Ultimajock said:
...of course, that should read "KHJ making its first hard hit against KRLA" (I know I shouldn't post after eating 5-alarm chili, heh heh)...
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KHJ vs WABC
- Thread starter jimbo
- Start date
...of course, that should read "KHJ making its first hard hit against KRLA" (I know I shouldn't post after eating 5-alarm chili, heh heh)...
T
TVC1500
Guest
I once heard an air-check of Wink Martindale doing mornings on KFWB, it was brutal. There was
a whole bunch of very MOR styled jocks in LA before KHJ hit. Gene Weed, Casey, Charlie O, Bob
Eubanks etc. My feeling is they were really looking to jump the street over to KMPC for the real
bucks, and more opportunities to get into acting, producing, voice-overs etc.
You're right Bob Hudson was unique and could do things even RWM couldn't do. However KRLA shot itself in
the foot so many times some call it a conspiracy.
Check out 1970 when KRLA had come close to taking the lead from KHJ, suddenly the PD is let
go and who do they hire.....well none other than Shadoe Stevens, who promptly puts the
station in the tank, ending it's run as a Top 40 station.
Meanwhile KROQ signs on with this amazing air staff and KRLA's old PD. Problem is KROQ has no
signal and the ownership runs out of money. Yea, KHJ was fortunate-it won sometimes purely
due to competition which was just flat- out incompetent.
Funny this stuff is so long ago,yet nobody talks about KIIS versus KKHR though. Yea-AM Top 40 rocked.
a whole bunch of very MOR styled jocks in LA before KHJ hit. Gene Weed, Casey, Charlie O, Bob
Eubanks etc. My feeling is they were really looking to jump the street over to KMPC for the real
bucks, and more opportunities to get into acting, producing, voice-overs etc.
You're right Bob Hudson was unique and could do things even RWM couldn't do. However KRLA shot itself in
the foot so many times some call it a conspiracy.
Check out 1970 when KRLA had come close to taking the lead from KHJ, suddenly the PD is let
go and who do they hire.....well none other than Shadoe Stevens, who promptly puts the
station in the tank, ending it's run as a Top 40 station.
Meanwhile KROQ signs on with this amazing air staff and KRLA's old PD. Problem is KROQ has no
signal and the ownership runs out of money. Yea, KHJ was fortunate-it won sometimes purely
due to competition which was just flat- out incompetent.
Funny this stuff is so long ago,yet nobody talks about KIIS versus KKHR though. Yea-AM Top 40 rocked.
Marv-L.A. said:
Wasn't that correctly "Bob Hope's group was granted KRLA's frequency, taking it over from the interim operator after the Jack Kent Cooke ownership issue resulted in a license revocation" since Hope did not buy the station but received a grant (The stations he bought included WBMJ San Juan and KMBY Monterrey)?
mredindc said:
Ah, but it's the multiple paragraphs that follow the words "SOLD OUT".....here's what's on RJ's website:
And now the book is totally SOLD OUT.
I COULDN'T LOWER THE PRICE...
SO I IMPROVED THE BOOK!
Presenting the NEW UPGRADED & RELOADED EDITION
of KHJ: Inside Boss Radio, featuring:
• More graphics
• More memos
• KHJ 1968 FCC License Renewal Application excerpts
• Letters to KHJ from GI's in Viet Nam
• Robert Kennedy assassination coverage SOP’s
• Detailed specs of the KHJ-AM transmitter
• Floor plan of the Boss Radio studio layout
• Mayor’s Proclamation celebrating Boss Radio's 25th Anniversary
• Additional text and oral history interviews
• Inscribed if requested
• FREE TINA DELGADO IS ALIVE button with each order!!!
• Plus much, much MORE!
To prchase a copy of KHJ: Inside Boss Radio for $99.00 plus S&H, email [email protected] for details.
mredindc said:
When I ordered it the page also said, "Sold out" but since the book is done with a publish on demand company, single copy orders could be and were fulfilled.
