It's funny!...If I'm not mistaken Jazzbeaux had the late evening shift on KGO just before Dr. Michael Krasny had it.
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LA Radio Dream Dial
- Thread starter Saladressing
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You guys sure have a lot of time to post!
I type fast, Flip.
I always say that the most useful thing I learned in college was touch typing.
This is my fault, because I keep asking for stories about the old days of L.A. radio. When I retired recently, I found myself becoming very sad about people in the entertainment business who had passed away, but who had meant a great deal to me in my youth. It seemed as if just yesterday, I was 16 years old, in my favorite place, the record store. The people who owned the store knew of my fascination with music and broadcasting, so they saved their old copies of Billboard Magazine ( and another magazine titled "Cash Box"), and gave them to me, so I could read the "insider" accounts about what was going on. I treasured those fun times.
That's what we have on this website ! We have people with absolutely incredible knowledge of this performing art -- and broadcasting is indeed a difficult and demanding performing art. We also have people who understand how to navigate the archives here with unbelievable efficiency & accuracy. It's a symposium unlike any other website ( at least in the USA). And it seems like the people whose talent made that era so special keep passing away with alarming frequency. Today it was Christine McVie, last week Irene Cara: and last month it was Art Laboe, and so forth. This might be only in my mind that I think everyone is dying - but there's truth to the fact that any day might be the last day on earth for any of us older retired people. Even if we are in good health, no one can tell when the sands of the hourglass will run out.
If Michael Hagerty, who's a really good writer, composes a story about the time that the station in Bishop, Calif. was on the phone with Wolfman, then I can hear Wolfman's voice in my head. (Maybe some others here can also). If he tells a story about Sam Riddle, then I hear Sam signing on, "Hello music lovers !" If he writes that Coach John Robinson was being needled by Robert W. Morgan when the engineer went to commercial, then played Morgan's jingle, I can hear the jingle exactly in my head, and I can also hear "Walkin' to New Orleans" by Fats Domino. 😊 That's a funny anecdote. If he tells the background information about Dr. Don Rose's goodbye show on WFIL, then that story comes alive. It brightens my day immeasurably and brings me out of my sadness to know that other people can help re-create long-ago moments of great meaning to listeners. If David Eduardo tells stories about owning radio stations all over the world, then that is absolutely amazing.
And yes, I have a ton of things to do in retirement; and I will pull myself out of this sad time. But I want to say thanks for being so patient, especially since some of these remembrances probably seem very arcane to you all. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude. And to everyone in at the microphone & behind the scenes, who makes this magic happen, please know how much appreciated and admired you are by the listeners! - Daryl Lynn L.A. 💙
🙂👍
I learned it in the 8th grade...but all I remember is the teacher walking around the room and saying "Keep your eyes of the G-D D----D keys!!!"
I took it in the first semester of sophomore year of high school and got----I dunno---a C? C-minus? But then six months or so later, I was made music director at KIBS and I had to type up the playlist every week and send letters asking (begging?) for record service to the record companies, so I actually improved by doing.
By the time I moved into news and had to turn copy quickly, I had it down.
I mean in other forums
If you go off topic, it will get closed, But here, nope
Couple pages, It's not about the Topic at all
If you go off topic, it will get closed, But here, nope
Couple pages, It's not about the Topic at all
Mario, you could just post your L.A. Radio Dream Dial and put this back on track, y'know.
David---Mario DOES have a point, though. Rather than close it, would it be a huge amount of work to take these off-topic posts and move them into a thread of their own? "L.A. Radio Ramblings" or something?
And from now on, I promise and maybe we can all promise to use the bright orange "Post Thread" button on the Los Angeles main page (could we make that appear on ALL pages??) to make a new topic when we want to go off on tangents.
Mario, I apologize if it was me that pulled this discussion off topic. I'm kind of new here, and maybe the moderators were trying to indulge me, because I had so many questions.
In general, I think that a thread gets closed down when it both goes off topic and then delves into a heated argument which violates the terms of service. ( i.e., it delves into personal attacks, name-calling, etc.). If it is just people chatting congenially, then I think that eventually, it will come back onto topic, so the mods leave it up. -- Daryl Lynn
I have a question before this thread gets closed down. 🙂 What is the difference between the music director and the program director? The program director decides which records gets played on the air, correct? Or, the program director hires and fires the air talent? Does the music director work under the supervision of the program director? Thank you for your reply,🙂 and I will try to stay on topic. -- D.L. L.A.
