That's cool, K.M.
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The old KRTH
- Thread starter David Shapiro
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That's cool, K.M.
Look forward to your input as well. Thanks CF.
Brother John never did program AM 930 KRTH Los Angeles, an RKO Radio Station. Phil Hall was PD of the AM & FM from the start. Rick Scarry was on his way out and Bob Hamilton was long gone by the launch of Smokin' Oldies. Mr Rock N' Roll was the assistant PD, followed by Dave Michaels. I find it hard to believe that Brother John actually wrote to you as it was my understanding after his on air stroke he was barely able to read or write or speak. Even the Voicers that were heard 20 hours a day when Dave Hull wasn't doing mornings were painstakingly edited. I had 1000's of hours of high quality in studio Stereo airchecks, as I was one of the talented board op's that made Brother John shine, probably doing my best Radio work ever? In fact the entire crew of the 'Brother John's' were very talented, on the same level as the Union KHJ Boss Radio operators like Jon Badeaux & Fred Cote, he killed, literally, except we were paid close to minimum wage. Those were the days!
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K.M. Richards
Guest
For the record, I am very much inclined to believe MadMan's account above as I am well aware of his work at KRTH/930 during that period. (Just to stop any arguing before it can start.)
Thanks KM! I sent my resume to Phil Wall, not Hall as Tom Murphy thought that was his name. I guess they got a kick out of it
and hired me in first week. There was even a full time opening but I wanted to keep the Unistar gig which I really enjoyed. Then did weekends at K-SURF for the great Steve Day!
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Thomps2525
Guest
MadMan, I did indeed get a short letter from John Rydgren. It's somewhere in one of my many boxes of radio memorabilia. It was typewritten and signed simply "John." I had written KRTH in February 1986, soon after the "Smokin' Oldies" format started. I noted that 1955-65 is eleven years and not "rock'n'roll's first ten years" (as the slogan said) and I also pointed out that the audience will get older while the playlist will never change. I suggested expanding the playlist beyond 1965. Rydgren thanked me for listening and for making the comments. He closed with, "Incidentally, our numbers are going up!" Because he is the one who replied to my letter, I assumed that he was program director. Rydgren had a stroke while on the air at KRTH-FM in 1982. He returned to radio in 1986. He obviously had regained his speaking ability by then.
He was able to talk but at the one meeting I had with the crew he didn't speak at all, and just sat there listening to others. I know AM 930 said the 1st 10 years of Rock & Roll and might have taken liberty with that a little but never qualified the years on air as 55 to 65?
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Thomps2525
Guest
I was listening on Memorial Day in 1986 when KRTH played several "fightin' songs" such as PT 109, Ballad Of Davy Crockett, Battle Of New Orleans, Blowin' In The Wind and Where Have All The Flowers Gone, and one DJ---I don't remember which---said he wished he could play Ballad Of The Green Berets but "we play only up to 1965." Of course 1955 to 1965 is eleven years, not ten...and KRTH also played Gee, Sh-Boom and Rock Around The Clock from 1954.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
Steve, I think you're obsessed with that nitpick. Ten years? Eleven years? Who amongst the listeners at that time cared?
Why do you even care, 30 years later? Why say why? (Bud Dry.)
Come on, let's have a real discussion around here without certain people taking every opportunity to attack certain other people, others seizing upon every minute detail and not letting go until they've made everyone else sick and tired of the discussion itself, and still others dredging up old questions that were resolved in other threads as if they were brand new (usually asked in both threads by the same poster).
If I can come to peaceful terms with oldies76, surely the rest of you can keep from irritating each other.
Why do you even care, 30 years later? Why say why? (Bud Dry.)
Come on, let's have a real discussion around here without certain people taking every opportunity to attack certain other people, others seizing upon every minute detail and not letting go until they've made everyone else sick and tired of the discussion itself, and still others dredging up old questions that were resolved in other threads as if they were brand new (usually asked in both threads by the same poster).
If I can come to peaceful terms with oldies76, surely the rest of you can keep from irritating each other.
A discussion just on KRTH events, such as Steve's Memorial Day special he heard or the #1 weekend over Labor Day in '85 or similar events from back then would be fine and dandy under this thread "Old KRTH". We just need to find a way without the arguing and debating. Really, this can be a fun radio / music fans "reminiscing" type topic here. Where else can we post these?? Any ideas?
Question to KM Richards or David Eduardo:
There are old music surveys that were issued in the mid to late 50's called "Los Angeles Hit Line".
A source "Doug Schmidt" who assisted at KRTH in the early and mid 80's, mentioned on the Facebook, MIA Lost Hits thread that these charts were used to tally some of the specials aired back then, specifically the 1955 to 1957 period, before the KFWB surveys were used in Jan 1958.
Do you have any information on these Hit Line surveys and a reference on where I can get more info on them?
Doug mentioned that these old surveys may have been 3rd party.
I'd appreciate it.
There are old music surveys that were issued in the mid to late 50's called "Los Angeles Hit Line".
A source "Doug Schmidt" who assisted at KRTH in the early and mid 80's, mentioned on the Facebook, MIA Lost Hits thread that these charts were used to tally some of the specials aired back then, specifically the 1955 to 1957 period, before the KFWB surveys were used in Jan 1958.
Do you have any information on these Hit Line surveys and a reference on where I can get more info on them?
Doug mentioned that these old surveys may have been 3rd party.
I'd appreciate it.
K
K.M. Richards
Guest
No idea where I'd even start to look for something that relatively obscure, published 50 years ago, and apparently not referenced in the past 30.
