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Radio DJ flip on “misheard lyrics” thread

Ma “Contrarian” Gee

Ma “Contrarian” Gee

This one is more related to the persons in the air studio playing the hits.

Maybe my stations were the exception, but after pounding the latest number one song for a few months, you’d get a little tired of hearing the same thing over and over and over...

So for laughs around the studio, you do variations on the lyrics. You knew the correct lyrics. You’d just offer up a cheap laugh for the gang around the radio station with an “updated” lyric. Most times you could never use them on-the-air. You wouldn’t dare.

First one that comes to mind for me? Michael Jackson’s duet “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.” Around the ol’ hot hits FM we’d sing it “I just can’t stop sniffing glue."

Yeah. Okay. Kinda lame but you get the point. Any others come to mind?
 
Ma “Contrarian” Gee said:
This one is more related to the persons in the air studio playing the hits.

Maybe my stations were the exception, but after pounding the latest number one song for a few months, you’d get a little tired of hearing the same thing over and over and over...

So for laughs around the studio, you do variations on the lyrics. You knew the correct lyrics. You’d just offer up a cheap laugh for the gang around the radio station with an “updated” lyric. Most times you could never use them on-the-air. You wouldn’t dare.

First one that comes to mind for me? Michael Jackson’s duet “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.” Around the ol’ hot hits FM we’d sing it “I just can’t stop sniffing glue."

Yeah. Okay. Kinda lame but you get the point. Any others come to mind?
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A couple of these I actually did hear on the air:

-Paul Christy on KHMX (Mix 96.5) in Houston, over the intro of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees, once said "You can tell by the way I use my wok, I'm a Chinese cook, no time to talk."

-On classic rock KKRW (93.7 The Arrow), also in Houston, I once heard a weekend jock say, "Shave my wife, I'm going down for the last time," after he played "Never Been Any Reason" by Head East. (Actual lyric is "Save my life...")
 
The reverse of this premise was Robert W. Morgan at KHJ in Los Angeles in 1972.

He was so sick of playing Donny Osmond's "Puppy Love" that he had his engineer play it---and only it---for 90 minutes while Robert continued to introduce and back-announce it as other records ("KHJ. That's "Bang A Gong" by T. Rex..."), but NEVER as Puppy Love.

Because he played it SO straight, listeners were worried and called the LAPD, which showed up at the station, after which Morgan dumped the stunt.
 
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The inimitable Dan Ingram had fun with lyrics. For example, he once introduced The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by singing "You never close your thighs anymore when I kiss your lips."
 
michael hagerty said:
The reverse of this premise was Robert W. Morgan at KHJ in Los Angeles in 1972.

He was so sick of playing Donny Osmond's "Puppy Love" that he had his engineer play it---and only it---for 90 minutes while Robert continued to introduce and back-announce it as other records ("KHJ. That's "Bang A Gong" by T. Rex..."), but NEVER as Puppy Love.

Because he played it SO straight, listeners were worried and called the LAPD, which showed up at the station, after which Morgan dumped the stunt.
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This HAD to have been cleared in advance with at least the PD, and maybe even Bill Drake himself. Even so, seems very out of character for a Drake-consulted station. A couple years earlier at WRKO in Boston a stunt didn't go so well for the participants. It was at 2am on the date when we went to DST. Jock played the legal ID cart, announced "it's 2 o'clock at the big 68, then a tape in fast forward potted up on the air for 5-10 seconds, jock says "it's 3 o'clock at the big 68", ID cart again into song. Both the jock and the board-op got canned for that one. There's an aircheck of this out there.
 
Oldbones said:
This HAD to have been cleared in advance with at least the PD, and maybe even Bill Drake himself.
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It was not. Neither Ted Atkins nor Bill Drake knew, and neither would ever have said yes.

