Brian Lord, Legendary K/MEN Jock, Dies at 77

[RicoGregg]

Especially ironic since both this year and this very month marks the 50th anniversary of K/MEN 129 signing on.

K/MEN was consulted by Ron Jacobs, and was considered by some to be a prototype for Boss Radio.

Details:

http://www.sbsun.com/ci_20083097

 

[rickityone]

Thanks for posting that. K/men was an unforgettable radio station, and as the San Bernardino Sun story relates Brian Lord was a star to us kids of the day. From the day K/men signed on San Bernardino came alive with the music - we'd been released from the myopic musical tyranny of a one rock radio station town, K/men was a quality sound that KFXM never was, man, the K/men were fun.

Brian's blog is great reading for rock radio lovers: http://www.radiowest.ca/forum/viewforum.php?f=62

What was that telephone number, again? TUrner 9-1290 OVerland 6-1291 - hey! You're a K/men winner.

Thanks for the tunes Brian.

rickity
www.gulchradio.com

 

[RicoGregg]

In addition to everything else, Glen Livingstone (thank you very much! ) has this terrific appreciation of Brian Lord's achievements on the R-I Canada threads:

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=206168.0


After reading this, it reminded me of why I wanted to get into radio when I was a kid in the 60s. By the time I was an adult in the 70s, it was dissipated and very different.

 

[KR4BD]

Brian was one of the original K/MEN. I was 14 years old living in Riverside in March, 1962 when K/MEN hit the airwaves in the Inland Empire. The jocks all had personality and the station's promotions were unforgettable...

Anyone else remember the Annual K/MEN Walk Back and Forth? Or...The K/MEN Build-A-Thing?

Brian...RIP! I spent my evenings with you doing homework. Fun times.

 

[pjc1961]

Brian Lord's bio on the kmen129radio.com page:

http://kmen129radio.com/brianlordbio.html

 

[rickityone]

I remember the Walk Back and Forth - I walked the San Bernardino to Riverside segment and got my mom to come and pick me up in Riverside. The prospect of the "forth" part was too much.

We lived in sight of the K/men towers, way up Sterling Avenue (the towers were and maybe still are on Baseline Av). Could ride my bicycle down there and look in the studio windows and got invited in several times.

rickity
www.gulchradio.com

 

[RicoGregg]

Happy to say that the towers are still there, but the building is long gone. The Bessant St. property that contains the towers and the space where the building was is owned by Clear Channel.

The dirt road that went through the cow pasture is also history. It now has apartment buildings on it.

The adjacent farm, much better known in the Inland Empire as the K/MEN Cow Pasture, is now San Gorgonio High School.

There used to be a giant rock, white, with the K/MEN 129 logo painted on it. It would make appearances with DJs, and would often wind up at other stations. One time, the manager of KFXM threatened to call the police on K/MEN if the rock wasn't removed. I wonder who has it now? I'll bet someone like Ted Ziggenbusch or Chuck Street does. Maybe Doug DeRoo perhaps?

It (latter-day sites) can all be seen on Google Maps.

I grew up in the Pacific - Sterling area, north of Baseline, just south of Pacific, and our backyard faced Sterling.

Radio used to be so much more colorful, and a lot more fun, back in those halcyon days.

 

[rickityone]

Happy to say that the towers are still there, but the building is long gone. The Bessant St. property that contains the towers and the space where the building was is owned by Clear Channel.



I grew up in the Pacific - Sterling area, north of Baseline, just south of Pacific, and our backyard faced Sterling.

Radio used to be so much more colorful, and a lot more fun, back in those halcyon days.

Wonder if we went to high school together, I graduated from Pacific High in 1962. We lived up above Highland Avenue, next to the orange groves. Like K/men and their studio, the orange groves are long gone as well - and so am I!

Regards,
rickity
www.gulchradio.com

 

[RicoGregg]

Wonder if we went to high school together, I graduated from Pacific High in 1962. We lived up above Highland Avenue, next to the orange groves. Like K/men and their studio, the orange groves are long gone as well - and so am I!

I'm afraid that we didn't. Upon entering high school, San Gorgonio was constructed mere blocks away, so I never got to attend Pacific. At PHS, they had that nice, spacious, beautiful (back then) campus that felt like a real campus. At San G, they were still building the place when school started. We had to walk around construction equipment, and almost nothing on campus worked.

I remember the orange groves. I used to go looking for snakes up there. Never found any though. (Insert own punch line here.)

Other people who lived in that particular part of town included Ted Ziggenbusch (sp), Chuck Street, who located the original K/MEN board which is now on display at the Route 66 Museum on E Street, and Angels Executive VP Tim Mead. It was like a shared experience.

After my junior year, I moved to the San Diego area, and graduated in 1968 from Coronado High School. What a different setting! But, I got to listen to Huckleberry when he left K/MEN to go to KCBQ. It was almost surreal, hearing Chief Raunchy Wolf with a beach nearby!

Not meaning to stretch this out (sorry), but I am just now learning of the passing of another K/MEN alum - Harry Scarborough. He apparently passed away a few months ago in Northern Cal, apparently homeless, living in a van, and totally alone. I hope those details aren't true.

If my math is correct, then the deceased K/MEN are: Brian Lord, Harry Scarborough, John Ravenscroft, Chuck Christiansen (C.C.), and Bobby Otis. If I left anyone out, it is purely unintentional. RIP.