• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

LA Talent in SD?

C

clericus

Guest
On my scoped aircheck of "The Last Contest" from KCBQ c. 1972, Charlie Tuna prominent. Someone told me that he was in SD because of a contract dispute in LA.

I know of Shotgun Tom, but has other LA air-talent worked in SD since then?
 
Oh yes!
Here's a few I know of who started in San Diego and went to LA:
Ellen K. (B100, KIIS FM)
Danny Romero (B100, B100.3)
Jo Jo Kincaid
Bo Woods
Charlie and Harrigan
Marc Todd
Jeff Stewart
Mike Morales
Christopher Lance
Mark Jagger (as Mark Hanson)
Bill Balance
Brian Whitman

There's plenty more, these are just the ones I know of. You can go to 404.com to find more. And also, I believe LAradio.com has a huge database of former LA jocks.
 
Garrett said:
Oh yes!

There's plenty more, these are just the ones I know of. You can go to 404.com to find more. And also, I believe LAradio.com has a huge database of former LA jocks.
Click to expand...

Add Sofia Soria, formerly KLQV, now KLVE where she is #1 in the market 25.54 and #1 Women 18+ in 10-3 PM.
 
clericus said:
On my scoped aircheck of "The Last Contest" from KCBQ c. 1972, Charlie Tuna prominent. Someone told me that he was in SD because of a contract dispute in LA.

I know of Shotgun Tom, but has other LA air-talent worked in SD since then?
Click to expand...


Me :)

In 1979 three of us left KCBQ within about a 90 day period to go work at KHJ: myself, Lee Marshall and Tony Maddox. Ed Chandler, who'd worked at KSON and some other local outlets went up to LA to do mornings, although I can't recall what name he used there. Raymond Bannister who was with the old KPRI 106.5 went up to LA in 1980 and spent many years with KROQ as Ramondo (his ex wife is married to Jim McInnes). Jim's first wife Linda McInnes went from KGB to KLOS in the 70's or so.


Shotgun is still a "San Diego" resident: he lives in the El Cajon area and stays in LA during the week, I believe.
 
Hi Bob,

I thought of you after I posted the question. Sorry about that.

So a lot of jocks have gone north, but do any from LA ever come down here to work or do "non-compete" clauses still exist (hence perhaps there's less reason to work in SD)?



Bob_Hudson said:
Me :)

In 1979 three of us left KCBQ within about a 90 day period to go work at KHJ: myself, Lee Marshall and Tony Maddox. Ed Chandler, who'd worked at KSON and some other local outlets went up to LA to do mornings, although I can't recall what name he used there. Raymond Bannister who was with the old KPRI 106.5 went up to LA in 1980 and spent many years with KROQ as Ramondo (his ex wife is married to Jim McInnes). Jim's first wife Linda McInnes went from KGB to KLOS in the 70's or so.


Shotgun is still a "San Diego" resident: he lives in the El Cajon area and stays in LA during the week, I believe.
Click to expand...
 
clericus said:
Hi Bob,

I thought of you after I posted the question. Sorry about that.

So a lot of jocks have gone north, but do any from LA ever come down here to work or do "non-compete" clauses still exist (hence perhaps there's less reason to work in SD)?
Click to expand...

Bill Ballance came down to San Diego and had a long career after LA.

I don't know what it's like now but at one time working a weekend shift at some LA stations paid almost as much as a full time gig in San Diego. I think that if you're an LA radio guy and really cannot get work there, you will want to get further away from LA than San Diego and maybe go to one of the Midwest markets which pay more than San Diego (that way you don't have to deal with your old LA buddies hearing on a San Diego station and expressing pity for you :) ---- San Diego radio is really just leagues behind LA

I worked with Banana Joe Montione at KHJ in 79-80 and in 1985 or so when I was taking a road trip around the country I heard him on the air in Wilkes Barre, PA. which is the number 69 market: I'll bet he was making more than he would have in San Diego.
 
Bob_Hudson said:
San Diego radio is really just leagues behind LA

I worked with Banana Joe Montione at KHJ in 79-80 and in 1985 or so when I was taking a road trip around the country I heard him on the air in Wilkes Barre, PA. which is the number 69 market: I'll bet he was making more than he would have in San Diego.
Click to expand...

This is what I don't understand. SD must be a top-ten market. It's a great place to live - the quality of life must be better here if only because of the traffic and the weather.

Why the disparity in air-talent? I'm surprised that more LA folk don't end their careers here.
 
clericus said:
Bob_Hudson said:
San Diego radio is really just leagues behind LA

I worked with Banana Joe Montione at KHJ in 79-80 and in 1985 or so when I was taking a road trip around the country I heard him on the air in Wilkes Barre, PA. which is the number 69 market: I'll bet he was making more than he would have in San Diego.
Click to expand...

This is what I don't understand. SD must be a top-ten market. It's a great place to live - the quality of life must be better here if only because of the traffic and the weather.

Why the disparity in air-talent? I'm surprised that more LA folk don't end their careers here.
Click to expand...

San Diego is far from being a top ten market: it's number 17 in the ARBITRON market rankings, but you will find many smaller markets in which radio pays more money, is more exciting and innovative (or at least it was until Clear Channel took over the world) and which have much lower housing costs. I recall that even back in the 70's I knew of people from much smaller markets turning down gigs in San Diego because they'd have to take a pay cut. Some folks would come here thinking that being in Southern California, a San Diego gig would be a convenient stepping stone to Los Angeles radio, but it is not.
 
San Diego to LA used to be a big deal...not quite the same thing today, but
how far back do you want to go?. Many KDEO, KCBQ, and KGB jocks went
directly from San Diego to LA. KGB-FM and KPRI also had any number.