According to Morgan, Atkins was waiting in the hall when Morgan got off the air (the stunt ended half an hour earlier, thanks to the LAPD) and asked Morgan to join him in his office. Here's how Morgan recounted the conversation:


TED: "Bob, WHY?"

MORGAN: "Ted, if I could answer that, I probably wouldn't have done it."
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About 15 years ago, shortly before his death, I had the opportunity to talk to Ted Atkins, and I asked him if Morgan told that story straight. Ted said that Morgan left out the swearing, but yeah, that was pretty much it.

Morgan knew his job was not in jeopardy---they'd just blown Charlie Tuna up to bring Morgan back two months before. It would be a colossal embarrassment to have mornings open again.

And, although neither Drake nor Atkins would have ever said yes....they were smart enough to know that this was free publicity. There was really nothing there that reflected badly on KHJ itself. Morgan clearly had a wicked sense of humor (back-announcing "Puppy Love" with "K-H-J. That's Malo and "Suavecito"...and every other song he would have played in that hour and a half), but he followed the format, and got all the spots played on time.

If you're not familiar with Morgan, he was pretty much incorrigible. This happened five weeks after the "Puppy Love" stunt:

 
michael hagerty said:
The reverse of this premise was Robert W. Morgan at KHJ in Los Angeles in 1972.

He was so sick of playing Donny Osmond's "Puppy Love" that he had his engineer play it---and only it---for 90 minutes while Robert continued to introduce and back-announce it as other records ("KHJ. That's "Bang A Gong" by T. Rex..."), but NEVER as Puppy Love.

Because he played it SO straight, listeners were worried and called the LAPD, which showed up at the station, after which Morgan dumped the stunt.
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Is there an aircheck of this anywhere, by chance?

c
 
Leave it to Robert W. ... after the explanation, he went and did it again, one more time.

He always wanted to be a MOR jock, or at least he always said that. What I found unfortunate was that when he went to KMPC that ended "Morganizing" people.

I suppose everyone knows what Don Imus did during the brief period when RWM was in Chicago ...?
 
K.M. Richards said:
Leave it to Robert W. ... after the explanation, he went and did it again, one more time.
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That was pure, 100% Morgan.

K.M. Richards said:
He always wanted to be a MOR jock, or at least he always said that. What I found unfortunate was that when he went to KMPC that ended "Morganizing" people.
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He couldn't make up his mind. There were attractive elements to both formats. When he left KMPC for Magic 106, he told the L.A. Times that he wanted to talk dirty and play the hits like his friend Don Imus in New York. Of course, when that didn't work, he went right back to KMPC as soon as he could (he was on the beach a few months).

I also think he missed the ratings that Top 40 brought. When he walked out of KHJ in 1973, that was the end of his being the number one morning man in L.A. Never happened again for him.

K.M. Richards said:
I suppose everyone knows what Don Imus did during the brief period when RWM was in Chicago ...?
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Moved from Stockton to Cleveland---after doing the Eldridge Cleaver Look-Alike Contest.
 
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K.M. Richards said:
I suppose everyone knows what Don Imus did during the brief period when RWM was in Chicago ...?
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michael hagerty said:
Moved from Stockton to Cleveland---after doing the Eldridge Cleaver Look-Alike Contest.
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No, he was Morganizing people on his own show:
Second paragraph, second column.
 
K.M. Richards said:
No, he was Morganizing people on his own show:
Second paragraph, second column.
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Oh. That wasn't when Morgan was in Chicago. He's referring to the six months between KHJ and K-100. Morgan sat in with Imus one morning during that...on his way up to the WBZ Grease Weekend in Boston (Retro Radio Joe has misdated the aircheck---it's July, 1973).

Double-jock jingle at 3:30.

Morgan explains Morganization at 4:50, and then tries to Morganize an Imus listener at 6:55.

 
K.M. Richards said:
Thanks for correcting the timeline. Personally, I loved the line (in the BP&P interview) where Don said "Imusizing" sounded like waxing your car. I can hear him in my head saying it.
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I remember that issue of BP&P and reading the interview at the time.

