Art Laboe

[Biondi4Mayor]

(by the way, I'll vote for him with you)

I won't bring over the stuff going on in the other threads, but with this comment we agree!!!! ;D

And there is peace in our time (so long as Biondi is mayor )

 

[Thomps2525]

Last year Art Laboe was inducted into the the Radio Hall of Fame at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. And who presented him with the award? Dick Biondi! There ya go! What a nice way to tie things together here.

 

[davideduardo]

Well, you could have fooled me! Almost every phone call Laboe put on the air was from a young Hispanic, most of them wanting to make a dedication to a boyfriend or girlfriend..

I can understand this. Two factors are in play.

First, younger people tend to call for dedications more than older ones.

Second, stations put on the air calls that reflect the image they want to have. That's why at most talk stations callers who sound really old are screened out, and when they do get on the air they are summarily dismissed. My favorite, from a host at WFLA while Gabe Hobbs was there: "Oh, my god. Another blue-blue haired old bat got through..."

 

[michael hagerty]

Well, you could have fooled me! Almost every phone call Laboe put on the air was from a young Hispanic, most of them wanting to make a dedication to a boyfriend or girlfriend..

I can understand this. Two factors are in play.

First, younger people tend to call for dedications more than older ones.

Second, stations put on the air calls that reflect the image they want to have. That's why at most talk stations callers who sound really old are screened out, and when they do get on the air they are summarily dismissed. My favorite, from a host at WFLA while Gabe Hobbs was there: "Oh, my god. Another blue-blue haired old bat got through..."

Back in the 70s, a lot of Top 40 stations took callers from the request line, fed them a line like "KHJ plays the most music!", recorded it and then played it back as a sweeper over a segue.

Beau Weaver (now a phenomenal voice-over artist) admits that he would conspire with his engineer at KFRC, San Francisco to ditch the perfect sounding ones and route Beau doing the squeakiest pre-teen voice possible over the phone live saying "KFRC plays the best music!" just to torture PD Michael Spears. Image mattered even 40 years ago.

 

[Thomps2525]

Mister hagerty, in 1977-78, after several years of declining ratings in the face of competition from KMET and KLOS, KHJ occasionally ran a tape of a young listeners enthusiastically declaring "KHJ plays the best albums!" Invariably the next song would be a big hit such as Lowdown, Hotel California, Love Is Alive, Walk This Way, One Of These Nights or Fly Like An Eagle. "Wait a minute, Steve---those were all singles." Yep---now do you see my point?

Mister Eduardo, George Putnam was one of the top tv newscasters in Los Angeles in the 1950s-60-70s. He hosted a radio call-in show, Talk Back, on KIEV from 1975 to 2001, then spent time at KPLS and KSPA and finally on Cable Radio Network (heard locally on KCAA). He worked almost until the day he died at age 94 in 2008. Chuck Wilder was his official screener but I don't think Wilder ever rejected a caller. The majority of the callers were older people and mostly conservative in political ideology, but Putnam was polite with each one. He listened patiently, he didn't interrupt and he never hung up on anyone, even if the caller was getting angry and loud and argumentative. Yeah, there were a few "blue-haired old bats" but Putnam treated them with respect, the same way he treated every caller. We will never again see or hear another host like George Putnam. (That last line sounds like something from a documentary---if anyone wants to make one, you can use that line.)

 

[michael hagerty]

Mister hagerty, in 1977-78, after several years of declining ratings in the face of competition from KMET and KLOS, KHJ occasionally ran a tape of a young listeners enthusiastically declaring "KHJ plays the best albums!" Invariably the next song would be a big hit such as Lowdown, Hotel California, Love Is Alive, Walk This Way, One Of These Nights or Fly Like An Eagle. "Wait a minute, Steve---those were all singles." Yep---now do you see my point?

That was a stupid stunt on KHJ's part, which only served to make them appear even more lame as teens defected in droves to KMET.

Bobby Rich at B-100 in San Diego handled the situation much better. Wherever he could, he had his jocks play the album version of the hits, including a line like "the whole song, right off the album in stereo on B-100."...pointing out that AM rival KCBQ was playing edited, and thus incomplete and uncool, 45s in mono.

 

[BecTero]

By airing "KHJ plays the best albums!" KHJ was trying to show "life's too short to listen to whole albums!"

It's better to listen to "continuous hits, all in a row, 10Q for listening!"

 

[LKellerIII]

Mister hagerty, in 1977-78, after several years of declining ratings in the face of competition from KMET and KLOS, KHJ occasionally ran a tape of a young listeners enthusiastically declaring "KHJ plays the best albums!" Invariably the next song would be a big hit such as Lowdown, Hotel California, Love Is Alive, Walk This Way, One Of These Nights or Fly Like An Eagle. "Wait a minute, Steve---those were all singles." Yep---now do you see my point?

That was a stupid stunt on KHJ's part, which only served to make them appear even more lame as teens defected in droves to KMET.

Bobby Rich at B-100 in San Diego handled the situation much better. Wherever he could, he had his jocks play the album version of the hits, including a line like "the whole song, right off the album in stereo on B-100."...pointing out that AM rival KCBQ was playing edited, and thus incomplete and uncool, 45s in mono.

Kind of reminds me of early 70s FM branding which usually emphasized "stereo" - which, of course, was their way of dissing the mono AM competition - the most obvious example being "Rock N'Stereo KLOS."