M
mredindc
Guest
Hagerty/DavidEduardo:
Knuckleheads! THE BOOK IS SOLD OUT ... PERIOD! Jacobs' 93KHJ.com website hasn't been updated in nearly three years. His contact in Texas where the book was printed got out of the business in early-2005. Now why don't either or both of you two geniuses try sending an email to the address shown on the website: [email protected]. See what happens, and then report back to the group.
Knuckleheads! THE BOOK IS SOLD OUT ... PERIOD! Jacobs' 93KHJ.com website hasn't been updated in nearly three years. His contact in Texas where the book was printed got out of the business in early-2005. Now why don't either or both of you two geniuses try sending an email to the address shown on the website: [email protected]. See what happens, and then report back to the group.
mredindc said:
Funny how I wrote to RJ about a year ago and got a copy... also got the Melrose print that now hangs on my office wall.
P.S. There are hundreds of print on demand companies.
E-mail to the [email protected] address bounces back.
I've e-mailed RJ at his current address and asked the question. Will report the answer when it arrives.
---Michael Hagerty
I've e-mailed RJ at his current address and asked the question. Will report the answer when it arrives.
---Michael Hagerty
Hey, David! We ARE knuckleheads! 
I wrote RJ a one-sentence e-mail and got a novel in reply. Pasting it below, but for mredindc, you're right...we're wrong.
Now, RJ himself:
Someone told me some blog yadda is going on. Zzzz.
Anyone wishing to know my views on KHJ vs ANYONE should listen to the interview
I recently did with Michael Harrison. It is at my section of Podjockey, part
TALKERS MAGAZINE.
The KHJ book in original form was printed in Texas and the printer and the original files are gone.
My files are trapped in a drive somewhere that locked up long ago.
Book was a sandwich. New material for it, writings and transcripts of interviews ---
the filling was selection of my KHJ memos 1965-69 saved by Johnny Williams wife,
who sent them to me when Johnny was in Pitt with Atkins and I was KGB, c. 173 --
then a wrap of new stuff. I called the indexes Lexicons just because it wouldn't
be same old shit. We indexed two categories: People and things.
When first printing was gone and people were on me for it I took apart my last
one and had it XEROXED AT KINKOS, spiral bound and sold it for like 60 bucks.
I am asked about it all the time.
I finally have a mint copy courtesy of Ed Gursky, who has prescience to order 5 or maybe
10 originals, which I signed and were low numbers. I now have one back from Ed,
who is terrific and one of the few radio people i invited to do voices on present project.
It COULD be done properly if (1) there was a true market, which I doubt, since it is
niche thing and (2) someone wanted to do it right.
DO it right would mean keying in all the "slices" and Xeroxing the memos if Gursky
or someone would give them up. THEN it would have to get ISBN, which would get
it on Amazon, etc. And it could be done right, which is what I am into, as you know.
I am not going to spend my final inning(s) shlepping to Kinkos and mailing books.
On the other hand, Michael, I selected the memos as both a record of our "playbook,"
to show that nothing was done by accident, that the systems were as good as the jocks.
and vice versa.
In MY opinion, no one on my watch was not only a top radio personality, but had the
Mentality of a top flight PD. We modeled ourselves after the GB Packers. IN MORE
WAYS THAN ONE COULD IMAGINE SHORT OF BEING THERE.
I had 72 people in my department. The third floor was an engineering LAB that could
build anything we couldn't buy. KHJ-TV, Ch. 9 was the #1 indie station in LA when TV
was just that. Every jock was supported by a half dozen people who had his back
around the clock. Shit, why am I telling YOU this?
If someone wants to PayPal me a few thousand bucks I will have more books made
the correct way. Not for the money. I have no time left other than to tell someone
HOW and sign off on it. My fear is that between ownership, management and talent,
none of this would be used.