Just re-read it---interesting how they chose not to mention that Morgan was only doing weekends and fill-ins at KMPC, and in fact, hadn't been doing it long at all when he did the interview. He started in late October of '75. For the print deadlines for the March/April '76 BP&P, that interview probably had to happen in December at the latest.

I also hadn't worked out before this that Kathy Gori was the one who lost when they brought Morgan in. Sonny Melendrez got moved from the weekend/fill-in slot into her overnight shift and Morgan took Sonny's spot.

I actually kept that issue for a long time because the next article is a great piece on production by Don Elliot. I learned more from that one article than I did in any year of actually doing production before it.
 
michael hagerty said:
I actually kept that issue for a long time because the next article is a great piece on production by Don Elliot. I learned more from that one article than I did in any year of actually doing production before it.
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Funny you should mention that. I just told Don last week that much of what I know about production came from his articles in that magazine ... and that the fun part was converting his techniques to digital editing. (He does some voice work for The Eighties Channel™.)

And: That particular issue of BP&P is in the World Radio History archives because I let David scan my copy of it (among other issues he was missing at the time). And yes, I still have the print copies of the entire run of the magazine.
 
michael hagerty said:
It was not. Neither Ted Atkins nor Bill Drake knew, and neither would ever have said yes.
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If KHJ was playing "Puppy Love" I guess it's safe to assume they were pretty much straight top 40 in 1972? I ask because from late '71 thru the spring of '73 WRKO was doing, for lack of a better term, an top 40/AOR hybrid format. A toned down (kind of AC-ish) presentation, a lot of LP cuts and nothing even remotely bubblegummy or teen-oriented. Surveys for that time period aren't really reflective of how they sounded...there was a lot they played wasn't listed. You'd hear some album cut by the Allman Brothers followed by "Alone Again Naturally" or something similar.
It was a reaction to something similar WMEX did under John Garabedian in the summer/early autumn of '71. By January WMEX was straight top 40 again, but 'RKO continued the hybrid format for better than a year.
Supposedly Drake flew to Boston to see for himself what they were doing, I'd figured the rest of the RKO chain might have followed suit.
 
Oldbones said:
If KHJ was playing "Puppy Love" I guess it's safe to assume they were pretty much straight top 40 in 1972? I ask because from late '71 thru the spring of '73 WRKO was doing, for lack of a better term, an top 40/AOR hybrid format. A toned down (kind of AC-ish) presentation, a lot of LP cuts and nothing even remotely bubblegummy or teen-oriented. Surveys for that time period aren't really reflective of how they sounded...there was a lot they played wasn't listed. You'd hear some album cut by the Allman Brothers followed by "Alone Again Naturally" or something similar.
It was a reaction to something similar WMEX did under John Garabedian in the summer/early autumn of '71. By January WMEX was straight top 40 again, but 'RKO continued the hybrid format for better than a year.
Supposedly Drake flew to Boston to see for himself what they were doing, I'd figured the rest of the RKO chain might have followed suit.
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So, this actually began at KHJ.

Ted Atkins, in collaboration with Bill Drake, re-vamped KHJ's approach in late April of 1971, an all-at-once makeover that included the "Motown" jingles (hear them here, from :00:17 to 16:08 )


...a shrinking of the oldies library and a reduction of the number of goldens per hour in weekdays, with album cuts introduced in their place---usually no more than two per hour.

Atkins continued to refine it---the jingles were gone by November of 1971, replaced by the original acapellas. The Drake-voiced jock intros were gone as well, with just the Johnny Mann acapella "KHJ, Los Angeles" and then the jock over the intro of the first record of the hour.

In May of 1972, shortly after "Puppy Love" fell off the chart, there was another refinement. The top of the hour jingle was gone. The jocks did the legal ID live and it was very basic:

"(Time) at KHJ, Los Angeles. This is (name)." Robert W. Morgan was allowed "Good Morgan from Robert W."

