A New Beginning

[doublecashkgb]

The sad truth is that, outside of us radio freaks, the average listener doesn't care much about disc jockeys. They're there for the music. The more music, the better. So the single-spot cluster that evolved to a triple-spot 70 second break under Drake became a two-minute cluster in the 70s...so there could be three and four (and five and six) songs in a row.


If that was true that explain the success of Howard Stern, Robert W Morgan, The Real Don Steele, Jeff & Jer, Kid Kraddick, Steve Dahl, Rick Dees? The point is the average listener is not aware of mechanics and style as those are who are really into radio. So what? We always target the core, they have passion for their favorite station. As for average listeners, they have been served shit for so long, why should they care about anything else than the music. I'll tell you this, two stations same music, except I have exceptionial talented jocks, the other has pukers and liner card readers, I win everytime.

 

[MikeAmatori]

I find it interesting that "production boy" needed to jump in here and hijack this thread
with his cliches and negatives. There is a reason we pay you guys 40-60k and keep
you in the back of the building, doing your little imaging and tags. The moment the
production guys start calling the shots, is when hell freezes over.

Dear DoubleCash...

An opinion based on facts is not a hijack. It's an opinion. I have 37 years in the radio business, all major market. By the way I don't work in the back, I work in the front.
And I don't know where you work, or even if you do, but the money guess is way off. And no I'm not gonna tell you.

"We Keep you guys in the back of the building" Really....Who's We?

In the # 4 market when you work for professionals who trust you with there $40+ million dollars a year in billing, they pay real well. Oh and did you forget... that I might do some freelance Voice Work for a Network or Syndication (by the way I do). That pays well too.

Double Cash, enjoy your trip in the Wayback Machine...Memory lane is a nice road, but it's the dead end that will kill you... I wish I were wrong about what I said but
I'm not...and that troubles me more than you know. But please! Allow me to have an opinion, as ignorant as yours is, I'm alowing you to have yours.

It saddens me everyday what my business has become, It was a lot nicer just being a
listener, well at least it used to be. That's why guys like JMF say "Enough"

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

God, I never knew what an antique I am! (HA HA) Like I said way back, people walk by me everyday and believe they're above me. They don't know ... they don't know. I did the voicing for the Bee Gees world tour for Saturday Night Fever. My voice ran in Brazil, Japan, Australia any place the Gibb Brothers stopped. Little ol' me! Well, don't fight over me. My day came and went. I just never thought it would. We all reach this place in the road sooner or later. And, please don't place me with Dr. Don, or Bobby Ocean, or Charlie Van Dyke; I never got enough respect in Radio to warrant that. Plus I learned in Vietnam, we all walk alone, stand alone, die alone. I'll never be a "joiner", sorry. I know there are others in Radio just like me. We do it, did it, or want to do it, and we know it's just us behind the mic, only us. As much as I love people, and love the audience (you know respect is not a big enough word for those people that rallied for me...) I'm still just one person, trying to touch one person at a time. I've tried all my life. -John- (p.s. I'm still trying. Thanks for being here. Thanks for touching me so deeply. -JMF-)

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

Paul Drew and Me and KFRC

From the first second we met, til the last time I saw him and shook his hand, Paul Drew the Vice President of Programming for RKO Radio,was nothing but courteous, and warm, and terrific to me. The last time I shook his hand seems like a minute ago in the engineering shop of KFRC at 415 Bush Street, San Francisco. I told Paul, "This business seems to have to have someone to kick around Paul, and you're it. You've been nothing but wonderful to me, and I thank you." I was leaving KFRC and would not see Paul Drew again.

Paul Drew was one tough cookie, believe me. I saw him go off on Paul Ward the Program Director of KFRC-FM (106...it would become KMEL). He told Paul Ward through the production room intercom, "When I get to the third floor, that door had better be unlocked!!!" I stepped back against the wall, and the hair on my neck stood up, Paul Drew was a bad son-of-a-gun. So why so nice to me? I've asked myself that question so many times, and I keep drawing a blank. ... Wasn't there one time Paul Drew wanted to rair back and let me have it?!? Why didn't he? I worked for so many bad,bad men in my career and not one. Not one. Ever blasted me. Ever. Remember that Higher Power I took with me on the air? Well, it must have been with me off the air too!