The tragedy is that we were all ****ing BASICS. Everything I am doing now in
a triangulation of web-pod-blog with ZERO budget -- from my house -- is based on
those SOPs and the principles behind them, which I was fortunate enough to
learn from those who invented them. They are not names to me. I at least met and
worked with some of thew men who invented top 40.
NO ONE can learn what I did from my mentor, Colonel Thomas A. Parker. I never
do ANYTHING without asking myself how Col would handle it. My inspiration as
a programmer is Chuck Blore. My personal hero as a jock in all categories was
B. Mitchell Reed. Morgan is most talented person, on same brain wave, I ever worked
with. My two best friends in radio were Tom Moffatt and Frank Terry,
I have a mental team I would assemble if we could put a team together one more time
and go kick ass. A Boss Samurai thing, but with more than LA players.
As to Bill Drake. I interviewed him for 5 hours over 2 days in LA. Only thing off limas
was his married life. The transcript is 165 pages. About two, in total, were scattered
thru the KHJ book. I never received, or saw, anything in writing from either Bill Drake
or Gene Chenault.
What I have done lately is on the Internet NOW. I programmed 3 #1 stations before KHJ
and was, along with Tom Rounds, co-creator of the longest running show in radio, now
hosted by Seacrest. AT40. Speaking of Rounds: Read THE PRESIDENT TR quote about, "The man
in te arena." I pasted a copy on my office wall at KHj on day one. Along with a copy of
the ratings, which had the statin something like 35 OF 41.
I have nothing to prove. EVERYONE IN THE HUDDLE KNEW WHO WAS CALLING SIGNALS.
I might have the Drake stuff released when either of us dies.
Last thing, Michael. Of all the oral histories that sandwiched our playbook, that represents
maybe 5% of what I have. We used maybe 60% of the memos.
To HEAR any of the BASICS applied to just about ANYTHING, LISTEN to some of what I do know.
If more people put energy into action than blogs, it would be a good thing, whether world peace or good broadcasting.
**** them in the bleachers. As for the book, as a KGB groupie later wrote, "Show me the money."
That's my final word on the subject.
Aloha,
RJ
Kaneohe, HI
May 27, 2007
PS:
At the 25th anniversary in LA, Morgan surprised me with a sliver CD based on the
special motif we designed just for that DAY. It is inscribed: "If Vince Lombardi had
been a Program Director he would have been Ron Jacobs. The Boss Radio Team of 1965.
May 9, 1880."
It is the only award I have on my wall.
I wrote RJ a one-sentence e-mail and got a novel in reply. Pasting it below, but for mredindc, you're right...we're wrong.
Now, RJ himself:
Someone told me some blog yadda is going on. Zzzz.
Anyone wishing to know my views on KHJ vs ANYONE should listen to the interview
I recently did with Michael Harrison. It is at my section of Podjockey, part
TALKERS MAGAZINE.
The KHJ book in original form was printed in Texas and the printer and the original files are gone.
My files are trapped in a drive somewhere that locked up long ago.
Book was a sandwich. New material for it, writings and transcripts of interviews ---
the filling was selection of my KHJ memos 1965-69 saved by Johnny Williams wife,
who sent them to me when Johnny was in Pitt with Atkins and I was KGB, c. 173 --
then a wrap of new stuff. I called the indexes Lexicons just because it wouldn't
be same old shit. We indexed two categories: People and things.
When first printing was gone and people were on me for it I took apart my last
one and had it XEROXED AT KINKOS, spiral bound and sold it for like 60 bucks.
I am asked about it all the time.
I finally have a mint copy courtesy of Ed Gursky, who has prescience to order 5 or maybe
10 originals, which I signed and were low numbers. I now have one back from Ed,
who is terrific and one of the few radio people i invited to do voices on present project.
It COULD be done properly if (1) there was a true market, which I doubt, since it is
niche thing and (2) someone wanted to do it right.
