Florida, emailed that WBGB-Jacksonville aired segments from the Greaseman archives along with jingles and Greaseman voiced liners. April Fools… KACD is adding personalities, per md and afternoon personality Nicole Sandler. Oz Medina, formerly with KQLZ and KROQ in 1993 has joined nights. Buzz Fitzgerald and Jen Sweeney join the AAA station for weekends. Early Sunday morning Nicole airs the lighter side of World Class Rock. "It’s not quite acoustic, but really good Sunday morning music," emailed Nicole…Daily Variety is reporting that KFI’s Dr. Laura Schlessinger is close to signing a syndication talkshow deal with Paramount Domestic TV. It’s been a year since she walked away from a deal with CBS’s Eyemark Entertainment, ostensibly because she did not want to be associated with KLSX’s Howard Stern…KNX will begin airing the CBS News series, "Eye on Y2K," beginning Monday at 8:21 a.m. The daily show will repeat at 1:35 p.m. and 10:42 p.m….Jonathon Brandmeier played cuts for his KLSX audience from a new CD called Pull My Finger yesterday. The 100+ fart CD had everything from Commodtion that was captured inside the toilet bowl to Forrest Dump. Tracey Miller made the startling announcement that "Suzanne Somers hasn’t farted in nine years because of the right foods she eats." You can call 877 Pass Wind…Danny Bonaduce bought a house in the Southland recently leading some to believe he had a radio assignment. He’s now telling friends that he will be on the air within two weeks…KRTH’s Charlie Van Dyke pulled off a multi-media April Fool’s prank. Charlie started his Thursday morning show with a tape of Channel 5’s Mark Kriski’s comments about Charlie that were so bad, part of it had to be blipped. Charlie was very hurt. He received calls from Mayor Richard Riordan, OC Register radio columnist Gary Lycan (expressing shock to the point of predicting that Mark’s game show career was in jeopardy), the owner of Pink’s (she was threatening to take down Mark’s picture from the walls), Sam Rubin, and even pd Mike Phillips. Channel 5 hosts gave Mark such a bad time on air that he looked close to tears. The prank was divulged simultaneously shortly before nine and great coverage for both outlets…"There’s absolutely no truth to the rumor that they eat out of crusty old plastic bowls on the floor. But the Dawgpound certainly isn’t chowing down on Wolfgang Puck cuisine. They will, however, make your hideous commute home informative and entertaining. Dave and Newy, afternoons from three to seven on 1150, XTRA Sports, 1150."…Jim Rondeau is playing the "80s at 8" on KBIG…Yesterday Tonya at KZLA announced the $1,000 Song of the Day as You Were Mine by the Dixie Chicks…Ted Shireman wants to know if anyone has noticed that stations seem to be dropping AM stereo. "At least the little indicator light on my car radio fails to indicate stereo on many stations. Of course there is no obvious need for stereo on news/talk formats, but I enjoyed hearing music in stereo on KLAC," emailed Ted.
Turning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. Today, J.J. Johnson, a 25-year veteran in Southern California radio and currently a personality at KACE, singles out a chance encounter with Bill Young.
In 1970 I was a 20-year-old jock on KYOK-Houston, one of the two r&b stations in the market at the time. Walt "Baby" Love, whose place I had taken when he left for KILT in 1969, had by then departed for CKLW-Detroit. Being from Cleveland, CKLW was one of the stations I had come to admire. (I still marvel at the sound of that station in memory. It was, without a doubt, technically the best-sounding AM station I have ever heard.) At the time, it was an RKO station with Paul Drew at the pd helm. Anyhow, since Walt had left, I thought I'd take a shot at KILT. I called and made an appointment with pd Bill Young. I brought my tape and resume. We chatted, he perused my resume and listened to my air-check. I was flattered, to put it mildly, when he told me that, if he had had a slot, he would have hired me. But, he had already replaced Walt. So, could he put a word in for me anywhere else? Which geographical direction would I like to take? I told him I'd either like to remain in Houston and wait for the next opening at KILT or I'd like to head west. He asked if I'd ever heard of Paul Drew. I replied that I knew the name, vaguely, but couldn't place it. He told me Drew had been pd at CKLW. Oh yeah, right. He said that, if I'd like, he'd put in a word to Drew for me. At that time, Drew was pd at KFRC-San Francisco. Then, he immediately put his words into action. That is, after the warning: If I went to work for Paul, there would be times when I'd want to scream and flee. But, if I'd hang in there, at a point there'd be virtually nothing I wouldn't know about contemporary radio programming. Drew was known to be a hard, but fair man.