If we even knew who "Doug Schmidt" is (I certainly don't), much less where he is, or even if he is still alive ...
If we even knew who "Doug Schmidt" is (I certainly don't), much less where he is, or even if he is still alive ...
Perhaps one of the historians like Art Landing or Jim Hilliker will have knowledge of this.
I recall seeing in several markets "hit lists" prepared by a distributor or one-stop. They were not intended to be handed to consumers, but, rather were for the independent retailers and rack jobbers to use to order from. They were based on sales and gave a better idea to retailers of what was moving locally than the radio station lists, which often had turntable hits and "balance" songs on the list.
We didn't have any DJ's in 1986 aside from Dave Hull in mornings, but if you say that is what he said I have no problem with that? I was pretty sure the 1st 10 years meant 54 to 64 with a possible 1965 song thrown in.
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Thomps2525
Guest
1954 through 1964 is an eleven-year span. Including 1965 makes a twelve-year span.
David, somewhere in one of many boxes of radio memorabilia I have several of those "hit lists" that were used in the record departments of Sears stores. (Remember records?) The songs were numbered but the numbers had nothing to do with sales figures or rankings. The numbers referred to the individual bins in the Sears record display. On each weekly list, three or four of the poorest-selling titles were removed and replaced by up-and-coming hits. The Sears employees would simply pull the poor-selling records from the proper bins and put the newer releases in those same bins. If the weekly lists had been in sales order, the employees would have had to rearrange all the records each week.
I, too, would love to find out about those "Hit Line" surveys. Could they possibly have been put out by Record Merch? WMCA was printing weekly music surveys as early as 1957. Were there any top-40 stations publishing surveys prior to that?
David, somewhere in one of many boxes of radio memorabilia I have several of those "hit lists" that were used in the record departments of Sears stores. (Remember records?) The songs were numbered but the numbers had nothing to do with sales figures or rankings. The numbers referred to the individual bins in the Sears record display. On each weekly list, three or four of the poorest-selling titles were removed and replaced by up-and-coming hits. The Sears employees would simply pull the poor-selling records from the proper bins and put the newer releases in those same bins. If the weekly lists had been in sales order, the employees would have had to rearrange all the records each week.
I, too, would love to find out about those "Hit Line" surveys. Could they possibly have been put out by Record Merch? WMCA was printing weekly music surveys as early as 1957. Were there any top-40 stations publishing surveys prior to that?
I found out about these on the MIA Lost Hits posts on Facebook, when I asked a question about radio surveys from the 50's. They were supposedly used to tally the 1955 to 1957 portions of the KRTH number one and two music weekends in the 80's. KFWB began the 1958 portion of that countdown, since I've verified that portion already. In 1965, the Boss 30 took over until midway through 1977, when the KRTH radio surveys took over from there.
Sounds like these Los Angeles music Hit Line surveys are very difficult to find or even read about.
You also had Steve Scott and Brian Beirne back then among others
No, not true I will repeat what I said, on AM 930 Dave Hull was the only live voice & Brother John voicers ran the other 20 hours. I seem to remember Al Connors did some limited on air work. In 88 or 89 they dropped the all Brother John sound
T
Thomps2525
Guest
On January 31, 1986, KHJ's final day---yes, those call letters returned in 2000 but let's not get picky!---the Los Angeles Times ran a story about the next day's call-letter change. The article included this:
"Beginning Saturday, KHJ listeners who switch to the middle of their AM dial will hear the same basic 'Smokin' Oldies' format it has been playing in recent weeks as well as some of the same deejays."
The "some" was just Dave Hull, correct? And 23 employees of KRTH-AM/FM were fired. Who were they...and why were they fired?
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-31/entertainment/ca-2910_1_los-angeles-radio-stations
"Beginning Saturday, KHJ listeners who switch to the middle of their AM dial will hear the same basic 'Smokin' Oldies' format it has been playing in recent weeks as well as some of the same deejays."
The "some" was just Dave Hull, correct? And 23 employees of KRTH-AM/FM were fired. Who were they...and why were they fired?
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-31/entertainment/ca-2910_1_los-angeles-radio-stations
Ron Thompson for one. Rick Scarry moved on, all the KHJ announcers, most of the News staff I think some sales people and others I didn't know. I found KRTH to be a very demeaning place to work, and the work was really hard for $8.50 an hour. Playing mostly 2 minute songs, having to pull the voicers for those songs along with the commercial load was tough work. The facilities were top notch and maintained well. The Carts ran at 15 IPS in full Left minus Right Stereo where available, the On site engineers were creepy, one sold Coke to the staff. One engineer screamed at our guard who was an off Duty Highway Patrol officer who mentioned what he could have done to that Engineer. The same Engineer yelled at me once and I told him if he said another word he could finish the shift and I would just leave. The stank of what was still RKO permeated the operation like a new General Tire, plus it was common knowledge that the Smokin' Oldies format was truly bad, popular with the Mexicans who loved it. In an all Union operation to be non union made the Board op's feel like scabs. There were quite a few employees double dipping with an FM & AM Union Salary. Located in a very bad area of town, when Beasly took over and then CBS, they fired the armed Security. My buddy Bruce Chandler was on the air when two robbers broke in. One opened the Studio door and asked Bruce where his co robber "Doobie" was. Bruce said "I don't know" and the guy left and continued with stealing. While they were caught, even during my RKO stay someone threw a brick into my windshield. The current GM Pat Norman felt bad and paid for it. Looking back I hated that State of the Art facility for many different reasons. Worked 7 days a week, now I haven't worked a day in 10 years although I still see 40% of my former federal salary and Blue Cross for life or age 62, which ever comes first!
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