DO it right would mean keying in all the "slices" and Xeroxing the memos if Gursky
or someone would give them up. THEN it would have to get ISBN, which would get
it on Amazon, etc. And it could be done right, which is what I am into, as you know.
I am not going to spend my final inning(s) shlepping to Kinkos and mailing books.
On the other hand, Michael, I selected the memos as both a record of our "playbook,"
to show that nothing was done by accident, that the systems were as good as the jocks.
and vice versa.
In MY opinion, no one on my watch was not only a top radio personality, but had the
Mentality of a top flight PD. We modeled ourselves after the GB Packers. IN MORE
WAYS THAN ONE COULD IMAGINE SHORT OF BEING THERE.
I had 72 people in my department. The third floor was an engineering LAB that could
build anything we couldn't buy. KHJ-TV, Ch. 9 was the #1 indie station in LA when TV
was just that. Every jock was supported by a half dozen people who had his back
around the clock. Shit, why am I telling YOU this?
If someone wants to PayPal me a few thousand bucks I will have more books made
the correct way. Not for the money. I have no time left other than to tell someone
HOW and sign off on it. My fear is that between ownership, management and talent,
none of this would be used.
The tragedy is that we were all ****ing BASICS. Everything I am doing now in
a triangulation of web-pod-blog with ZERO budget -- from my house -- is based on
those SOPs and the principles behind them, which I was fortunate enough to
learn from those who invented them. They are not names to me. I at least met and
worked with some of thew men who invented top 40.
NO ONE can learn what I did from my mentor, Colonel Thomas A. Parker. I never
do ANYTHING without asking myself how Col would handle it. My inspiration as
a programmer is Chuck Blore. My personal hero as a jock in all categories was
B. Mitchell Reed. Morgan is most talented person, on same brain wave, I ever worked
with. My two best friends in radio were Tom Moffatt and Frank Terry,
I have a mental team I would assemble if we could put a team together one more time
and go kick ass. A Boss Samurai thing, but with more than LA players.
As to Bill Drake. I interviewed him for 5 hours over 2 days in LA. Only thing off limas
was his married life. The transcript is 165 pages. About two, in total, were scattered
thru the KHJ book. I never received, or saw, anything in writing from either Bill Drake
or Gene Chenault.
What I have done lately is on the Internet NOW. I programmed 3 #1 stations before KHJ
and was, along with Tom Rounds, co-creator of the longest running show in radio, now
hosted by Seacrest. AT40. Speaking of Rounds: Read THE PRESIDENT TR quote about, "The man
in te arena." I pasted a copy on my office wall at KHj on day one. Along with a copy of
the ratings, which had the statin something like 35 OF 41.
I have nothing to prove. EVERYONE IN THE HUDDLE KNEW WHO WAS CALLING SIGNALS.
I might have the Drake stuff released when either of us dies.
Last thing, Michael. Of all the oral histories that sandwiched our playbook, that represents
maybe 5% of what I have. We used maybe 60% of the memos.
To HEAR any of the BASICS applied to just about ANYTHING, LISTEN to some of what I do know.
If more people put energy into action than blogs, it would be a good thing, whether world peace or good broadcasting.
**** them in the bleachers. As for the book, as a KGB groupie later wrote, "Show me the money."
That's my final word on the subject.
Aloha,
RJ
Kaneohe, HI
May 27, 2007
PS:
At the 25th anniversary in LA, Morgan surprised me with a sliver CD based on the
special motif we designed just for that DAY. It is inscribed: "If Vince Lombardi had
been a Program Director he would have been Ron Jacobs. The Boss Radio Team of 1965.
May 9, 1880."
It is the only award I have on my wall.
T
TVC1500
Guest
M-Red
Are you always pi--ed off or do you simply come off that way?
Are you always pi--ed off or do you simply come off that way?
TVC1500 said:
No no no, I think it's Mr. Ed, ya know like the horse. Or is it a Horse's A**?
michael hagerty said:Hey, David! We ARE knuckleheads!
