1981 93 KHJ TV Ad

[Hot Hits]

A few weeks after the poorly-named Smokin' Oldies format debuted, I wrote Brother John and pointed out that the slogan "Music from rock'n'roll's first ten years" was inaccurate because KHJ was playing 1955-65, an eleven-year span. I also pointed out that the music is going to get awfully stale as time goes by and I suggested that KHJ play more recent songs but only the ones that had an "early rock'n'roll" sound. He wrote a nice reply thanking me for my comments and ended with "Incidentally, our numbers are going up." As Michael might point out, the debut of "Noventa-tres KKHJ" proved that the numbers didn't go up enough.

Why did you write Brother John? I didn't think he was still able to write or speak. I brought up some Ideas in the early days about the tempo of his 'Voicers' matching the tempo of the song, similar to a 'Keyed Jingle'. There was a group of blank faces at our only 'meeting'. Brother John didn't say a word. How dare RKO employ Non Union technicians at a time when their license was under scrutiny. The License was pulled soon after!

 

[Thomps2525]

John Rydgren---who also did all the voice-work for the old KABC-FM in 1968-69---suffered a major stroke in 1982 and was left with a form of dyslexia. By 1986, after three years of therapy, he had recovered most of his speaking and writing ability. That was an intriguing idea you had: matching voiceovers to the tempo of the song. I wonder if anyone ever tried that.

 

[GeorgeJ.]

Any country KHJ airchecks out there?

You can get a number of KHJ Country airchecks from California Aircheck - the Changeover from Top 40 to Country in 1980, Terry Moss 1980, Lee Sherwood 1980 and 1981, one (not sure of the jock) from March 1983 not too long before they switched from Country, and the first morning when they dumped country with Sweet Dick Whittington from April 1983. I had no advance notice that KHJ was going to be dropping country but just happened to be in Los Angeles that day and rolled tape on KHJ when I didn't hear country.