I took it that this Paul Drew guy was also brilliant. Hey, I told him, I could deal with that. So, he had one of his jocks re-EQ and run off a copy of my tape. He Xeroxed my resume and, right before my eyes, placed the package in the station's outgoing mail. Then, he called Drew and told him he had this very talented boy (Bill was, to my mind, considerably older than me, so "boy" didn't faze me.) he'd like for Paul to check out. Weeks later I went to my mailbox and, voila! There was a letter with a KFRC return address! I freaked, ran upstairs to my wife and opened the letter. It was from Paul Drew. He had written that I wasn't ready, yet, but that I should keep working at it and keep sending tapes. That was mildly disappointing ("Not ready?!"), but I was at once flattered and I kept the tapes coming. Within six months or so I crossed the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, where my "higher education" began. To be fair, I came to find out that a number of people, among them Walt "Baby" Love, put in good words to Drew for me. But, Bill Young, who's probably long since forgotten our one-time encounter, was right at the center. And the rest, as they say, is radio history. Thanks for asking. J.J. Johnson
The Shoe Drops at KEZY
(April 1, 1999) New pd Ron Price fired KEZY morning man John Fox yesterday afternoon. Last Thursday Jacor dropped any reference to KEZY except for the legal ID, pending new call letters. The building on Ball Road now sports a Mix 95.9 sign, which compliments the on-air imaging. Early indications are that middayer Carolyn Hogenraad and production director Chris Adams are also out. Scott Free didn’t show up for his shift yesterday, but no official word. John was disappointed but optimistic. "I'm going to dig right in, see what I can come up with ASAP and combined with my severance, maybe end up ahead of the game." John spent 17 years at KFMB-San Diego before joining KEZY in 1993. He may also explore opportunities in San Diego. Tough business and good luck to everyone at KEZY who has suddenly found themselves without a job…Westwood One has dropped gravelly sport voice Scott Ferrell. This means that locally KXTA will lose its evening voice. "We will continue to have special shows with Scott at National Sports Grills throughout the area," said "XTRA Sports 1150’s" pd Mike Thompson. When there is no Dodger night game, Ben Maller and Dave Smith will do double duty. In addition to working from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on "XTRA Sports 1150," they will also work the evening shift. Not quite as bad as it sounds since KXTA carries the Clippers and Dodgers…Radio ad revenues were up a whopping 18% in February. RAB honcho Gary Fries called the four-week period "as good a month as radio has ever had." The West and Southeast regions led local-revenue gains, with 20% increases…Peter Wright emailed a cogent thought about why Kevin & Bean haven’t been on the Top 50 personalities listing at this site. "Hey, I like Kevin and Bean, my son makes me listen to them all the time. Their problem is the same as Howard Stern's. Can you spell demographics? Their listeners couldn't find your Web site because it doesn't come up in a search for ‘sexy girls of the Internet.’ Their listeners can put stickers on their snowboards and may be able to rotate the wheels on their skateboards, but vote for the top ten at your Web site? I don't think so." Thanks for the perspective Peter. The KROQ pair did put a fire under their listeners and there has been a surge of new visitors to this site and they are voting. In the past 48 hours, over 250 new visitors have voted. In the current standings, updated this morning, Kevin & Bean leaped onto the charts. Now that they are on the list, there goes the comedy…Night before last KLSX’s Conway & Steckler had their discussion on the Top 50 and Kevin & Bean’s comments on each of those listed. Tom Schenden of Brea was listening to Conway & Steckler and discovered this site. He has emailed his favorites:
1. Chuck Niles -- The king of cool. The original voice of jazz in LA.
2. Tom Leykis -- No one is more honest or more funny than Tom.
3. Phil Hendrie -- Most original act ever. PT Barnum would be so proud!
4. Bill Handel -- How could a lawyer ever become such an entertainer? An amazing transformation.
5. Joe Crummey -- What a sharp wit, and truly gifted with glibness. A damn
good musician too.
