Since most everyone is talking about KSTN and Knox LaRue, I like to see what people's thought on KJOY back in the days when Ort Lofthus operated it as well as CLOUD 99 KJAX. I never had a chance to meet Ort but I have heard good things on him. I know Don Imus didn't care for Ort (Ort fired Don from KJOY back in 1969.). Ort had a really good rep. I heard he was a good boss. I did meet Joel Gamble though. Interesting guy. As for 1280, sad how that station is today. Clear Channel really has run that station to the ground. Hard to believe that at one time, it was a highly rated Top 40 Station back in the day. Same goes for KWG-1230. Stockton's AM station are fading into oblivion.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Anyone Remember Ort Lofthus?
- Thread starter Madmansam
- Start date
I never got to meet Ort, either, but I heard he was an interesting guy...and still
alive and well, good to hear...
Hard to believe, but it's been almost a year since Ort was asked about
a former KJOY employee named Don Imus!
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/A_NEWS/704110317
Incidentally, the Imus LP I have in my collection, "1,200 Hamburgers To Go,"
also mentions the E. Cleaver lookalike contest on KJOY, on the rear cover's liner
notes, with "the winner getting a year in jail."
--jay
alive and well, good to hear...
Hard to believe, but it's been almost a year since Ort was asked about
a former KJOY employee named Don Imus!
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/A_NEWS/704110317
Incidentally, the Imus LP I have in my collection, "1,200 Hamburgers To Go,"
also mentions the E. Cleaver lookalike contest on KJOY, on the rear cover's liner
notes, with "the winner getting a year in jail."
--jay
R
rickradio
Guest
Yes! Probably thousands of people a day remember Ort!
Stockton's Crosstown Freeway is named after him!
Stockton's Crosstown Freeway is named after him!
T
Tube Shortwave
Guest
rickradio said:
Yes, I always get concerned for Ort's health when I hear the announcement on the radio that Ort Lofthus is backed up.
I never got to work for him, but I do remember getting the tour of the stations when I was a kid and being brought upstairs to his office. My guide (I forgot who took me for the tour) opened the door and said "This is our General Manager". Ort was on the phone, but told whoever it was to hold on, and motioned me in. He was very kind, shook my hand and thanked me for coming by and seeing the stations, and told me if I ever needed anything to give him a call! Wow, only a kid and already rubbing elbows with the powerful in the industry! Benefits!!
KJAX was simply amazing to me. I would sit down next to the noisy printer and just watch the automation in complete facination for hours sometimes, when they would let me. I would take the bus downtown after school and walk in the front door and tell the receptionist that I would like to watch KJAX, please! She would escort me to the room behind the KJOY studio, hand me a cup of water and let me watch the thing. I guess there was some benefit, because if the system would burp, I would run around the corner to the KJOY studio and tell the jock about it. Bill (whatzhisname) didn't even yell at me when I did it once while the mic was open!
Years later when I was in high school, I ended up getting the tour again, but this time as part of the school's career faire. One of the school councelors arranged a visit at an area radio station, that was all I knew. It ended up being KJOY/KJAX! I went in and the tour began. When we got to KJAX, I saw that it was unchanged from what I remember and began describing its operation to my guide. Boy was he impressed! Told me if I ever needed a job, I had one! My guide was Roy Williams. And he was good to his word.
R
rickradio
Guest
Re: My introduction to KJOY
Fascinating story, Tube. I'd love to hear more whenever you care to share.
Email me at the address below and tell me who the blank you are...we worked together at KWG. It's been driving me nuts for the past month! I thought I knew who you were but was wrong. Was it Bill Bishofberger (sp?) you were referring to? Bill was a great guy. Wonder where he is now. I miss him. He let me sit in for a while on his show sometime in 1989 when I swung by to see that legendary Hotel Stockton storefront studio at El Dorado and Weber.
Since this thread is about Ort Lofthus, I didn't think it too far afield to reminisce about my visit to the great 1280 KJOY, since Ort was GM.
Like Jay, I've never met Ort either, but have heard plenty about him, having worked with a bunch of his former employees while up at KWG.
It was the afternoon of July 1, 1981. I was in downtown Stockton with my parents for an unrelated reason when suddenly our car's radiator began to overheat. My dad swung off the Crosstown onto El Dorado to find a gas station so he could put water in the radiator.
