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Bill Mouzis, 90, Longtime Production Director, KHJ Boss Radio

Most of the older KHJ engineers looked at the invading 20-something Boss Jocks in '65 and said "they'll be gone in a year". Mouzis, 43 at the time, jumped in with both feet and made magic. Not just a pro, but an artist whose name belongs with Bill Drake, Ron Jacobs, The Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Sam Riddle, Johnny Williams, Humble Harve and Charlie Tuna as a driving force in the success of a Los Angeles Radio Legend.
 
There's an aircheck of KHJ's first day as "Boss Radio," April 25, 1965. The original was made by a friend of mine, Grant Manning, who thought it might be of historical value someday. He never made another aircheck and he forgot about the tape until he found it in a box after he moved from San Diego to Tennessee. Knowing I was (and still am) a big fan of KHJ, he sent me a copy. I was the first and only person he ever copied it for. Naturally I copied it for a lot of people, then they copied it for others, and now it's in the hands (or cassette decks) of hundreds of collectors. Bill Mouzis often said that "Boss Radio" debuted on May 2, 1965. Every time he made that claim (usually in a letter to LARadio.com, for which I was a contributor for nine years), I would write him and correct him and point out that even former KHJ program director Ron Jacobs acknowledges the April 25 date. Mouzis always gave me the same terse reply: "Who cares?" Well, Bill, we aircheck collectors care---and you will always have our gratitude for helping make KHJ the sound of Boss Angeles. Say hello to Morgan and Steele!
 
LARadioRewind said:
There's an aircheck of KHJ's first day as "Boss Radio," April 25, 1965. The original was made by a friend of mine, Grant Manning, who thought it might be of historical value someday. He never made another aircheck and he forgot about the tape until he found it in a box after he moved from San Diego to Tennessee. Knowing I was (and still am) a big fan of KHJ, he sent me a copy. I was the first and only person he ever copied it for. Naturally I copied it for a lot of people, then they copied it for others, and now it's in the hands (or cassette decks) of hundreds of collectors. Bill Mouzis often said that "Boss Radio" debuted on May 2, 1965. Every time he made that claim (usually in a letter to LARadio.com, for which I was a contributor for nine years), I would write him and correct him and point out that even former KHJ program director Ron Jacobs acknowledges the April 25 date. Mouzis always gave me the same terse reply: "Who cares?" Well, Bill, we aircheck collectors care---and you will always have our gratitude for helping make KHJ the sound of Boss Angeles. Say hello to Morgan and Steele!
Click to expand...

Minor correction....Jacobs actually fixes the date as 3PM Tuesday, April 27, 1965.

The planned launch was Monday, May 3 (which I'm sure Mouzis had burned into his brain as a deadline he had to meet for a few dozen different production pieces), but a disgruntled former employee took plans across the street to KFWB, which started using the term "Boss" on the morning of the 27th. Morgan heard it, told Jacobs, Jacobs and Drake huddled, and decided to go with a "sneak preview" that afternoon at 3 with The Real Don Steele. They didn't even have their currents in house yet, so music director Betty Brenneman was put into Drake's chauffeur-driven Cadillac and sent to Wallich's Music City to buy two copies of everything on KRLA's list that week.

The KHJ "Sneak Preview" ran from 3PM Tuesday until 6PM Thursday, when Dave Diamond launched the "Million Dollar Battle"...playing songs chronologically beginning in 1950 and asking listeners to vote for their favorite, which would then face a new challenger. That lasted until Monday.
 
I have to correct myself. My memory failed me---and for the first time too! I dug out the aircheck: KHJ's first day as Boss Radio was Wednesday, April 28, 1965, according to Grant Manning, who (apparently) was the only person to run tape during that historical first day. Mouzis claimed it was May 5. Other people have said May 2 or May 3. On page 13 of Ron Jacobs' book Inside Boss Radio he says it was April 27, largely because Ray Randolph says so. I wish the actual 45-minute aircheck had some references to the day of the week. When Grant sent me a copy of the original, he had labeled it "April 28." That's the date I've accepted. I haven't talked with Ray Randolph for a long time; I'll have to see how he came up with the 27th.

