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Radio Names

Daryl Lynn L.A. said:
I'm not a stalker or a psycho; I'm happily married for many years, and have always liked radio as a medium. But I will tone it down. I apologize. :(
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I actually think it's great! The term "old curmudgeon" has at times been used to describe many regulars on this site. It's sometimes refreshing when someone on here shows true passion for the business and/or the people working in it.
 
Daryl Lynn L.A. said:
Congratulations on a very distinguished and very successful career in broadcasting. ( I am sorry to sound like a star-struck fan girl and will tone it down). I won't bother you any more about this, but just one last question. Are you at KXJZ or KXPR? I will tune into your show. I'm in the East Bay, and I think I can get those stations on my car radio. Thank you for being so informative and helpful, from Daryl Lynn :giggle:
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Thanks! I’m on KXJZ (90.9). It’s not a show…I do brief newscasts near the top and bottom of the hour during All Things Considered.
 
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gr8oldies said:
CKLW was "fake Drake" under Drew starting in April 1967 before it became "real Drake" that July. Drew continued on for awhile though
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Everything I’ve ever seen says that Drake hired Drew from WQXI to be PD at CKLW. There was a few months’ transition between his arrival and the full-blown “Big 8”, but that was typical, similar to Tom Rounds running “The Parade of Hits” before taking KFRC fully into format. Drake was still in control.
 
michael hagerty said:
Everything I’ve ever seen says that Drake hired Drew from WQXI to be PD at CKLW. There was a few months’ transition between his arrival and the full-blown “Big 8”, but that was typical, similar to Tom Rounds running “The Parade of Hits” before taking KFRC fully into format. Drake was still in control.
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The only launch by Drake that was accelerated is the well documented KHJ push that happened when they knew that KRLA had gotten word of the plans and was even trying to cover their positioning statements.

The rest were all done with considerable in-house off-the-air training and group´meetings of the airstaff, lots of production work and even some remodels of studios, particularly in the placing of cart machines and the like (and within union rules in some cases).

TR told me about filling for nearly a month with the Parade think while everything came together, including moving and settling jocks who came from other markets.
 
Thank you for the video about the Drake sound. That's very informative. I listened to all the Top 40 rocker stations extensively. It's true that 93 KHJ played more music. But they did this by talking over the intro and outro of their records ( which is explained in the video). Or, they started the records during the last 10 or 15 seconds of the commercials -- if there was a long instrumental introduction at the beginning. They would not talk over the voice of the record artist - but they would talk over an instrumental introduction. So yes, it must have been timed with a stopwatch.

I lived close to the studios of KRLA in Pasadena. KRLA had an open-door policy, whereby anyone could walk in at any time, sit in their lobby, and watch the dj's through the big glass window in the lobby. The glass booth was immediately adjacent to the lobby. Because KRLA was very teen-oriented, teens could come in at any time ( as long as they were well-behaved) and watch the jocks work. They had a studio clock with segments on it like the one shown in the video.

I was in KRLA countless numbers of times, because I wanted so badly to be a d.j. Lots of teens came into KRLA to watch the jocks work. The engineer sat opposite the "air chair" and played the commercials and the jingles. Very often, the dj's would come out of the booth during news breaks or sports breaks, and stand and chat with the teens who dropped by. As you can imagine, this was very fun for listeners to be able to stand and chat for a few minutes with their favorite dj's.
 
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As I remember, KHJ and the "Drake sound" got started after KRLA and their fast-paced, very bright uptempo sound. David the moderator wrote about "stationality" -- every station having a distinct sound, just like James Bond movies might have different actors, but each actor has the James Bond qualities.

Teens were welcome in the KRLA lobby, where they could watch the dj's work. When I was a very young teen - actually a 12 year old teenybopper, the KRLA program director was a guy named Jim Washburne. He installed a format clock like the one shown in the video above. It was clearly visible through the big glass window from the lobby into the dj booth. So, the clock was not an exclusive idea of Drake's. ( Sadly, Jim Washburne was later killed in an accident in San Francisco, where he moved to work at KYA).

So, the biggest 50,000 watt Top 40 stations each had their own sound. KFWB was first on the air, maybe in 1957, with program director Chuck Blore. ( I think he learned programming from a guy in Texas named Gordon McClendon? ) They were "Color Radio 98".