Which, in turn, reminds me that In the Bay Area in the 80s, Stereo FM pioneer James Gabbert (K-101) bought a loser independent TV station, made it the first Bay Area TV station with stereo sound, and turned it into a money-maker with radio style jingles - including a whispered "stereoooo".... Gabbert also loved dogs.
Naturally, it's on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRC2Qwt3m8s

 

[LKellerIII]

Mister Eduardo, George Putnam was one of the top tv newscasters in Los Angeles in the 1950s-60-70s. He hosted a radio call-in show, Talk Back, on KIEV from 1975 to 2001, then spent time at KPLS and KSPA and finally on Cable Radio Network (heard locally on KCAA). He worked almost until the day he died at age 94 in 2008. Chuck Wilder was his official screener but I don't think Wilder ever rejected a caller. The majority of the callers were older people and mostly conservative in political ideology, but Putnam was polite with each one. He listened patiently, he didn't interrupt and he never hung up on anyone, even if the caller was getting angry and loud and argumentative. Yeah, there were a few "blue-haired old bats" but Putnam treated them with respect, the same way he treated every caller. We will never again see or hear another host like George Putnam. (That last line sounds like something from a documentary---if anyone wants to make one, you can use that line.)

Had to comment on George Putnam, too. I left the Bay Area in the early 70s, so I only ever heard Putnam once on the radio. Out of curiosity, I tuned in his show over the internet in the early 90s. His guest was Ann Coulter, and he kept calling her "little darlin'"

I've heard Putnam was a nice man in person, but I grew up with him on TV (KTLA, KTTV), where he ended up being the highest paid anchorman in America delivering straight-out biased reporting from a very right wing perspective, in a very pompous and dramatic way. As most people probably know, George was the model for the Ted Baxter character on the Mary Tyler Moore sitcom (no - it wasn't Jerry Dunphy, other than the white hair). Putnam was a bit of an anachronism even then - comedians and satirists were making fun of him way before Ted Baxter arrived.

Toward the end of his TV career, KTLA cut their news budget, so the last half hour of the 10:00 PM broadcast was a studio audience giving their opinions asking him questions from a podium...not unlike the earlier Joe Pyne or the later absurd Wally George. That was the origin of the "Talk Back (to the News)" branding he used later on the radio. He was often NOT respectful, and would verbally thrash the people who spoke - especially if he considered them "commies" or "pinkos."

 

[davideduardo]

It's better to listen to "continuous hits, all in a row, 10Q for listening!"

And well into the late 90's, there were not infrequent diary mentions for KTNQ written in as "Thank you".

 

[Thomps2525]

Mister Keller remembers the slogan "Rock N' Stereo KLOS." Before the station was KLOS, it was KABC-FM, and in 1968-69 ran the progressive rock "Love" format (on tape, recorded in 45-minute segments) that featured the voice of Brother John Rydgren 24 hours a day. The slogan---actually a jingle---was "Stereo 95 & A Half, KABC."

 

[pjc1961]

Did KMET use the phrase "Metromedia Stereo"? I ask since their similarly formatted sister station WNEW-FM NYC used that moniker well into the 1970s.

 

[michael hagerty]

Did KMET use the phrase "Metromedia Stereo"? I ask since their similarly formatted sister station WNEW-FM NYC used that moniker well into the 1970s.

Yes. And before going album rock, when they were easy listening in 1966, 67 and until summer 1968, they called their format "Metro Music West." Did WNEW pre-rock call theirs "Metro Music East?"

 

[LKellerIII]

Did KMET use the phrase "Metromedia Stereo"? I ask since their similarly formatted sister station WNEW-FM NYC used that moniker well into the 1970s.

Yes. And before going album rock, when they were easy listening in 1966, 67 and until summer 1968, they called their format "Metro Music West." Did WNEW pre-rock call theirs "Metro Music East?"

In the mid 60s, there were billboards all over town for the 2 Metromedia Radio stations. The KLAC logo had 2 arrows pointing inward to the "KLAC" calls in the middle. The station was "Two Way Radio" (Talk) at the time.

The KMET logo (easy listening format) was identical, except the 2 arrows pointed out, away from the logo in the center, over the caption "STEREO."

No self respecting Album Rock station in the early 70s had jingles, in the Top 40 style, but KMET was fond of satirical jingles - IIRC, one was a parody of the KTTV jingle, "Metro...media...Stereo..Point Seven...Point Seven...." "Stereo" instead of "Television," and Point Seven" instead of "Eleven"

My personal favorite, though, was "Creamy wholesome K- Met, try a luscious bite!"

 

[michael hagerty]

Did KMET use the phrase "Metromedia Stereo"? I ask since their similarly formatted sister station WNEW-FM NYC used that moniker well into the 1970s.

Yes. And before going album rock, when they were easy listening in 1966, 67 and until summer 1968, they called their format "Metro Music West." Did WNEW pre-rock call theirs "Metro Music East?"

In the mid 60s, there were billboards all over town for the 2 Metromedia Radio stations. The KLAC logo had 2 arrows pointing inward to the "KLAC" calls in the middle. The station was "Two Way Radio" (Talk) at the time.

The KMET logo (easy listening format) was identical, except the 2 arrows pointed out, away from the logo in the center, over the caption "STEREO."

No self respecting Album Rock station in the early 70s had jingles, in the Top 40 style, but KMET was fond of satirical jingles - IIRC, one was a parody of the KTTV jingle, "Metro...media...Stereo..Point Seven...Point Seven...." "Stereo" instead of "Television," and Point Seven" instead of "Eleven"

My personal favorite, though, was "Creamy wholesome K- Met, try a luscious bite!"

True, Llew. And don't forget the most famous one of all, written by then-PD Shadoe Stevens and performed by The Pointer Sisters:

A little bit of heaven

Ninety four point seven

KMET

Tweedle Dee