We went up El Dorado to Channel Street, I believe. Quick left. A Chevron station at Channel and Center. A big parking lot took up the rest of that block. While we waited for the car to cool down, I could see the "KJOY" sign with a smaller "1280" beyond the expansive parking lot and El Dorado Street. A couple of KJOY vehicles parked on the other side of the cyclone-mesh fence that separated the parking lot from the gas station, one of them had "The Great 128" painted on it. Curiosity piqued. This kid who had already decided on a career in radio HAD to go over there and check out whatever he could. Parents said OK...I was OFF!! I must've stood in both Weber and El Dorado windows watching the DJ at the board for what seemed like an eternity, trying to soak in as much as I could visually. You see, for the next year, I would be a religious listener of KJOY, the Great 128, and everything I was seeing at that moment would have to suffice in memory since we lived an hour away and I was too young to drive down and watch. All I had to go on visually as I listened to KJOY was what my mind retained as I watched from the sidewalks this summer day.
Not much to see through the Weber Avenue window, the window that the jocks and jockettes faced as they did their shows. The backsides of some equipment and XLR connectors. Surprisingly, the El Dorado Street window afforded more of a view of the studio. In this window, I saw different jocks' name signs both leaning on the end of one counter and lying on the studio floor. These signs sat in a big block of wood with a groove in the top in the Weber Avenue window as the DJs did their shows. Quite a few of these signs both stood and laid there. I remember one in particular and what it read. "Pat Kelley," I read...hmmm, wonder when he's on the air? As I look back with a current-day perspective, I'm somewhat amazed that KJOY still did this as late as 1981. Amazed, but very glad.
Still watching. The DJ takes a phone call. As he converses, I look around at the rest of the studio. To his left, cart racks full of carts, a tiny room with a window that I later learned was a newsbooth, a big metal box that had a meter and said "AM Monitor," whatever that is. "Why would they monitor the entire AM band?" I wondered before I knew what an AM modulation monitor was and that it was only tuned to one frequency. DJ off the phone, and with apparently nothing more to do at that moment, he sits idly as the song plays, elbows on the counter in front of the board, looking around in a supervisory manner, as if to make sure everything's running smoothly, nothing in need of immediate attention.
OK, the view from the sidewalk's great, but now, I need to MEET that guy! Shake his hand, talk to him! I need to SEE this stuff up close! To be in this inner sanctum of broadcasting! Through the door at 110 N. El Dorado Street, Stockton, California! The KJOY lobby. The receptionist, a sweet young lady, greets me. "Hi," I reply, asking as politely as I know how if I can see the studio and meet the jock in there. Alas, it was not to be. I was politely turned down, with the explanation that the DJ "kinda needs to get it together" as she put it. "OK, thanks anyway." But I before I turn to leave, I notice a spiral staircase just to her left going downstairs into the ground. "That's our production studio," she informed me. "That's where we make our commercials." "Oh, OK, thanks again," I say as I make my way toward the door to rejoin the rest of humanity. "Thanks for coming in!" she says cheerfully as I depart the Great 128 to begin a year of devoted listenership from afar.
The DJ I watched on the air that day? His sign in the Weber Avenue window said:
"Roy Williams"
Fascinating story, Tube. I'd love to hear more whenever you care to share.
Email me at the address below and tell me who the blank you are...we worked together at KWG. It's been driving me nuts for the past month! I thought I knew who you were but was wrong. Was it Bill Bishofberger (sp?) you were referring to? Bill was a great guy. Wonder where he is now. I miss him. He let me sit in for a while on his show sometime in 1989 when I swung by to see that legendary Hotel Stockton storefront studio at El Dorado and Weber.
Since this thread is about Ort Lofthus, I didn't think it too far afield to reminisce about my visit to the great 1280 KJOY, since Ort was GM.
Like Jay, I've never met Ort either, but have heard plenty about him, having worked with a bunch of his former employees while up at KWG.
It was the afternoon of July 1, 1981. I was in downtown Stockton with my parents for an unrelated reason when suddenly our car's radiator began to overheat. My dad swung off the Crosstown onto El Dorado to find a gas station so he could put water in the radiator.
We went up El Dorado to Channel Street, I believe. Quick left. A Chevron station at Channel and Center. A big parking lot took up the rest of that block. While we waited for the car to cool down, I could see the "KJOY" sign with a smaller "1280" beyond the expansive parking lot and El Dorado Street. A couple of KJOY vehicles parked on the other side of the cyclone-mesh fence that separated the parking lot from the gas station, one of them had "The Great 128" painted on it. Curiosity piqued. This kid who had already decided on a career in radio HAD to go over there and check out whatever he could. Parents said OK...I was OFF!! I must've stood in both Weber and El Dorado windows watching the DJ at the board for what seemed like an eternity, trying to soak in as much as I could visually. You see, for the next year, I would be a religious listener of KJOY, the Great 128, and everything I was seeing at that moment would have to suffice in memory since we lived an hour away and I was too young to drive down and watch. All I had to go on visually as I listened to KJOY was what my mind retained as I watched from the sidewalks this summer day.