Next we'll talk ego ... and I've got to tell about giving $101,000 away at KIOI. God, those were the days. Hit Music and $100,000 does it get any better than that? At KFRC I gave away $1,000 (when that was money!) and a new car in 45 minutes! Don't cry for me Argentina...it was a great run! -John-

 

[michaelhagerty]

The sad truth is that, outside of us radio freaks, the average listener doesn't care much about disc jockeys. They're there for the music. The more music, the better. So the single-spot cluster that evolved to a triple-spot 70 second break under Drake became a two-minute cluster in the 70s...so there could be three and four (and five and six) songs in a row.


If that was true that explain the success of Howard Stern, Robert W Morgan, The Real Don Steele, Jeff & Jer, Kid Kraddick, Steve Dahl, Rick Dees? The point is the average listener is not aware of mechanics and style as those are who are really into radio. So what? We always target the core, they have passion for their favorite station. As for average listeners, they have been served ------ for so long, why should they care about anything else than the music. I'll tell you this, two stations same music, except I have exceptionial talented jocks, the other has pukers and liner card readers, I win everytime.

doublecash: Howard Stern's audience wasn't there for the music. His is a talk audience. I suspect Dahl's is too. I've never heard more than a few minutes of tape of Jeff & Jer or Kid Kraddick. Morgan and Steele succeeded within a format more restrictive than that of their competitors....and again at K-Earth, where they had even less talk time than they did at KHJ.
Rick Dees, like John Mack Flanagan, made a human connection that only a handful of jocks make.

Once upon a time, exceptional jocks were the tie-breaker between competing stations. I don't think that's necessarily true now. As I suggested in my post, the audience's expectations of what a jock should sound like have changed.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

Michael Hagarity ... Michael, there's no one I respect more than you. You are such a clear communicator and I believe every word you say ( or write?). I just want to commend you for having such a clear mind and being able to express yourself so well. Wednesdays & Thursdays are my days off so you might see more postings those days. I also have written and published a B Western news letter for 10 years on Johnny Mack Brown, Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson and all these cowboy movie guys I'm trying to keep alive. I'm slaving over a hot computer. -John-

 

[doublecashkgb]

I find it interesting that "production boy" needed to jump in here and hijack this thread
with his cliches and negatives. There is a reason we pay you guys 40-60k and keep
you in the back of the building, doing your little imaging and tags. The moment the
production guys start calling the shots, is when hell freezes over.

Dear DoubleCash...

An opinion based on facts is not a hijack. It's an opinion. I have 37 years in the radio business, all major market. By the way I don't work in the back, I work in the front.
And I don't know where you work, or even if you do, but the money guess is way off. And no I'm not gonna tell you.

"We Keep you guys in the back of the building" Really....Who's We?

In the # 4 market when you work for professionals who trust you with there $40+ million dollars a year in billing, they pay real well. Oh and did you forget... that I might do some freelance Voice Work for a Network or Syndication (by the way I do). That pays well too.

Double Cash, enjoy your trip in the Wayback Machine...Memory lane is a nice road, but it's the dead end that will kill you... I wish I were wrong about what I said but
I'm not...and that troubles me more than you know. But please! Allow me to have an opinion, as ignorant as yours is, I'm alowing you to have yours.

It saddens me everyday what my business has become, It was a lot nicer just being a
listener, well at least it used to be. That's why guys like JMF say "Enough"

Prod Boy, I think you're taking yourself a little too serious. I wasn't seriously slamming you, I don't know who you are and don't have any ill will. Except when you start speaking for other people. I'm more interested in what JMF has to say than to debate the merits of a negative projection. Funny thing is I'm significantly younger than you, so I don't know anything about memory lane. Oh yes I work here in the city.

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

When someone walks up to you and says, "Oh Look!" "It's so-and-so", "a Legend In Their Own Mind!" It hurts. It stings. And then the bb as I call it (this little grain of thought that rolls around your mind...) this bb starts to roll around and you find yourself saying, "Yeah! I am a legend in my own mind!" (HA! HA!) Let me ask you this, if you don't believe in yourself, totally 100% believe in yourself, who will? Do you think you'll succeed if you don't have 100% commitment? Anyone who knew me age 17 til 53 (my radio years) knows I was one focused son-of-a-gun. Nothing...nothing stopped me. RKO decided they'd use voice tracks on their FM stations and sell the tracks to other stations. There was a nationwide talent search, looking for the two voices to cut these RKO tracks. As usual, I said "Screw IT!" (My favorite modis operandi...) I wasn't going to be part of some meat market. Then Michael Spears said to me, "Flanagan, go for it!" Well, I couldn't argue with the guy who'd brought me to San Francisco, so I submitted a tape, and I got it! Wow! What a world! Chuck Buell and I running on tracks everywhere. I went to Redondo Beach later that year (1974...) and was in a clothing shop when I heard myself. "Stop!" I said loudly. "Stop!" "I wanna hear myself!" (HA! HA!) Am I full of myself? Yes, I think I am. My wife and daughter keep slapping me down. But, I've never tried to hurt anyone. As God is my witness I've only tried to do my best for myself and fellow human beings. Let me say this: Believe in yourself. Truly believe in yourself. I'm pulling for you, and so are others. Nothing breeds success like success. (Buzz Bennett-1970) -John-