I wrote RJ a one-sentence e-mail and got a novel in reply. Pasting it below, but for mredindc, you're right...we're wrong.
That's pretty amazing stuff, although I am saddenened that the original files for the book are lost. Yep, we're wrong, regretably.
I'm glad RJ mentioned TR... for whom i have worked on a little sideline gig for the last 778 weeks, and via which i briefly worked with RJ, too (circa 1995).
Oldbones said:
I lived in Boston, and WBZ never was top 40. Yes, they did play much of the same music of a tiop 40 station, but they also played a lot of Perry Como like stuff too. We called them "Chicken Rock" (this was before I got into radio).
WMEX ruled the roost-headed by Arnie Ginsburg's "Night Train" show. We also had daytimers WORL-950 playing top 40 and WILD Playing soul (which had a lot of top 40 songs). In mid 1967, WRKO came on and knocked WMEX off their high horse...BUT then WMEX hired John Garabedian as afternoon jock and PD who by turning them more progressive beat WRKO. John was doing things like having Dick Summer (Mr. Binder and Binder here in L.A.) read poetry at night and playing album cuts in afternoon drive during his show. Unfortunately, WMEX's owner Mac Richmond died suddenly of a heart attack and that was the end of WMEX as we knew it. His brother Dick (a real estate guy) took WMEX over and basically ran it into the ground.
By the way, lots of us in Boston were smoking grass and requesting Byrds records in Boston in the late '60s. We were (just) listening to WBCN-104.1 on FM and WCAS-740 and WNTN-1550 on AM.
I lived in Boston, and WBZ never was top 40. Yes, they did play much of the same music of a tiop 40 station, but they also played a lot of Perry Como like stuff too. We called them "Chicken Rock"
Thank you for your comments. I have had arguments about this with co-workers. My position was that WBZ was really never a top 40 station. Sort of a hybred of M. O. R. and top 40 of the day. I remember listening to WBZ late at night when I was in jr high school in Upstate NY and they played some Beatles but mostly Al Martino and Perry Como -chicken rock. Don't get me wrong. They sounded great but by the most part they weren't rockn'
Thank you for your comments. I have had arguments about this with co-workers. My position was that WBZ was really never a top 40 station. Sort of a hybred of M. O. R. and top 40 of the day. I remember listening to WBZ late at night when I was in jr high school in Upstate NY and they played some Beatles but mostly Al Martino and Perry Como -chicken rock. Don't get me wrong. They sounded great but by the most part they weren't rockn'
"Thank you for your comments. I have had arguments about this with co-workers. My position was that WBZ was really never a top 40 station. Sort of a hybred of M. O. R. and top 40 of the day. I remember listening to WBZ late at night when I was in jr high school in Upstate NY and they played some Beatles but mostly Al Martino and Perry Como -chicken rock. Don't get me wrong. They sounded great but by the most part they weren't rockn' "
I never really understood the term "chicken rock," until recently...but I would think the LA 60s equivalent would have been KFWB in the final couple of years before the station went all news. A couple of years later, KGBS was similar, and possibly the early KIIS (AM)...or would that have been considered more soft-rock?
I never really understood the term "chicken rock," until recently...but I would think the LA 60s equivalent would have been KFWB in the final couple of years before the station went all news. A couple of years later, KGBS was similar, and possibly the early KIIS (AM)...or would that have been considered more soft-rock?
I never really understood the term "chicken rock," until recently...but I would think the LA 60s equivalent would have been KFWB in the final couple of years before the station went all news. A couple of years later, KGBS was similar, and possibly the early KIIS (AM)...or would that have been considered more soft-rock?
I have never lived in L. A. -only visited, but from what I know about radio history maybe KNX when Bob Crane did mornings probably would have been considered "chicken rock".
Chicken rock evolved into what we now call A. C. like top 40 turning into CHR.