Then KRLA started in 1959. The changed from country music format and call letters KXLA. They hired in dj's from different markets who were very young and very fast paced. It's a distinctive very warm, very rapid delivery, very personable sound that appealed to teens.

Afterwards, KHJ and the Drake format started in about 1965 in order to compete with KRLA. ( KHJ formerly had an MOR format, IIRC). I was still pretty young at this time, but I loved rock music and was fascinated with how to run a radio station and create an environment with a distinct personality. - D.

P.S. I was fascinated, but not "obsessed". I loved music as a teen, as many teens do. I thought the jocks were really fun personalities and it would be such a fun job. - D.
 
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Daryl Lynn L.A. said:
Teens were welcome in the KRLA lobby, where they could watch the dj's work. When I was a very young teen - actually a 12 year old teenybopper, the KRLA program director was a guy named Jim Washburne. He installed a format clock like the one shown in the video above. It was clearly visible through the big glass window from the lobby into the dj booth. So, the clock was not an exclusive idea of Drake's. ( Sadly, Jim Washburne was later killed in an accident in San Francisco, where he moved to work at KYA).

So, the biggest 50,000 watt Top 40 stations each had their own sound. KFWB was first on the air, maybe in 1957, with program director Chuck Blore. ( I think he learned programming from a guy in Texas named Gordon McClendon? ) They were "Color Radio 98".

Then KRLA started in 1959. The changed from country music format and call letters KXLA. They hired in dj's from different markets who were very young and very fast paced. It's a distinctive very warm, very rapid delivery, very personable sound that appealed to teens.

Afterwards, KHJ and the Drake format started in about 1965 in order to compete with KRLA. ( KHJ formerly had an MOR format, IIRC). I was still pretty young at this time, but I loved rock music and was fascinated with how to run a radio station and create an envisronment with a distinct personality. - D.

P.S. I was fascinated, but not "obsessed". I loved music as a teen, as many teens do. I thought the jocks were really fun personalities and it would be such a fun job. - D.
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So, the big 50,000 watt rocker stations each had a distinct sound:

KFWB - with its slogan "My Mommy listens to KFWB" had the "7 Swingin' Gentlemen" had the most mature sound. They wanted to appeal to adults ( hence their slogan) as well as teens.

KRLA, with a faster-paced brighter sound, with very young dj's, mostly in their early or mid - 20's.

Then KHJ "Boss Radio" started with a very fast sound and lots of music. They took over the ratings pretty fast. But in order to play all that music, they talked over their records or sometimes started the records before the commercial was over ( as I remember it).
 
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Daryl Lynn L.A. said:
So, the big 50,000 watt rocker stations each had a distinct sound:

KFWB - with its slogan "My Mommy listens to KFWB" had the "7 Swingin' Gentlemen" had the most mature sound. They wanted to appeal to adults ( hence their slogan) as well as teens.

KRLA, with a faster-paced brighter sound, with very young dj's, mostly in their early or mid - 20's.

Then KHJ "Boss Radio" started with a very fast sound and lots of music. They took over the ratings pretty fast. But in order to play all that music, they talked over their records or sometimes started the records before the commercial was over ( as I remember it).
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Quick note, Daryl---of those three stations, only KRLA had 50,000 watts. Both KFWB and KHJ were 5,000 watts.

The other 50,000 watt stations in Los Angeles are/were KFI, KMPC (now KSPN)---during the daytime, then 10,000 watts at night, KTNQ (which was daytimer KGBS before December 24, 1976), KNX and KDAY (now KBLA).
 
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A little bit about me: I recently retired and found myself with some extra time on my hands. I've been happily married for decades and taught high school English in Orange County, Calif. for many years. When my husband and I moved to the Bay Area to be closer to our grandchildren, we started going through all our possessions, and downsizing, as senior citizens often do during retirement.

When I started going through everything, I found memorabilia from my early teens and high school years. And that started me thinking about growing up in the 70's and 60's. I was very shy and introverted as a teen, and I grew up in a very sheltered, quiet, conservative family. I saw Top 40 d.j.'s as highly extroverted, very charismatic outgoing personalities who could talk to anyone and who had very strong social skills. So I wanted to learn to relate to people better by emulating the d.j's. They became sort of like role models for me to improve my social skills.
 
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