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L.A. DJ Jimmy O'Neill and host of TV's Shindig dead at 72

R

radiohistory

LARADIO.com reports that Jimmy O'Neill, the host of ABC-TV's rock music show Shindig from 1964-1966, died on January 11th at age 72.
His daughter Katy had posted the news on her Facebook page. Singer Donna Loren, a Shindig regular performer, also posted the sad news on her Facebook page.

Jimmy was also the first voice heard when KXLA-1110 became KRLA-1110 with its Top 40 format in 1959. O'Neill also was a DJ at KFWB, KDAY and KRLA two other times in later years.

Jim Hilliker
Monterey
 
I have a 60-minute aircheck of Jimmy O'Neill from KFWB, December 30, 1966. KFWB had been losing listeners to Boss Radio KHJ, so in late 1966 they tried something different: There were very few commercials and almost every song played was a current hit. There were only two or three oldies per hour and they were usually only a year old. The songs all overlapped and the pace was very frenetic, not to mention completely atypical for Color Radio Channel 98. Even the famous jingles were shortened: instead of "KFWB, Channel 98," they were recut to say simply "KFWB 98." Jimmy sounded professional as always...but out of place.

Bill Earl's Dream-House, a history of KRLA, quotes Jimmy O'Neill's first words as he signed on KRLA at midnight September 1, 1959: "You have been listening to KXLA. You are now listening to KRLA, radio for the young at heart."

Jimmy stayed young at heart throughout his entire radio career. Even at 72, he was much too young to leave us.
 
Here is Jimmy's "mini-autobiography"; it was written very recently because he gave his age as 72: http://jimmyoneill.net/?page_id=4

In his later years he had vision problems and mobility problems because of diabetes, but he made no mention of that. As I said, he was always "young at heart."
 
Thanks for the posting. I forgot about all the music greats that were on his show.

Question...there was another O'Neil, Johnny O'Neil that worked on KFWB. I worked with him briefly at KULF, Houston. Were they related? They sure looked alike.

Jim Shannon
 
I said that "even at age 72, Jimmy was much too young to leave us." Well, the first news stories got his age wrong. Jimmy died just three days after turning 73. But even at 73, he was much too young to leave us. He was born January 8, 1940, in Enid, Oklahoma. (It seems to me that there was a famous rock'n'roll singer who was also born on a January 8. Oh well, that's not important now.)

Where is Jim Hilliker when we need him? I never heard of a Johnny O'Neill at KFWB. (Not that I know everyone who ever worked there.) However, in the late 1970s, KHJ had a DJ known as John Thomas. His real name is John Merriam but he has also used the name Johnny O'Neill. He's worked at several stations in Colorado and Texas and most recently was at WOMC in Detroit.
 
Oh man....and I brought him up on a Classic TV thread, due to his caricature on The Flintstones as "Jimmy O'Neillstone" on the episode "Shinrock a-Go-Go".

Sorry to hear he is not with us anymore.

cd
 
LA: I don't think the Johnny O'Neil you're talking about is the same guy. The Johnny O'Neil I worked with at KULF was killed in a plane crash around 1974 as he was doing traffic reports for the station. He also had an air shift.

He sounded and looked alot like Jimmy O'Neil.

Jim Shannon
 
Jimmy O'Neill was an only child. His parents divorced when he was young and he was raised by his mother.

If we wanted to---which we probably don't---we could devote a thread to traffic reporters who died in airplane/helicopter crashes. The ones that immediately come to mind are Bruce Wayne (KFI), Chip Whitmore (WEEI) and Jane Dornacker (WABC). Add Johnny O'Neil.
 
LARadioRewind said:
Jimmy O'Neill was an only child. His parents divorced when he was young and he was raised by his mother.

If we wanted to---which we probably don't---we could devote a thread to traffic reporters who died in airplane/helicopter crashes. The ones that immediately come to mind are Bruce Wayne (KFI), Chip Whitmore (WEEI) and Jane Dornacker (WABC). Add Johnny O'Neil.
Click to expand...

L.A.'s first airborne traffic reporter: KMPC's Captain Max Schumacher, who flew for his own company, Airwatch, under contract to KABC in 1958, survived a crash, sold Airwatch to Gene Autry and flew for KMPC from 1959 until he was killed in a mid-air collision with an LAPD helicopter near Dodger Stadium in 1966.
 
Steve,

Thanks for posting the link to Jimmy O'Neill's blog site from last year. I wish he had started that a few years sooner. I liked his mini-biography that he wrote. Sad that Shindig did not last longer and that his health went downhill so quickly. I only regret that I never got to meet Jimmy. Also, I was only 9 when Shindig started in 1964, and my parents likely did not watch it, as they were older and probably watched whatever was on NBC or CBS at the time. So, I only saw Jimmy as he looked on Shindig in the past 10 years via Youtube videos of the program.

Also, my email and phone pal Bill Kingman in Lake Tahoe grew up in Pasadena. He has told me a few times about visiting with Jimmy O'Neill several times while he was on the air in 1959-'60 at the KRLA-1110 studios and what a nice guy he was. At the time, Bill was 17 going on 18, and had his first radio gig at KPPC-1240, before moving away from Pasadena by 1961.

Jim Hilliker
 
I wonder why Shindig didn't last longer than two seasons. It certainly wasn't because rock'n'roll died out in 1966.

Shindig replaced Hootenanny, a folk-music series hosted by Jack Linkletter. That series didn't last long, for two reasons: The 1964 "British Invasion" pretty much killed the popularity of folk music, and Hootenanny blacklisted left-leaning performers such as Pete Seeger and the Weavers. (Was Senator McCarthy in charge of booking the acts?) To protest the blacklisting, other performers, including Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio and Peter Paul & Mary refused to appear. The program did feature a lot of Chad Mitchell, though; he also sang the theme song, Hootenanny Saturday Night.

