T
The Shadow
Guest
According to a bulletin on LA Radio, the father of Boss Radio, Bill Drake died of lung cancer Saturday afternoon at the age of 71.
Another one gone way too soon.
Another one gone way too soon.
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Drake was, of course, morning man and program director at KYA here in 1961-62 -- at "The Boss of the Bay," several years before KHJ set the gold standard for being Boss.
Drake landed his first consulting jobs while at KYA, working with Gene Chenault at KYNO/Fresno and Knox Larue at KSTN/Stockton, but he left his imprint on several other San Francisco stations after KYA, most notably KFRC in its early "Big 610" iteration, as well as co-owned KFRC-FM (also during the FM's run as KFMS) and the late-period KMPX (Big Band 99), which I believe he also co-owned.
Strangely enough, Drake is one of the very few KYA jocks that I've never heard a recording of.
Drake landed his first consulting jobs while at KYA, working with Gene Chenault at KYNO/Fresno and Knox Larue at KSTN/Stockton, but he left his imprint on several other San Francisco stations after KYA, most notably KFRC in its early "Big 610" iteration, as well as co-owned KFRC-FM (also during the FM's run as KFMS) and the late-period KMPX (Big Band 99), which I believe he also co-owned.
Strangely enough, Drake is one of the very few KYA jocks that I've never heard a recording of.
Isnt Bill Drake that VO guy on Sirius/XM,, When ever they go back to say 1960, 1969 its his voice that introduces the year of the song they are playing! THE YEAR, 1962, Check it out Dave and let me know, im curious,, Terry Motormouth Young uses what i think is Drake on his show noon to 5 pm,, Is that his voice that says "and the hits just keep on coming' i hear Phlash phelps on the 60 s channel using this jingle, Thanks dave jackson
K
koolbossjock
Guest
The Shadow said:
Man Radio just lost a legend.There will never be another inovator like what Bill did.I still have the intros he did for me on cart,and also some MG Kelly did as well.RIP Bill,you will NEVER be forgotten in whats left of the Radio world.I can promise you that.Boss Radio forever.
Hunkey Snarkey said:
Kenny,
You are correct, sir. I had just noticed that in listening to the newly conjoined SiriuXM.
Oddly enough, on Friday afternoon I was digging through some KSTN jingles and liners from the mid-1960s that Drake voiced while consulting the Stockton powerhouse. In the same collection: more recent (early part of this century) kitbashed KSTN station IDs that included vintage Drake ... coupled with contemporary voicers done by the dearly departed Dr. Don Rose.
D
Domino Rippy
Guest
Isn't it fitting that Bill Drake dies the same year radio died.
Some people I know think that Drake killed personality radio...I guess in a strict sense that may be true.
Still, I believe he was an amazing innovator whose formatics live on today in every single radio station in this country.
Everything in radio now can be traced directly back to Bill Drake. That's saying something.
Still, I believe he was an amazing innovator whose formatics live on today in every single radio station in this country.
Everything in radio now can be traced directly back to Bill Drake. That's saying something.
Domino Rippy said:
That is, with no hyperbole or exaggeration, among the most mean spirited things I've seen or heard, particularly since the inference is based on your lack of radio knowlege.
Bill Drake revitalized and maybe reinvented Top 40 at a time when the format had grown cluttered, stale, and the talent had become chatty and often irrelevant if not just boring. Some months after KHJ debuted in '65, I flew from Quito to LA where I listened several days in a hotel. I was amazed at the music flow, yet the station oozed personality. To me, the revelation had to do with the old "brevity is the soul of wit" because the talent was so exciting and entertaining, yet so amazingly concise.
KHJ was a work of genius, and what Bill Drake created had long lasting and most poistive effects on radio for decades.
norcalvet said:
The people who believe that did not hear KHJ. They did not hear the personality and excitement. They did not hear the flow and how the talent and the music blended so perfectly.
Those are the same people who thought that the Drake "format" was less talk and liner cards, and the unfortunate results were heard in Lubbock and Biloxi and Eau Claire and Boise where PDs misinterpreted the format and took out its heart and amputated its legs.
Legends like Morgan and Steele can not by any measure be called time and temperature jocks.
norcalvet said:
Some people you know are idiots. Bill Drake redefined personality radio.
+1 on the KHJ comment. Listening to that station is what inspired me to get into radio - when I was seven years old. So to find myself in the building years later doing a few shifts at K-EARTH 101 when Drake was consulting the station, was a real thrill for that kid on the beach back in 1967 growing up on boss radio... I remember the memo from Drake to PD Mike Phillips mentioning my name and how cool that was to know that I was being heard by that man.
RIP to one of the true legends.
Drake's "Top 40 Time Clock" website, including his bio, is at:
http://www.top40timeclock.com/
Check it out before it disappears...
DJ
http://www.top40timeclock.com/
Check it out before it disappears...
DJ
So what stations if any will be doing any tributes to Mr. Bill Drake? KGB San Diego? KHJ Los Angeles? KYNO Fresno? CKLW Detroit? KFRC 106.9 HD-2 San Francisco? KEAR 610AM San Francisco? KSTN 1420 Stockton? 1260 K*** San Francisco? WRKS New York? KRTH 101.1 Los Angeles? Portland, Oregon Stations? Seattle, WA. Stations? Salt Lake City, Stations? Atlanta, GA. Stations? You get the idea? Why do I get the feeling that I'll be able to count the number of stations on one hand? I hope I'm wrong! RIP Mr. Drake. Did we ever tell you that you were our Hero? May God Bless!