 

[CSHARP]

John you got my attention when you said your not in the same leauge of Dr Don or Ocean, etc...wait just a minute John, I don't think you realize how big you were, how many lives you touched through the years, You may have had some bad luck in radio, but thats only because of Corp America is running radio now, if we had markets allowed to be creative and have program directors that could hire who they want we would still be enjoying you, but the world of radio as knew it is gone for now, lets just hope the FCC does change some ownership rules that would help re-create better programming and mabae bring back personality radio.

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

Right! Right! Right! Why are you always right?!? Well, I guess the customer is always right, huh? I was prepared to respond to Martinezguy and say, "You're full of it! I never did anything, blah, blah,blah..." then I thought about it driving home from work last night (I do highrise security in San Francisco financial district 3.p. to midnight ,off wednesday/thursday) and I thought of Mike Preston, Greg Love, and all those who have supported me (I think I might have been Mike's favorite at KFRC...Amazing!) . I said to myself, "If you've done one thing that touched people, don't fight it, celebrate (!) it." I'm just about the luckiest guy on the planet and I don't believe in luck. A woman who's loved me over 41 1/2 years, a beautiful daughter (Kelly) and now a beautiful Granddaughter Dylan. I showed her photo to someone yesterday and they said, "she'll be a movie star! She's so cute!". Well, what can I say? Bring It On! Celebrate me! Love me! (HA HA) and while you're doing it, go look in the mirror and think of a poor boy from New Mexico who's family was almost dead and buried by the time he was 16 (half of my family was gone), and realize how very much you've done for me.

Thanks.

Thanks isn't a big enough word.

-John-

 

[1069_KIFR]

Cool, you are off Wednesday and Thursday! I hope you have time to share more insights and memories in the next couple of days.

It was mentioned earlier about when you would do station tours. I was in one of those tours. In 1979 our radio/tv broadcasting class came from Marysville High School (Marysville, CA). We took our FCC license test (passed...the class 3 was easy) and then toured KFRC and K-101. At KFRC, John Mack conducted the tour. All of us were thrilled to be in such company of our host. Before we started, a nice gold cadillac parked in front of the station. With cane in hand, Dr. Don Rose strolled in. Handed out autographed photos. He proceeded into the studios. Then John Mack had our full attention.

(I personally did not persue a radio career. My forte was in television. To this day I am still involved.)

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

Gosh, I gave a lot of school tours of KFRC. I remember most the tour of Menlo Park High. I so clearly remember telling them, "this is a million dollar studio, it's easy to do great stuff here. But you, you get the real fun of pumping it up, with very limited resourses!" (they had a tiny campus radio station...) (not my exact words but you get the idea.) When I worked K-10 in Slayton Texas, we used hand-me-down-gear called the Gates 101 machine. They were obsolute but we pumped out "Lightning Strikes", You're the one" "Homeward Bound", and the spots came off the Gates 101 machines. No one knew we were in a converted laundermat, and the daytime only hours I believed made us more special. Sunrise to sunset only. You had to hear us when you heard us. K-10 was #3 when I left and I was #2 in the Lubbock market. The PD resigned and left town when I walked in the door. Those were the days of hot fun! Loved it! Nothing better! -John-

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

We were eastbound out of the mountains of southern New Mexico when the snowstorm hit. It was a bad one. In the car was my wife (we hadn't been married very long..) and in the back seat, my Best Man Bob Roberts, he and I worked together at KRSY in my hometown (Roswell) and his wife. His wife really felt ill. I was trying to get her back home. Well, in Hondo, New Mexico the sleet was so bad I had to pull off the road. (We were on Highway 70. My favorite road on the planet!!) When we came through Riverside and started across the high desert, I saw head lights way back behind me. If you get a map of Southern or Southeastern New Mexico you'll see there's not much out there. From Riverside to my hometown was about 45 miles. About 30 miles out, this car came up on me. It was the only car we'd seen in either direction. A storm like that keeps people off the road. He hit his red lights and it was the New Mexico State Police. The Trooper approached the car, "Did you know I had to do 85 to catch you?! (Yeah, you started in Arizona!) I didn't say anything. He said, "get out of the car and step to the rear." I explained my passenger's wife was sick and I was trying to get her to the doctor. He asked for my driver's license, and stepped to his car to radio headquarters. When he came back with my license, he was was flipping it against his palm when he asked, "Where do you work?" "Who do you work for?" I said, "Beg your pardon?" He asked, "Who owns your workplace?" I said, "John Burroughs". (the two term ex- Governor of New Mexico.) He said, (as he handed back my license...) "have a safe trip, and you drive any speed you want." Pays to have friends in high places. Or work in radio. ... -John-