Here is a 40th anniversary remembrance from Bill Mouzis---and he claims May 5 as the date! Arrggghh!

http://www.440.com/_bmouzi2.html
 
I called in a few times during that first "Million Dollar Battle" to vote for songs. I never got a busy signal. (I remember Frankie Laine's Cry Of The Wild Goose winning several times. Ack!) I wonder if there were quite a few two-song "battles" where nobody called in and the DJ just declared his own personal favorite to be the winner.
 
LARadioRewind said:
I have to correct myself. My memory failed me---and for the first time too! I dug out the aircheck: KHJ's first day as Boss Radio was Wednesday, April 28, 1965, according to Grant Manning, who (apparently) was the only person to run tape during that historical first day. Mouzis claimed it was May 5. Other people have said May 2 or May 3. On page 13 of Ron Jacobs' book Inside Boss Radio he says it was April 27, largely because Ray Randolph says so. I wish the actual 45-minute aircheck had some references to the day of the week. When Grant sent me a copy of the original, he had labeled it "April 28." That's the date I've accepted. I haven't talked with Ray Randolph for a long time; I'll have to see how he came up with the 27th.
Click to expand...

Because it was the 27th at 3 PM. The 28th was the first full day of the sneak preview and the first time Johnny Williams, Robert W. Morgan, Roger Christian and Gary Mack were heard. Steele, Dave Diamond and Sam Riddle were the only jocks to make air on the 27th because of the 3 PM start time.
 
I always admit when I'm wrong. This time, however, I can blame Grant Manning, the guy who made the original aircheck. :D I figured that he would certainly know the date he made the tape...but he was not an aircheck collector and that KHJ aircheck was the only tape he ever made...and he got the date wrong. I can now state with certainty that "Boss Radio" debuted at 3 pm on April 27, 1965. (I know better than to ever argue with Michael Hagerty or Jim Hilliker!) Steele's first day on the air was not perfect: One time he said "KHJ 93" instead of "93 KHJ" and at one point, he yelled "Not yet, not yet" to an engineer. Would the engineer have been Bill Mouzis? I wonder what happened---or what was about to happen.

iIn his 2005 reminiscence about KHJ's "Boss" debut, Mouzis said he had been "in the industry" for 17 years. In today's Daily News, Richard Wagoner's radio column says Mouzis was at KHJ from 1951 to 1977, then spent two years at KABC, then was at KMPC from 1980 to 1990. Does anyone know what Mouzis did from 1948 to 1951?
 
In 1973, Increase Records put out a series of Cruisin' albums. Each volume, covering 1955 to 1969, featured a legendary DJ re-creating the sound of a legendary top-40/r&b station. The 1965 album featured KHJ and Robert W. Morgan---"Zzzzzzap! You're Morganized!" The entire series was re-released on CDs but many of the songs were removed. Anyone who wants these albums, try to find the originals and not the reissues. Anyway, here is a page that describes the 1965 album...and KHJ's "Boss" debut is given as May 5, 1965. Arrrgghh!

http://leemichaelwithers.tripod.com/cruisin65.htm
 
I can remember the day I discovered KHJ. It was a Saturday. I was a day camp and one of the kids had one of those large portable radios, and came over to me talking about a new station that plays lots of great music without any commercials. I had never heard of such a thing as no commercials before, wow, just the hits, and I was captivated. The old boring adult KHJ station had changed formats. Funny thing, I don't recall "the million dollar battle." Hearing songs from 1950 would have turned me off for sure. I recall the week later being slightly disappointed at hearing a commercial, but by then I was hooked.
 
bossguy66 said:
I can remember the day I discovered KHJ. It was a Saturday. I was a day camp and one of the kids had one of those large portable radios, and came over to me talking about a new station that plays lots of great music without any commercials. I had never heard of such a thing as no commercials before, wow, just the hits, and I was captivated. The old boring adult KHJ station had changed formats. Funny thing, I don't recall "the million dollar battle." Hearing songs from 1950 would have turned me off for sure. I recall the week later being slightly disappointed at hearing a commercial, but by then I was hooked.
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Interesting. Tapes exist of KHJ's sneak preview, Million Dollar Battle and official launch. None were commercial-free.

My guess is you tuned in late enough on Saturday that the Battle (which began Thursday night at 6) had progressed into recent music (the current Top 30 ended up being included) and the commercial load was very light.

