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AM Only P.D. Chick Watkins has passed

M

MadMan

Banned
WGAR Cleveland & Transtar/Unistar/WW1/Dial Global Announcer/Programmer Chick Watkins has died.

One of the funniest guys I knew, did magic tricks at work, loved his flash paper ring and was a great programmer & announcer. One of his funniest bits is when he would ask you if you drink coffee, and then yank off his artificial hair saying look what it did to me!

Mr. Charles Howard Watkins, 90, of Walnut, CA, died September 18, 2024, at , born June 14, 1934.
 
I watched this video last month as part of a playlist I had never seen. There are about 10 of them.Thanks to Mark Hayden, known as Doug Hayden when I first met him in 86 when Transtar A/C joined the other Hollywood formats. This is where you can find all the videos if they don't play as a collection
www.youtube.com

Mark Douglas Haden

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
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Chick was my favorite on ABM/KOY Phoenix. He did great interviews with the artists, and I remember on 9/11 when CNN was airing coverage on ABM, and Chick knew when it was time to steer back into the music, and did so in a humbling manner that didn't ignore what had happened, but bringing back at least some normalcy on that horrific day.

R.I.P. Chick
 
There are a lot of great memories in that collection & that intersection of Hollywood like it was yesterday, 40 years ago. Seeing the Cinerama Dome gave me chills, all my friends look the same except me! Never made it to Valencia, visited once, didn't have the charm Hollywood did. The footage also featured Colorado Springs Transtar HQ (that little building in the field) where the A/C Network was & Country studio had recently moved from. Also some strange footage from the Jones Network, seemed to have less talented people there, I could be wrong. Who could forget Mike Harvey at both Disneyland & Disney World doing SuperGold, I always preferred Dick Barkley's Solid Gold Saturday Night, an RKO Network show we ran on Smokin' Oldies, an RKO Radio Station which I believe was produced by the United Stations, a Dick Clark Company. All of this merged and then kind of went in different directions. If you have the 4 hours or so you will wan't to watch Chick's collection. And thanks to Mark Haden, a super smooth jock and a really nice guy. Then again so was Chick!
 
MadMan said:
There are a lot of great memories in that collection & that intersection of Hollywood like it was yesterday, 40 years ago. Seeing the Cinerama Dome gave me chills, all my friends look the same except me! Never made it to Valencia, visited once, didn't have the charm Hollywood did.
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Having worked for almost 6 years in the old Broadway Building at Hollywood and Vine in a office with a view of Capitol Records, there indeed is something about the area. Sometimes, to stretch my legs at lunchtime, I'd walk al the way to the Chinese Theater and back watching all the stars in the sidewalk. Years before, I worked as consultant at Hollywood and Highland, which was also a lot of fun. And, of course, Musso & Frank's which does not change after nearly 5 decades of visiting it.

File under "Nothing to do with Radio".

#1 KTNQ/KLVE/KSCA/KRCD/KRCV
# 2 KKHJ
#3 KWKW
 
secondchoice said:
I liked when he was joking "play any song you want as long as it isn't on the playlist".

How many folks think that is real?
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I absolutely do! Transtar /Unistar used highly researched music from the Research Group. One day I found a copy of Tom Clay's cover version of Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now". Minutes after playing it the complaints started pouring in from local Program Directors. Chick said to me "what the hell did you have me play?"
 
MadMan said:
I absolutely do! Transtar /Unistar used highly researched music from the Research Group. One day I found a copy of Tom Clay's cover version of Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now". Minutes after playing it the complaints started pouring in from local Program Directors. Chick said to me "what the hell did you have me play?"
Click to expand...
About a week ago, I found that song on You Tube and played it for someone from the next generation. By the end of the song, he was nearly in tears and I was thinking about it! "What is prejudice? I think it's when someone is sick."
 
semoochie said:
About a week ago, I found that song on You Tube and played it for someone from the next generation. By the end of the song, he was nearly in tears and I was thinking about it! "What is prejudice? I think it's when someone is sick."
Click to expand...
Many people don't know this, the little girl was actually Tom's daughter. Tom chain smoked at KPRZ (KIIS AM). The studios would smell terrible, the Mic dripping with brown stuff after his shift. He actually reportedly sold used Cigarette butts & tissues he claimed were used by the Beatles. This might have inspired Donald Trump to sell pieces of his old suits?
en.wikipedia.org

Tom Clay - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
MadMan said:
This might have inspired Donald Trump to sell pieces of his old suits?
en.wikipedia.org

Tom Clay - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...

It's infinitely more likely he was inspired by Colonel Tom Parker:

entertainment.howstuffworks.com

Elvis Presley Collectibles

There have been a number Elvis Presley collectibles produced throughout his life that reflected the stages of his career. Elvis's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, used collectibles as a way to market his client. Learn about Elvis collectibles.
entertainment.howstuffworks.com entertainment.howstuffworks.com
 
I had just one brief interaction with Chick at a Westwood One Adult Standards station in the mid 1990s. The network was playing an instrumental, primarily for fill or as a"timed record". We were getting calls about so I called the network to ask. He told me what it was, but also there was no distribution of the recording. Short but a nice conversation.
I remember artist interviews on Chick's Friday. One that stands out is one with then 80-year-old Frankie Laine, who had just released an album.
 
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