Daryl: As I mentioned in a post above, I'm going to try to use the "Post Thread" button to handle stuff that's off-topic. So, if you go to the main Los Angeles page, you'll find a new thread called "Program Directors vs. Music Directors" with the answer. And that way, follow-up questions won't be off-topic.
Good idea !! Okay, I will come over to chat on that thread. Thanks so much. -- Daryl
By the way, if the off-topic posts are moved (and I agree they should be), this thread will be a page and a half and its last post will have been from nine days ago.
Okay, here is one of my questions about the Program Director. And this is pretty basic, but the civilian listener doesn't understand how this is done in radio. In music radio, there is usually 5 minutes of news at the top of the hour, or at 5 minutes before the hour. But -- a DJ show has to be planned out beforehand. They know how many minutes of advertising they have, how many spot ads they have to play.....but how do they time the records and general DJ patter to come out exactly at the top of the hour so that the news can start?
Everything has to be figured out in advance, correct? The DJ or the program director has to figure out exactly the time of each record, pretty much down to the exact second. Otherwise, it would be easy to run 5 minutes behind, or 5 minutes too early and have empty airtime to fill. Does the DJ sit down and write a plan before broadcast, like a teacher would write a lesson plan?
Some examples:
You're a DJ with a show on a Top 40 rocker. You do your show hour by hour. You know that you have 20 minutes of 60 second spot advertisements to do each hour.
Then, you have maybe 8 minutes of weather and freeway traffic reports to read throughout the hour.( Like KCBS news radio San Francisco does freeway reports every 10 minutes). That's 28 minutes. Then, there's 5 minutes of news. That's 33 minutes. So, you have 27 minutes to play records and do patter. You have to select records that add up pretty closely to 27 minutes. You can play an instrumental record that leads up to the news, and you can fade the volume down in order for the news to start. That will give you a leeway of maybe 60 seconds, but that's all. Even with an instrumental song, that's really tricky programming.
Another example:
You work for CapRadio NPR in Sacramento, correct? So, when I listen to CapRadio, everything is timed precisely - not only the music shows, but also the spoken shows. For example, I just finished listening to Market Watch with Kai Ryssdal ( spelling?). That ends at EXACTLY 2:30 pm Pacific Time. He has to stop speaking at EXACTLY 2:30. Not 2:31, not 2:29. How does he do that? Does he write extra filler copy, or ad lib something to say, just in case he ends at 2:29 and has to fill for another 60 seconds?
Thank you......I have been trying to figure this out for 40 years. I'll save the reply, so that I don't ask it again. - Daryl 🙂
Everything has to be figured out in advance, correct? The DJ or the program director has to figure out exactly the time of each record, pretty much down to the exact second. Otherwise, it would be easy to run 5 minutes behind, or 5 minutes too early and have empty airtime to fill. Does the DJ sit down and write a plan before broadcast, like a teacher would write a lesson plan?
Some examples:
You're a DJ with a show on a Top 40 rocker. You do your show hour by hour. You know that you have 20 minutes of 60 second spot advertisements to do each hour.
Then, you have maybe 8 minutes of weather and freeway traffic reports to read throughout the hour.( Like KCBS news radio San Francisco does freeway reports every 10 minutes). That's 28 minutes. Then, there's 5 minutes of news. That's 33 minutes. So, you have 27 minutes to play records and do patter. You have to select records that add up pretty closely to 27 minutes. You can play an instrumental record that leads up to the news, and you can fade the volume down in order for the news to start. That will give you a leeway of maybe 60 seconds, but that's all. Even with an instrumental song, that's really tricky programming.
Another example:
You work for CapRadio NPR in Sacramento, correct? So, when I listen to CapRadio, everything is timed precisely - not only the music shows, but also the spoken shows. For example, I just finished listening to Market Watch with Kai Ryssdal ( spelling?). That ends at EXACTLY 2:30 pm Pacific Time. He has to stop speaking at EXACTLY 2:30. Not 2:31, not 2:29. How does he do that? Does he write extra filler copy, or ad lib something to say, just in case he ends at 2:29 and has to fill for another 60 seconds?
Thank you......I have been trying to figure this out for 40 years. I'll save the reply, so that I don't ask it again. - Daryl 🙂
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I think 101.9 was KSCA during that time...but I might be wrong...
Yes, those were the calls for Southern California's Alternative. When HBC LMA'ed it, we were not allowed to change call letters and, in Spanish language radio, call letters don't have any importance anyway.
Got it !
Way, way back in the day I'm sure they meant something to a lot of border stations...I can still hear a very strong Echo with a very heavy Voice saying: X-E-D la Gran "De" in Mexicali! This track must have run several times an hour on AM 1050.
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