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

If I wanted people to know one thing about me, what would it be? Probably my relationship with Jay Connelly. Jay and I were close friends in the 1970's. I lost track of Jay in the 80's, and God knows where he's buried today? He was on a real downward spiral the last time we spoke, and I was going thru my own stuggle at CBS (KCBS-FM, and KRQR "The Rocker"). Jay turned to more drugs, I turned to God. Here I am. When I went to KHJ in Oct. 1975, someone stole my skimmer tape, and Jay got me another copy. He was always doing that; helping me, supporting me, letting me lean on him. I don't have much family, as you know. At the time Jay and I were tight, there was my Mother, her two sisters (Eula, and Ruthie) and my wife and daughter. (God! Women! I'm always surrounded by women! (HA HA) now my Grand Daughter Dylan... Well, I guess it's o.k.???) Jay was like a brother to me. Once my mother came to visit from New Mexico and when we pulled up to KFRC on Bush Street, my Mom said, "Oh! Look at that man!" Jay was peeing on the building from Claude Lane the alley behind the station. One day, Lavenia Charles ("Runner Up For Miss Oakland") my hitline operator came in the control room and said, "there's a man on the phone crying." "Maybe you should speak to him"... It was Jay. He told me he was driving to the Golden Gate, to jump, but something I said, had stopped him. I don't remember what I said, but I'll remember Jay Connelly forever. -John-

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

I'll write it again...say it again...and maybe you'll believe it? Again. IT'S ALL ABOUT PEOPLE. Radio is all about people. That's why it's so hard to watch what a business I was in from age 17 to age 53, is going through today. Oh, it's always been like that (people coming in last...). I could tell you stories, mention names (very specific names. I won't forget the bastards!) but you have your own stories too. Stories of people who have trampled people (in and outside Radio) people who put people last. Radio is such a labor-intensive business, 'it's all about people'. The PDs I was with were o.k. (Mike Preston was THE BEST) but most of the GMs were idiots. Idiots. It wasn't cost cutting, or objection to programming, it was just plain stupidity. Stupid. I wanted to pass our oxygen tanks (or put them in an iron lung...) but, they're gone now, and I'm gone now, so it's time to get over it. Shel Engel at KTKT was like a Father to me. What a tremendous, tremendous man. What a generous man. What an accepting man. Shel believed I could do anything. For him, I wanted to. -John-

 

[SteveScott]

Dear John Mack Flanagan:
You write so eloquently about how people on the radio can touch the lives of listeners. They do, indeed - even listeners who someday become co-workers of the very people they listened to on the radio years earlier.

As a kid growing up in central California in the 1970s, KFRC was the station I listened to the most. Oh, there were stations in Stockton, Modesto and all over...but, I loved the SF stations - especially KFRC. When I was old enough to drive, my second-hand 1967 Mustang had KFRC on the AM radio!

I remember listening to the greats on KFRC...JMF, Dr. Don, Marvelous Mark and so many others. I even loved the KFRC news staff! "I'm Robert McCormick, 610 News, for KFRC, San Francisco" - it still resonates in my head today!

I decided I wanted to do that...I wanted to be like them! I went to San Jose State...spent more time at the college station (KSJS) than I did in class...got to be okay at doing news...and, eventually got a job doing morning news for Kelly and Kline on KWSS. Could there be anything better than being young, single and working on the air at a hit radio station? Then, one day, KWSS hired John Mack Flanagan. John Mack Flanagan! Holy buckets! I was working on the same station as one of the guys who inspired me to go into radio! Although we were station-mates for a relatively short time (I eventually left San Jose for Chicago in 1986) I remember trying to hang out around JMF whenever I could, just hoping that some of his incredible talent would reach me through osmosis.

I was just a blip on Mr. Flanagan's Hall of Fame-caliber career, and would not expect him to remember me 20+ years later. But, I want him to know that he did, indeed, touch at least one listener...a listener who decided he wanted to be just like him and be on the radio.

