I might agree with that generally, although I think Sam Riddle "bridged the gap". He was the first DJ/Air Personality I remember listening to and at one time or another I heard him on virtually all the LA Top 40 stations including the nascent KROQ 1500. I loved his "9th Street West" TV show.Exactly.
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LA Radio Dream Dial
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OK! Now some brain cells re-activated. I googled Matador & Javelin. The Matador was the model my friend owned. Senior prank, I jokingly suggested that we tow a car into our school courtyard and take the wheels off and cement it into the ground. I came in 2 days later to see his old Matador [which had blown an engine] sitting in the courtyard, totally destroyed, with a 3 story tall TV antenna rammed through the trunk lid, through the trunk floor and about three feet into the ground. Since I was known as the "class clown" I'm thinking "Great! I'M gonna get blamed for this!" First bell rings and 10 seconds later I'm being called to the office. I got lucky, they just wanted me to take pictures of the principal sitting in it. And no, they could never pin it on me because I had nothing to do with putting it in the courtyard.
And those stupid "wrapped" station vehicles nowadays just sit in their station parking lots looking pretty. The only time I see them moved is if they're sponsoring something and then they just sit at whatever they're sponsoring with not a single person from the station in sight. I should check nearby bars, they're probably all hanging out in them.
I wish I had my old Satellite Sebring Plus as a news car. Now THAT had a V8. That thing was so fast someone could have called in a 30 car crash on the highway and I could have gotten there before the last 15 cars had slammed into the rest.
Yes ! Sam, Wink, and Jim O'Neill migrated over from KRLA and "bridged the gap." ( Although Wink might be said to be a little more MOR format, which is why he fit in so well at KMPC). All of those guys had rock n' roll tv shows that were fantastic. Not only did Sam have 9th Street West, but he also emceed "Hollywood A Go Go". And of course, he was a successful producer of "Star Search" in later years. I liked his bright, very upbeat high energy sound that he brought to radio.
Couple of things to remember:
First, Wink, when he went from KRLA to KFWB in 1962, was a bona fide Top 40 jock, having come to town from WHBQ in Memphis. He could do MOR, as he proved when he got stuck for a year or two at KHJ (which thought it was going Top 40 when they hired him in 1959) , and as he later proved at KGIL and KMPC, but he was absolutely a Top 40 jock (as were Robert W. Morgan and Gary Owens, who also later ended up at KMPC).
Secondly, is it "bridging a gap" if there's no effect?
Wink moved over before KRLA was a factor...it was a step up for him. Jimmy O'Neill and Sam got shoved into overnights and/or weekends upon landing at KFWB and it was only in his final few months there that Sam landed middays (which is not a shift to put your high-profile teen jock in). Jimmy had to leave KFWB for a while and come back before being given afternoons, which just put him up against Dave Hull and The Real Don Steele.
And while all that was going on, KRLA was building arguably the best Top 40 lineup for the era anyone not named Bill Drake could imagine---Emperor Bob Hudson, Casey Kasem, Dave Hull, Dick Biondi, Bob Eubanks. Those are the guys KFWB should have lured across the street, or beaten KRLA to bringing to Los Angeles in the first place.
I might also add 101.9 full spectrum rock whatever the call letters were.
I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but a picture I saw once on the 'net ten-plus years ago? No problem. KFWB news car---a 1969 Dodge Charger---the '68 had round side marker lamps--- (courtesy Paul Sakrison's website, which has color pictures inside the Yucca street building: Sakrison.com - KFWB ):
It being a '69 means it was purchased after the format switch to news. A '68 could have been bought as early as fall of '67.
It really makes no sense to do a rating survey in a one-station town, given that the point of the ratings is to give you an argument as to why the advertiser should buy you instead of the other guy---or at least give you a bigger part of his budget.
And even after competition entered the picture in 1974, to my knowledge, nobody ever ran a rating survey in Bishop. Way too small. The smallest market I ever worked in that had ratings was San Luis Obispo, which at the time was 30,000 people, with (in 1974) three AMs and three FMs, one of them a non-comm college station. Bishop was 3,500 people.
It's very hard to find ratings information in the early 60s trades, but here's a nugget from Billboard's August 22, 1964 issue: In the May, 1964 Hooper ratings, KRLA had a 16.7 to KFWB's 13.6.
I just noticed a bit of pre-digital radio trivia: the FM was shown as "94 1/3"!
And one more. By the December '64/January '65 Hooper, KRLA 20.3 to KFWB's 14.6, and KRLA was killing them at night---6-11 pm---KRLA 27.0, KFWB 15.2.
Every book after that would have KHJ as some sort of factor, and legend has it KHJ was number one in six months.
Every book after that would have KHJ as some sort of factor, and legend has it KHJ was number one in six months.
Probably a nod to KLOS' "ninety-five and a half":
Seemed clever at the time, when most stations were rounding (KNX-FM was "93", KJOI was "FM 99" for a while, KIQQ was "K-100", KRTH "K-Earth 101", and KBIG was "104 FM".)
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Oh my goodness. I had imagined myself to be some kind of an expert on DJ's at L.A. rocker stations LOL 😂 , but this is excellent. I just thought that KFWB sounded better with Wink, Sam, and Jimmy on it, because they were more high energy to my teenage ears than the older sounding other guys. Thank you for the great perspective on this topic.🙂👍
Thanks, Daryl Lynn. I have the advantage of having studied the business since I got in, plus, since the internet, access to audio from the time and, thanks to David Eduardo's exhaustive online library, trade papers of the time. You might enjoy:
RADIO and BROADCAST HISTORY library with thousands of books and magazines
World Radio History documents radio and TV broadcasting in an electronic library of books, magazines and publications.
worldradiohistory.com
More great stations, thanks. And thanks for the correction to B-100. That's a 40 year memory for ya. But yeah, those were great times for radio in the Southland.
I re-baptized WFID in San Juan around 1980 as "Fidelity Noventa y Cinco y Medio" (Ninty-five and a half" so there were a lot of us doing fractions back in the time of analog dials
In the Late 50's it was KFWB and continued for a couple of years in the 60's. But seemingly all of a sudden, I found myself and most of my friends listening to 1110 KRLA and continued to even after the arrival of 93 KHJ Boss Radio. Bill Drake and Co. certainly did a great job of creating a successful format that would become number one. But for me I found the station to be too "bubble gummy". They played too many tunes I didn't like, that I never heard on KRLA. 1110 remained my station of choice for pop music until I gradually migrated to FM--KABC-FM/KLOS, KPPC, KMET, KROQ etc.
I think Sam was the best Top 40 DJ I ever heard, and I've always felt that way.
He's absolutely one of my favorites.
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