DavidEduardo said:
Some Bill Drake innovations come to mind, at least I don't remember them prior to his format. Also, the pre-Drake airchecks I've heard of stations (even the legendary KYA) do not show these things:
(1) Spot clusters. Pre-Drake every station did formats based on intro, song, extro, spot, jingle maybe, intro, song, extro, spot, etc. Post-Drake nearly all stations cluster their songs and their spots.
(2) Jingles into music. This also appears to be a Drake innovation. Jingle into DJ chatter just doesn't work. Jingle into song works. It doesn't seem that anybody else realized this pre-Drake.
(3) Say something or get off the air. The Bill Drake format (as I remember the copy points I once read) was set up so that even if the DJ had nothing to say, they could do a good shift. If they had something to say, even better. Most stations pre-Drake had few formatics except "say the callsign".
(4) Dial position. It's hard to believe but there were stations that seldom mentioned their dial positions pre-Drake. I have an hour-long aircheck of the legendary Don Sherwood on KSFO where the 560 dial position isn't mentioned even once. On the other hand, Drake's KHJ was always "93 KHJ" both spoken and in jingles. KFRC didn't do that as much, preferring "The big 610" but eventually went to a "610 KFRC" jingle, klunky though it was.
(5) Limiting extraneous talk. Not, "The time right now is 11:25", but "It's 11:25". To this day I'm annoyed by people such as Gene Burns on KGO who have to tell me that the time "right now" is 11:25. I don't expect him to give me the time from 45 minutes ago. But, prior to Bill Drake, that's what DJs said.
(6) Excitement. Many stations in the pre-Drake rock era had DJs who sounded as if they'd rather be playing golf. The hyped up "Drake sound" excited voice may have sounded lame at first, but it was indeed infectious to the format. We used to deride it as the "Valley sound" because we heard all these Drake wannabees at places like KFIV and KJOY try to imitate excitement by over-tightening their throats.
Plenty of innovations. It was obvious that he studied every second of an hour to make sure that everything rang true to his concept of what radio should be.
Agree with all of the above, David - except for two things;
(1) Dial position. If you check out any of the many KHJ mid and late 60s air checks, you'll see that in the early days of Boss Radio, the Boss Jocks just said "KHJ" or "The Big 93," but never "93-KHJ." The same was true at other Drake stations. It was those great jingles that did the heavy lifting on dial position - much like "Channel 98" did it for KFWB.
At least in Southern California, the big change that came when DJs always outroed the songs with dial position/call letters first - came in the early 70s and started with the (then) new FM top 40 stations that were really trying to drum their unfamiliar dial positions ("point" and all) into the listener's heads. The first I station I remember doing that was "102.7 KKDJ." I used to find it annoying and repetitious, but it worked. Stations like that were running on shoestring budgets and had one jingle...maybe.
(2) I'm not sure what stations you were listening to, but many pre-Drake DJs were obnoxious "pukers." That trend was already starting to fade when Drake came into the picture - but I defy you to find a puker on a Drake station. Yes - The Real Don Steele was loud (a one of a kind, really), but not a puker. In fact, Boss Jocks like Sam Riddle and Humble Harve (Miller) actually toned down their delivery when they came to work for Drake. Others like Charlie Tuna were very conversational in their delivery...though I agree that they always had energy...maybe "a smile in the voice" is the best way to say it.
(1) Dial position. If you check out any of the many KHJ mid and late 60s air checks, you'll see that in the early days of Boss Radio, the Boss Jocks just said "KHJ" or "The Big 93," but never "93-KHJ." The same was true at other Drake stations. It was those great jingles that did the heavy lifting on dial position - much like "Channel 98" did it for KFWB.
At least in Southern California, the big change that came when DJs always outroed the songs with dial position/call letters first - came in the early 70s and started with the (then) new FM top 40 stations that were really trying to drum their unfamiliar dial positions ("point" and all) into the listener's heads. The first I station I remember doing that was "102.7 KKDJ." I used to find it annoying and repetitious, but it worked. Stations like that were running on shoestring budgets and had one jingle...maybe.
(2) I'm not sure what stations you were listening to, but many pre-Drake DJs were obnoxious "pukers." That trend was already starting to fade when Drake came into the picture - but I defy you to find a puker on a Drake station. Yes - The Real Don Steele was loud (a one of a kind, really), but not a puker. In fact, Boss Jocks like Sam Riddle and Humble Harve (Miller) actually toned down their delivery when they came to work for Drake. Others like Charlie Tuna were very conversational in their delivery...though I agree that they always had energy...maybe "a smile in the voice" is the best way to say it.
Lkeller said:
You forgot to add my 50's and 60's favorite, pot whipping.
Lkeller said:
I haven't listened to early KHJ airchecks, except for the debut, which probably doesn't count. And I totally forgot about Chuck Blore with "Channel 98", "Channel 91", etc. He once said that his positioners came from people's fascination with TV. TV had channel 4; radio had channel 98. TV had color TV, radio had "color radio".
Okay, Chuck Blore was probably the first with flogging the frequency.
Y
yourmom
Guest
Unless I missed it, I can't believe nobody mentioned The History of Rock & Roll. How great is this program? Originally 48 hours.............Hours! Not to mention it is chalk filled with great stories. Some of my favorite bay area radio moments were when on a long weekend either KFRC or KMGG would run it all weekend. I am lucky (thanks to a kind stranger) to be the proud owner of the entire program, and will listen to my fav segments in his honor
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