6. Wolfman Jack -- The first and only Wolfman and a beautiful person too.
7. The Real Don Steele -- The sound of "the cool station" when I was a kid.
8. Gary Owens -- Mr. Radio. No one can touch this guy. Every radio buff loves Gary.
9. Jim Healy -- Relentless comedy and sarcasm at a level few could ever achieve.
10. Conway & Steckler -- A fantastic team, from serious to funny, they are great.…Jason Insalaco, producer of the Conway & Steckler show, emailed to say that the KLSX pair will be broadcasting live from Hennessy's in Hermosa Beach tonight. "Should be a show full of surprises," said Jason… Meet one of the newest member of LARP, Clayton Sandell. He's currently the Inland Empire reporter for KFWB and a political science major at the University of California, Riverside. His professional broadcast work began in 1993 at KRTM-Temecula. In late 1994, Clayton joined KCKC-San Bernardino as a news reporter. Born in Riverside on March 28, 1973, he grew up in the Inland Empire. "I am one of those lucky people that has always known that broadcasting was my calling," said Clayton. "Ultimately I would like to work in television, but while I’m in school, radio is really the only way to be on the air. Nothing beats the adrenaline rush and immediacy of live radio news."…"If we play it, they will come. If we play it, they will come." Promo on KRTH…Thanks to Charlie Van Dyke at KRTH for having me on the air this morning as part of an April Fool’s prank…Don’t think that Gary Busey will be invited back to KYSR’s Jamie, Frosty & Frank show. The morning after the Oscars, Gary reported on the festivities and parties. There was tension throughout the interview. At one point Gary said, "You call people up and do all the talking and don’t let them talk. Why is that? You guys all talk at the same time yelling at each other."…KFWB carries the CNN Larry King Live tv show every night at 8. Larry breakfasted with KFWB’s advertisers at Pinot (ironically across the corner from KNX) in Hollywood. Morning anchors Dan Avey and Kathleen Sullivan worked until 8 a.m. and then hustled to the restaurant to emcee the event. The station gave him a new pair of suspenders and a miniature pair of the same ones for his newborn son. Larry spends half his time in Los Angeles and told the group that he hits KFWB on the radio every time he gets in his car. He posed for photos with everyone…LARP’s KROQ correspondent Vincent reports that Tami Heide will have the band Blur in studio this morning about 10:30 a.m. Blur will talk about an upcoming tour, and their warm-up intimate show at the Mayan Theater tonight. Last Tuesday, Tami appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America…Doug McIntyre, former weekend host at KABC, filled in for Ira Fistell last night on KRLA and will again tonight. Ira is on holiday for passover…New afternooner at KFI, Karel of Karel & Andrew checked in: "We've had a great week, and now in our second, it's getting stronger support than ever. The media is receptive. Our first remote was from a gas station no less. We gave each customer $6.40 worth of gas, and had a huge turnout, including every major news station and print media in the world. Initiation by fire. It was great and we all had a good time," wrote Karel…Steve Harvey writes the best column, Only In L.A., for the LA Times. He had a wonderful radio story from one his stringers, Tom Bratter. The listener is listening to KGIL, "Your Station For Memories," when it aired a commercial that said, "Bloomingdale’s after-Thanksgiving sale – going on now, ends Sunday, November 29 prompting Bratter to note: "It’s only 4 months old but I guess that would qualify as a memory."
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Randy Fuller and Jim MaddoxTurning Point in the Lives of LARP
During the month of April, Los Angeles Radio People share how an event, a person or mentor changed their lives. Super consultant Mike McVay talks about a turning point in his life.
Ed Salamon made all the difference in the world in my Los Angeles career. Although my stay in L.A., as pd of KTNQ (10Q) was for only 11 months, Ed gave me his vote of confidence by first making me acting pd, and then pd of the station. The credibility I received as a pd, whose station grew in the ratings, helped to launch me as a respectable programmer. Without Ed I'd still be in Charleston, West Virginia instead of heading America’s largest and most successful consulting company. Thank you for letting me share this story. Best Wishes, -Mike McVay
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Last modified: August 17, 2000