Also, that month, Walt "Baby" Love decided to return to WOR-FM and Drake told Ted Atkins he wanted Jimmy Rabbitt in 9-Midnight. Rabbitt proved uncoachable and lasted four shifts spread over six days. He was replaced by WRKO's "Johnny Williams" (Bill Todd), who took the name "Cat Simon" and was 90% as hip as Rabbitt with 0% of the headaches.

Here's the KHJ "Thirty" for the week Rabbitt was there:

khj_361b_720530.gif

KHJ ignored Sammy Davis, Jr.'s "The Candy Man" and Gallery's "Nice To Be With You", which were #5 and #8 on Billboard, and they turned a cold shoulder to most bubblegum and overly light pop for several months.

Ted Atkins left in the fall, spending some time at KIIS-AM before going to WTAE, Pittsburgh. Drake's lieutenant Bill Watson became KHJ's acting PD and he pretty much kept an even keel, but teen records (including "Crazy Horses" by the Osmonds and "Why" from Donny Osmond) began returning in October of '72.

It was the arrival of Paul Drew at full-time PD at KHJ in March of 1973 that saw the album cuts go away and a return to a pure Top 40 approach, with more jingles, Bill Drake-voiced top of the hour legal IDs ("KHJ, Los Angeles---all hits, all the time.") and virtually constant contests.

Here's Billboard's coverage of the initial changes in 1971:


(page 2)

 
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michael hagerty said:
So, this actually began at KHJ.

Ted Atkins, in collaboration with Bill Drake, re-vamped KHJ's approach in late April of 1971, an all-at-once makeover that included the "Motown" jingles (hear them here, from :00:17 to 16:08 )

...a shrinking of the oldies library and a reduction of the number of goldens per hour in weekdays, with album cuts introduced in their place---usually no more than two per hour.

Atkins continued to refine it---the jingles were gone by November of 1971, replaced by the original acapellas. The Drake-voiced jock intros were gone as well, with just the Johnny Mann acapella "KHJ, Los Angeles" and then the jock over the intro of the first record of the hour.

In May of 1972, shortly after "Puppy Love" fell off the chart, there was another refinement. The top of the hour jingle was gone. The jocks did the legal ID live and it was very basic:
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Thanks for the history. Just going from memory, but 'RKO really tightened up in the early summer of '71, using the same jingle package you linked to (I'd always heard it referred to as the "Drake AA package"). Don't remember a reduction of oldies (though they did reduce their million dollar weekend to just Sunday), don't remember much in the way of LP cuts initially either. They did play Jethro Tull's "Hymn 43", which seemed a bit out of place, but that was released as a single. The change back to slightly edited versions of the old acapella jingles happened around the same time as in LA, as did the introduction of LP cuts and/or LP versions of some of the chart songs ("One Fine Morning"-Lighthouse and "Tell Mama"-Savoy Brown are a couple that come to mind. Any idea why they made the change in jingles? I kinda liked that package. Not mentioned in your account was the (brief) use of "mingles"/"pop-tops"/whatever else they were called (singing jingle over an intro made to sound like the song's artist). They only used them for a month or two.
RKO didn't play Sammy Jr, but they did play Gallery. They did not play "Troglodyte", don't remember anyone in the market playing that one.

There was an article in Rolling Stone from early '72 about the WMEX vs WRKO thing, it made it look like it was strictly a local thing...guess not.
 
Oldbones said:
There was an article in Rolling Stone from early '72 about the WMEX vs WRKO thing, it made it look like it was strictly a local thing...guess not.
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Remember that in the 70's we already had "tip sheets" and newsletters ranging from Hamilton and Gavin to FMQB and the start of R&R. Not only did those pubs show song action, but they were full of gossip, chat and news items from significant stations. So if any important station did anything significant, we all heard about it by the next Monday.
 


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