And what series replaced Shindig in 1966? Batman. "To the Batmobile, Robin!"
 
LARadioRewind said:
I wonder why Shindig didn't last longer than two seasons. It certainly wasn't because rock'n'roll died out in 1966.

Shindig replaced Hootenanny, a folk-music series hosted by Jack Linkletter. That series didn't last long, for two reasons: The 1964 "British Invasion" pretty much killed the popularity of folk music, and Hootenanny blacklisted left-leaning performers such as Pete Seeger and the Weavers. (Was Senator McCarthy in charge of booking the acts?) To protest the blacklisting, other performers, including Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio and Peter Paul & Mary refused to appear. The program did feature a lot of Chad Mitchell, though; he also sang the theme song, Hootenanny Saturday Night.

And what series replaced Shindig in 1966? Batman. "To the Batmobile, Robin!"
Click to expand...
The remark about Joe McCarthy was probably tongue-in-cheek, but FYI-McCarthy died in 1957 and Hootenanny premiered in 1963. There was still a lot of informal blacklisting, though.

Many music and variety shows tanked in the ratings. Shindig's short run was the rule, rather than the exception. Other than Ed Sullivan, the shows that did well were usually attached to a star singer- DeAn Martin, Andy Williams, etc.
 
I knew McCarthy died in 1957 but I couldn't think of anyone more notorious during the years of the "Red Scare" and blacklisting. I had to use somebody as an example. ;)

Shindig began in September 1964 as a half-hour show, then in January 1965 became a one-hour show, then in September 1965 was changed to a half-hour on Thursday and a half-hour on Saturday. How many teenagers watch tv on Saturday night? It's no wonder that the series lasted only four more months after that. One other possible reason for the cancellation: In the final four months, several actors appeared along with the rock'n'roll acts. Mickey Rooney, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Ed Wynn, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hedy Lamarr, Oroson Welles, Hugh O'Brian and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. were probably not the stars that the teens wanted to see.
 
Lkeller said:
Many music and variety shows tanked in the ratings. Shindig's short run was the rule, rather than the exception. Other than Ed Sullivan, the shows that did well were usually attached to a star singer- DeAn Martin, Andy Williams, etc.
Click to expand...
...pardon? Carol Burnett? Garry Moore? Jackie Gleason? Arthur Godfrey? Sid Caesar? Steve Allen? Milton Berle?...
 
Hoo-hoo! You forgot Ed Wynn! Oh my goodness! Oh, you silly!

In defense of Mister Keller, the programs that he (and Mister Ultimajock) named were not aimed at teens. Maybe Jim Hilliker, Michael Hagerty or David Eduardo could tell us: What was the highest-rated teen-oriented program in television history? American Bandstand, perhaps?

I wonder if part of the reason for Shindig's relatively brief broadcast run---and probably Hullabaloo's as well--- is that it was on in prime-time and, in the mid-1960s, teenagers spent their evenings doing homework and/or listening to the radio, not watching television. In addition, Shindig was a national program and perhaps teens preferred a local show, one that invited them to be part of the audience and sometimes even dance. In Los Angeles, we had Boss City, 9th Street West and The Lloyd Thaxton Show. If I remember correctly, they all aired in late afternoon or early evening.
 
Somewhere on the internet, I've seen a very good ionterview with Jimmy O'Neill, in which he talks in detail about the problems Shindig encountered with ABC executives, and the various time length changes, chages in the nighs it aired and finally problems after the shgows original producer quit and left the show. So, it's no wonder Shindig only lasted a short 15 months. By the way, the original Shindig producer was successful in England with rock music shows like Ready, Steady Go, so he tried to transform his idea of a rock music TV show into American TV, with Shindig.

I would say American Bandstand was the highest ratings, and that was in the late-1950s when ABC was the number 3 TV network, and had far less affiliates than NBC or CBS. And, AB was on 5 days a week at the time for 90 minutes Monday to Friday afternoons, when the teenage audience in aimed for was getting home from school. The show made its national debiut on ABC on August 5, 1957. By February 9th of 1958, American Bandtand was ABC's number 1 daytime TV show with 8,400,000 viewers every day. By January 1 of 1959, AB was the most popular daytime TV show in the USA, beating out NBC and CBS!

By the way, ABC did try a night time version of American Bandstand, starting on October 7, 1957 from 7:30 to 8 pm in prime time. It was a ratings disaster and wa ssoon cancelled. Dick Clark later said he knew his core audience of teens and housewives were ocupied with other things during the early evening hours. Clark was later given another prime time show from New York on Saturday nights, similar to Bandstand, but without he dancing. It lasted from 2-1958 until 1960.

Jim
 
Ultimajock said:
Lkeller said:
Many music and variety shows tanked in the ratings. Shindig's short run was the rule, rather than the exception. Other than Ed Sullivan, the shows that did well were usually attached to a star singer- DeAn Martin, Andy Williams, etc.
Click to expand...
...pardon? Carol Burnett? Garry Moore? Jackie Gleason? Arthur Godfrey? Sid Caesar? Steve Allen? Milton Berle?...
Click to expand...

OK - should have said "big name star like a singer or comedian."

My point was - a "star," not just a host introducing acts - with the exception of Ed Sullivan and Dick Clark (though you can't really call American Bandstand a variety show). Outside of LA, Jimmy O'Neill was not well known in those days.
 
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