It isn't as much about maket size now, its about the size of your contract.
My bet is SD jocks in the 60's & 70's under AFTRA scale were doing better than
(excluding morning shows) they are doing now. Some of the trouble started
when FM stations in San Diego paid dirt wages in comparison to AM AFTRA
stations. That's the real story. For instance the celebrated B100 of the 70's
paid maybe half typically of what an AM AFRA station paid.
 
What do "air personalities" make in SD? (AM and drive and other day parts)?

Since this is labor day, what is the status of the unions such as AFTRA?

doublecashkgb said:
San Diego to LA used to be a big deal...not quite the same thing today, but
how far back do you want to go?. Many KDEO, KCBQ, and KGB jocks went
directly from San Diego to LA. KGB-FM and KPRI also had any number.

It isn't as much about maket size now, its about the size of your contract.
My bet is SD jocks in the 60's & 70's under AFTRA scale were doing better than
(excluding morning shows) they are doing now. Some of the trouble started
when FM stations in San Diego paid dirt wages in comparison to AM AFTRA
stations. That's the real story. For instance the celebrated B100 of the 70's
paid maybe half typically of what an AM AFRA station paid.
Click to expand...
 
clericus said:
What do "air personalities" make in SD? (AM and drive and other day parts)?
Click to expand...

That's easy. They'll make at least $8 an hour once the gov signs the wage bill.
 
doublecashkgb said:
It isn't as much about maket size now, its about the size of your contract.
My bet is SD jocks in the 60's & 70's under AFTRA scale were doing better than
(excluding morning shows) they are doing now. Some of the trouble started
when FM stations in San Diego paid dirt wages in comparison to AM AFTRA
stations. That's the real story. For instance the celebrated B100 of the 70's
paid maybe half typically of what an AM AFRA station paid.
Click to expand...

I was working afternoons at KPRI in 1979 doing news for Gary Kelly (a jock who has since become a TV weather guy). We were number one in our key demos but I left to go to KCBQ which by then was no longer a ratings powerhouse, but because of AFTRA my pay doubled. When I last worked on the air in San Diego in about 1999-2000, I was working under the Shadow Traffic AFTRA contract doing morning news on the Planet: the pay was the same as it had been at KCBQ 20 years before! When Shadow was sucked up by Metro they slowly got rid of all the people working under the Shadow AFTRA contract because the Metro people made less money. There is now a Metro AFTRA contract, but knowing how powerless the San Diego local is, I would not be surprised to learn that most Metro people make less than I did 5 or 6 years ago.
 
Bob, were you making six figures just like all the San Diego air hosts? Of course, the currency exchange rate from old Mexico pesos to U.S. Dollars would still amount to $8 an hour.
 
There are some people in San Diego that turn a very nice coin, and I'm talking outside of morning drive. There are also some that are genuinely underpaid. A lot of it depends on how badly management wants to keep you around. Some jocks are very important to station image.
 
Media Hack Chris | SDR said:
Bob, were you making six figures just like all the San Diego air hosts? Of course, the currency exchange rate from old Mexico pesos to U.S. Dollars would still amount to $8 an hour.
Click to expand...

When Jammin' Z90 was kickin' butt in the ratings I was the highest paid on-air person and that was as the morning news guy: I made more than any of the jocks!
 
Why is it so hard to find out what salary scales are in this or any radio market? Is it something wierd about the sociology of the radio business?

Are salaries for on-air talent so wildly disparate that no one can say what they are?

I read recently that the top jock in Buffalo makes around 200K. I assume that the top morning shows in SD make more.

RadeoEngineer said:
There are some people in San Diego that turn a very nice coin, and I'm talking outside of morning drive. There are also some that are genuinely underpaid. A lot of it depends on how badly management wants to keep you around. Some jocks are very important to station image.
Click to expand...
 
clericus said:
Why is it so hard to find out what salary scales are in this or any radio market? Is it something wierd about the sociology of the radio business?

Are salaries for on-air talent so wildly disparate that no one can say what they are?

I read recently that the top jock in Buffalo makes around 200K. I assume that the top morning shows in SD make more.
Click to expand...

There really is no "going rate." At one time when most stations were under union contracts there was, but now you have people making perhaps a million+ a year and I'm sure San Diego has some people doing daily airshifts for $2,000-3,000 a month and hourly weekend people making $10 an hour.

A lot of name talent in San Diego make less (sometimes a lot less) than they did in the past because the choice was either take a pay cut to stay in radio in San Diego or move elsewhere and hope you find a gig. KYXY has gone through several owners over the years and one of the big names there told me that his pay was cut everytime a new owner took over. He may have subsequently gotten raises but even then it's possible his salary is no more than it was 10 or more years ago.
 
Bob what era did you work at KUDE? I remember applying for a job there as a pup and seeing KO Bayley
on the air. It was depressing, my radio hero in Oceanside. Not a bad station though.
 
When did the union contracts expire? Were they "busted"? What happened? Part of deregulation?

There were no unions in the markets where I worked but I heard stories in the 70's and early 80's about union jobs where you didn't/couldn't run your own board because of union rules etc.

There really is no "going rate." At one time when most stations were under union contracts there was, but now you have people making perhaps a million+ a year and I'm sure San Diego has some people doing daily airshifts for $2,000-3,000 a month and hourly weekend people making $10 an hour.
Click to expand...
 
doublecashkgb said:
Bob what era did you work at KUDE? I remember applying for a job there as a pup and seeing KO Bayley
on the air. It was depressing, my radio hero in Oceanside. Not a bad station though.
Click to expand...


I was at KUDE in about 71-72. It was a full on Top 40 station then, but the signal was so directional that we got letters from people in Australia but people in Vista couldn't hear us :)
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom