KNEW/KSAN Owner John Kluge Dies

[BossRadioDJ]

John Kluge, the former owner of KNEW and KSAN during their Metromedia era, has died:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/business/media/09kluge.html

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

A nice quote from Dave Herman, onetime WNEW-FM deejay, on that other board:

When I joined WNEW-FM in 1972 John's corporate offices were in the same location as us... he would arrive at the office about 7 or 7:30 and since I was doing morning drive he would often come into the studio bringing me muffins, bagels, coffee, etc. He'd hang out with me constantly asking me questions. "What's so special about Bob Dylan?", he'd ask. Or "Why did you decide to change the next record you had cued up at the last minute?"

At Thanksgiving every single one of the many hundreds of company employees would get a turkey. A practice that Mel Karmazin (now in charge of Siruis/XM) would continue when he became our boss. I'm sure Mel would agree with me that much of Kluge's management style influenced him as he rose to the top.

Metromedia was the very 1st company to start playing progressive/free form rock on FM on all it's 7 FM stations including WNEW-FM, KSAN (SF), WMMR (Philly) WMMS (Cleveland) and others. That could never have happened without John Kluge at the helm. He is as vital to the history of broadcasting as any other person.

 

[LKellerIII]

Wow. Thanks for that, DJ and Mike. I grew up with Metromedia radio and TV stations, but never knew the identity of the man behind it. He sounds like a brilliant guy, and a good person, too - though I suspect you'd find some detractors given that he was a driven businessman.

The NY Times article states that he gave a rare interview for his obituary when he turned 72. So he lived 23 years past that birthday.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I remember reading in an article (probably back in the 1970s) that John Kluge had the KNEW offices in Jack London Square decorated with priceless art from his own collection. It appears that he also spent money on talent back then, too.

 

[thehawk]

A bit late in this thread, but...

I was KNEW PD and Operations Manager (and on the air and for a while also chief engineer) from 1971 - 1974. I'd meet John Kluge when he'd visit, but my routine contact was with Metromedia Radio president George Duncan. (He and I worked on a plan to move the studios to the transmitter...another discussion.)

In the mid-60s when Metromedia built KNEW 910AM studios at 66 Jack London Square (Port of Oakland building), it included Gallery 91 to showcase lots of John Kluge's art collection. The radio station had "extra" rooms and hallways intended for visitors to tour the gallery, with windows into the various studios. It made for a huge, spread out, and fairly disfunctional radio station, but I suppose showed the art well.

By the time I arrived in May 1971, the art gallery had been shut down, though there were plenty of nice art pieces around the still-huge radio offices (shared with another Kluge business, Foster & Kleiser outdoor advertising). Presumably the remaining art was worth lots of money because we were cautioned to "be careful".

By then, money was tight. One day, in the middle of his afternoon air shift, Ron Lyons appeared in my office doorway. He tossed something across the room, and as the already-broken studio headphones slammed in the wall he erupted with "Can we sell a painting and buy some -censored- phones?" He had a point.

Kluge had much more of his art collection at Metromedia TV station KTTV 11 in Los Angeles, with a wide variety of art, especially large pieces that fit the scale of the TV studios. He had a rooftop living/entertaining complex with even more art.