Or that you actually tuned in a week or more before during what was called "The Cavalcade of Hits". The music was from 1950 to 1964, I believe in chronlogical order. and the KHJ Boss Jocks simply announced the music and gave time and temperature without using their names. But, "Cavalcade" had commercials, too.

KHJ never did commercial-free as a promotional gimmick. Year-end countdowns, The History of Rock and Roll...all had commercials.
 
When KHJ had the "Million Dollar Battle" in April 1965, two songs would be played, a "champion" and a "challenger." While the "challenger" played, listeners would call in and say which of the two songs they liked better. As soon as the challenger was through playing, the champion would be played and then be followed by a new challenger. This meant that many times an hour, depending on which song won, we'd hear the same song twice in a row.

KHJ had another "Million Dollar Battle" in (I think) late 1967. (Mister hagerty will correct me if I'm wrong---I don't even need to ask him.) This time, a champion and a challenger were played, and then a song from the current Boss 30, so we wouldn't be hearing any song twice in a row. Unlike the earlier Battle, this one started not with 1950 but with Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock, which came out in 1954 and went to number one a year later after being featured in the movie Blackboard Jungle.

Was the "champion-challenger" format fair? I don't think so. If a champion got played seven or eight times in an hour, people might be so tired of hearing it that they'd vote for a challenger that they didn't like as well, just to hear something different. The first Battle featured the songs in chronological order. Didn't the second Battle skip around so the champion and challenger were always from two different years? Hey, I can't remember everything.
 
LARadioRewind said:
When KHJ had the "Million Dollar Battle" in April 1965, two songs would be played, a "champion" and a "challenger." While the "challenger" played, listeners would call in and say which of the two songs they liked better. As soon as the challenger was through playing, the champion would be played and then be followed by a new challenger. This meant that many times an hour, depending on which song won, we'd hear the same song twice in a row.

KHJ had another "Million Dollar Battle" in (I think) late 1967. (Mister hagerty will correct me if I'm wrong---I don't even need to ask him.) This time, a champion and a challenger were played, and then a song from the current Boss 30, so we wouldn't be hearing any song twice in a row. Unlike the earlier Battle, this one started not with 1950 but with Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock, which came out in 1954 and went to number one a year later after being featured in the movie Blackboard Jungle.

Was the "champion-challenger" format fair? I don't think so. If a champion got played seven or eight times in an hour, people might be so tired of hearing it that they'd vote for a challenger that they didn't like as well, just to hear something different. The first Battle featured the songs in chronological order. Didn't the second Battle skip around so the champion and challenger were always from two different years? Hey, I can't remember everything.
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I think you got the basics right, Steve.

As to fairness, that wasn't a consideration. Nothing really was riding on these battles. They were weekend beauty contests meant to be something different from a typical Million Dollar Weekend and to boost a sense of listener participation.

KHJ did it again in 1975 and called it "The KHJ Battle Of The Hits." This time, the format was set up so that a commercial break came after the challenger. The winner would play after the spot break, followed by the next challenger, and so on.
 
It would have been fun if those Battles had ended with a competition among the champion songs of each year. We might have had Good Vibrations going up against Sixteen Tons, Delicado going up against Jailhouse Rock, or Johnnie Ray's Cry going up against Hey Jude.

LBReport.com has a very detailed story about Bill Mouzis: http://www.lbreport.com/13obits/mouzis.htm
 
Here is another former Boss Jock who worked with Mouzis. In 2000, Gary Mack shared his memories of the debut of Boss Radio (and the Million Dollar Battle) with Don Barrett on LARadio.com. The article is reprinted at http://www.440.com/_gmack.html
 
LARadioRewind said:
It would have been fun if those Battles had ended with a competition among the champion songs of each year. We might have had Good Vibrations going up against Sixteen Tons, Delicado going up against Jailhouse Rock, or Johnnie Ray's Cry going up against Hey Jude.

LBReport.com has a very detailed story about Bill Mouzis: http://www.lbreport.com/13obits/mouzis.htm
Click to expand...

KFRC did the "Million Dollar Battle" with some regularity, at least into the mid 70s. It used to irritate me when a song I hated was "TheChampion," because it would be repeated over-and-over until it lost out to some other song, probably because listeners were sick of it.
 
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