I have never lived in L. A. -only visited, but from what I know about radio history maybe KNX when Bob Crane did mornings probably would have been considered "chicken rock".
Chicken rock evolved into what we now call A. C. like top 40 turning into CHR.
"I have never lived in L. A. -only visited, but from what I know about radio history maybe KNX when Bob Crane did mornings probably would have been considered 'chicken rock'. "
Before going all news, the KNX music was straight up MOR - Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, etc. All artists from my parents' generation.
Actually, during the week it was what was called a "full service" radio station - a lot of CBS network news shows (Douglas Edwards, Lowell Thomas), plus variety shows like Arthur Godfrey, and Art Linkletter's House Party; also local cooking shows, gardening shows, and that kind of thing. On the weekends, they called it "KNX Weekend" (clever, huh?) it was all MOR music. I don't think any real rock ever hit the airwaves at KNX. There were possibly a few younger cross-over artists on KNX as long as the songs were pure pop - Mack the Knife by Bobby Darrin was probably played on KNX.
I remember this well because it was my parents' favorite station - my father would play it while he worked around the house every...uh... KNX Weekend. They prayed at the altar of Bob Crane every weekday morning...though their love stopped with Hogan's Heroes, which they thought was tacky junk.
Before going all news, the KNX music was straight up MOR - Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, etc. All artists from my parents' generation.
Actually, during the week it was what was called a "full service" radio station - a lot of CBS network news shows (Douglas Edwards, Lowell Thomas), plus variety shows like Arthur Godfrey, and Art Linkletter's House Party; also local cooking shows, gardening shows, and that kind of thing. On the weekends, they called it "KNX Weekend" (clever, huh?) it was all MOR music. I don't think any real rock ever hit the airwaves at KNX. There were possibly a few younger cross-over artists on KNX as long as the songs were pure pop - Mack the Knife by Bobby Darrin was probably played on KNX.
I remember this well because it was my parents' favorite station - my father would play it while he worked around the house every...uh... KNX Weekend. They prayed at the altar of Bob Crane every weekday morning...though their love stopped with Hogan's Heroes, which they thought was tacky junk.
Boss Radio in New York would have forced WABC to dump the 18 minutes of commercials and go to "more music" much earlier. That would have been to the benefit of the listener. However, WABC would have gone to any lengths to preserve their supremacy. If WABC
were in LA on a blowtorch similar to KFI, they would be very hard to compete with, and Cousin Brucie would have been successful as
he would have an audience in all of the Western United States. Maybe some of you are not old enough to realize that Bruce Morrow
represented all that was good in the world. He was a great jock and a great guy. That charisma would have gotten ratings.
were in LA on a blowtorch similar to KFI, they would be very hard to compete with, and Cousin Brucie would have been successful as
he would have an audience in all of the Western United States. Maybe some of you are not old enough to realize that Bruce Morrow
represented all that was good in the world. He was a great jock and a great guy. That charisma would have gotten ratings.
barthgimble said:
From 1960 to 1965, that probably would have been true. It might have been a battle between him and Dick Biondi on KRLA from '63 to '65. But L.A. bought into a sound over personalities when Boss Radio hit, and if Sam Riddle and Johnny Mitchell couldn't have tied or beaten Cousin Brucie in the first year and a half of KHJ, Humble Harve would have. Just a matter of fitting the vibe of Southern California better.
Signal was really irrelevant. All you needed was to adequately cover the metro (which KHJ did). Anything more than 45 miles from L.A. had its own Top 40 station (KEZY, Anaheim, KMEN and KXFM in San Bernardino, KACY in Ventura). in fact, even though KFI went Top 40 with great jocks in 1976 (when signal mattered more because of an expanded metro, increased interference and listeners who were becoming used to FM's "clean" sound), it took until 1979 before it beat KHJ in the ratings. And a lot of that was KHJ's self-inflicted injuries.
---Michael Hagerty
- Status