Not much to see through the Weber Avenue window, the window that the jocks and jockettes faced as they did their shows. The backsides of some equipment and XLR connectors. Surprisingly, the El Dorado Street window afforded more of a view of the studio. In this window, I saw different jocks' name signs both leaning on the end of one counter and lying on the studio floor. These signs sat in a big block of wood with a groove in the top in the Weber Avenue window as the DJs did their shows. Quite a few of these signs both stood and laid there. I remember one in particular and what it read. "Pat Kelley," I read...hmmm, wonder when he's on the air? As I look back with a current-day perspective, I'm somewhat amazed that KJOY still did this as late as 1981. Amazed, but very glad.
Still watching. The DJ takes a phone call. As he converses, I look around at the rest of the studio. To his left, cart racks full of carts, a tiny room with a window that I later learned was a newsbooth, a big metal box that had a meter and said "AM Monitor," whatever that is. "Why would they monitor the entire AM band?" I wondered before I knew what an AM modulation monitor was and that it was only tuned to one frequency. DJ off the phone, and with apparently nothing more to do at that moment, he sits idly as the song plays, elbows on the counter in front of the board, looking around in a supervisory manner, as if to make sure everything's running smoothly, nothing in need of immediate attention.
OK, the view from the sidewalk's great, but now, I need to MEET that guy! Shake his hand, talk to him! I need to SEE this stuff up close! To be in this inner sanctum of broadcasting! Through the door at 110 N. El Dorado Street, Stockton, California! The KJOY lobby. The receptionist, a sweet young lady, greets me. "Hi," I reply, asking as politely as I know how if I can see the studio and meet the jock in there. Alas, it was not to be. I was politely turned down, with the explanation that the DJ "kinda needs to get it together" as she put it. "OK, thanks anyway." But I before I turn to leave, I notice a spiral staircase just to her left going downstairs into the ground. "That's our production studio," she informed me. "That's where we make our commercials." "Oh, OK, thanks again," I say as I make my way toward the door to rejoin the rest of humanity. "Thanks for coming in!" she says cheerfully as I depart the Great 128 to begin a year of devoted listenership from afar.
The DJ I watched on the air that day? His sign in the Weber Avenue window said:
"Roy Williams"
B
BBfromCA
Guest
I appreciate the nice comments about me, and that there are those who remember me from my KJOY days.
I was with KJOY on and off from 1978 to 1992 and also with KWIN (easy listening days in the mid-70's) and with KWG for a short period (under a different name while still working for KJOY).
I went on to work for the County as a Legislative Assistant and then taught technology to Realtors for the local Realtor Association.
I retired in 2002 and am living in Lodi, traveling when I can.
I did create a small tribute page to KJOY. It is at www.geocities.com/kjoy1280
I loved my days at KJOY and working for Ort.
Bill Bishofberger
I was with KJOY on and off from 1978 to 1992 and also with KWIN (easy listening days in the mid-70's) and with KWG for a short period (under a different name while still working for KJOY).
I went on to work for the County as a Legislative Assistant and then taught technology to Realtors for the local Realtor Association.
I retired in 2002 and am living in Lodi, traveling when I can.
I did create a small tribute page to KJOY. It is at www.geocities.com/kjoy1280
I loved my days at KJOY and working for Ort.
Bill Bishofberger
Hi Bill!
Excellent Tribute Website. I also loved the articles especially the article from STOCKTON MAGAZINE, which I believe was started by RIC GAUUAN of SIR GAUUAN fame. It actually started out as STOCKTON PEOPLE MAGAZINE, then they were threatened with a lawsuit from PEOPLE MAGAZINE and Ric dropped PEOPLE from its name. If I recall, KJOY-1280 was a regular advertiser in that magazine. Also, I fondly remember Former Morning Man, TIM ROSE, who also worked at KUIC before KJOY. I don't know what became of Tim?BBfromCA said:
R
rickradio
Guest
Re: Hey Bish! How ya doin'?
To echo Madmansam, it IS an excellent tribute site!! Madmansam brought back some wonderful memories, too. I remember hearing the old Sir Gauuan's commercials on KJOY (had long since forgotten about those!), and the Stockton People magazine commercials, too. Anyone have any old KJOY airchecks they'd be willing to share?
In the words of Bob Hope:
Thanks for the memories, Bish and Madmansam...
Rick
To echo Madmansam, it IS an excellent tribute site!! Madmansam brought back some wonderful memories, too. I remember hearing the old Sir Gauuan's commercials on KJOY (had long since forgotten about those!), and the Stockton People magazine commercials, too. Anyone have any old KJOY airchecks they'd be willing to share?
In the words of Bob Hope:
Thanks for the memories, Bish and Madmansam...
Rick
- Status