Thank you, John Mack Flanagan!

Steve Scott, News Anchor
WCBS Newsradio 880
New York, NY

 

[SteveScott]

Dear John Mack Flanagan:
You write so eloquently about how people on the radio can touch the lives of listeners. They do, indeed - even listeners who someday become co-workers of the very people they listened to on the radio years earlier.

As a kid growing up in central California in the 1970s, KFRC was the station I listened to the most. Oh, there were stations in Stockton, Modesto and all over...but, I loved the SF stations - especially KFRC. When I was old enough to drive, my second-hand 1967 Mustang had KFRC on the AM radio!

I remember listening to the greats on KFRC...JMF, Dr. Don, Marvelous Mark and so many others. I even loved the KFRC news staff! "I'm Robert McCormick, 610 News, for KFRC, San Francisco" - it still resonates in my head today!

I decided I wanted to do that...I wanted to be like them! I went to San Jose State...spent more time at the college station (KSJS) than I did in class...got to be okay at doing news...and, eventually got a job doing morning news for Kelly and Kline on KWSS. Could there be anything better than being young, single and working on the air at a hit radio station? Then, one day, KWSS hired John Mack Flanagan. John Mack Flanagan! Holy buckets! I was working on the same station as one of the guys who inspired me to go into radio! Although we were station-mates for a relatively short time (I eventually left San Jose for Chicago in 1986) I remember trying to hang out around JMF whenever I could, just hoping that some of his incredible talent would reach me through osmosis.

I was just a blip on Mr. Flanagan's Hall of Fame-caliber career, and would not expect him to remember me 20+ years later. But, I want him to know that he did, indeed, touch at least one listener...a listener who decided he wanted to be just like him and be on the radio.

Thank you, John Mack Flanagan!

Steve Scott, News Anchor
WCBS Newsradio 880
New York, NY

 

[XM RADIO]

Bobby Ocean, Can you get John Mack Flanagan,a gig like you have, It would be great to hear John Mack Flanagan ,Tracked on XM like you!!They need more DJ s on the 60 s and 70 s channels! They have plenty of money to hire someone like John, Im sure with his talent and his "LEGENDARY RADIO VOICE" he could make ratings!! It seems totally ridiculous to not use "MORE TRACKING"!! You made a name for yourself John, people who used to live in the Bay Area , could hear you all over the US !! For Roswell New Mexico, your friends could hear you on XM, Ive wrote to them about hiring more "VOICE" and havent heard a word! it would be a "GROOVY THING" to have you put in a "MIDDAY" !!! Hearing Bobby Ocean afternoons is like KFRC all over again, 1974 style!! I cant see them ignoring this, Radio , and DJ s go together, Kenny in Concord

 

[John Mack Flanagan]

Could I? Would I? What interesting questions? Could I still do radio? Would I do radio? (Kenny in Concord...) When I walked out of a studio for the last time, it was 93.3, San Francisco. I had been passed over 5 times for full time work, and had never really earned a penny unless it came from being behind a microphone. As a good friend in Tucson (Jack Beatty, we worked together at K-HIT and KTKT when I returned from Vietnam...) said, "You made it further down the road that I did"... After a year of unemployment and a lot of aptitude testing (the tests always came back media...or radio!) I stumbled into Security and I love it. Customer service, investigation, writing (we do lots of reports, brings out the Mickey Spillane in me! HA HA). I have never been happier. So much stress in radio. Could I build an audience? Would people support me? And that name! John Mack Flanagan, God I hated it! Why couldn't I get something cool like Bobby Ocean or Scotty Brink? (I heard Scotty on KELP in El Paso once, when going home to New Mexico and he was killer!) Anyway, I look at the landscape today and I see lots of ways to communicate, but I can't get enthused about any of them. I am working on my memoirs "Superhit Highway" and hope to self-publish with a cd of never before heard airchecks attached. Can you believe Friday night a woman approached me and asked if I'd done radio? I hadn't spoken to her. She just remembered my voice from an earlier conversation with someone else? I was shocked and told her, "Yes, thirty-six years, two months behind a microphone.." I believe I could still do it, but do I WANT to do it...That's the question. -John-

 

[RadioStarOne]

John: Yes, you should! If the money's right with a decent contract. Do they still have decent contracts? And by the way I believe Scotty Brink is still on the air somewhere! I could be wrong about that but I remember seeing his name somewhere recently. Where is Scott Forrest these days?