Mickey Luckoff & KGO

[rustyhodge]

By the way, the "little bit of heaven" thing came from a 1975 one-off jingle that Shadoe Stevens, then program director, had the Pointer Sisters cut while they were at the station. It became so popular that people instantly associate it with the station, regardless of era. Ironic, given that the format rarely used jingles and album rock listeners were (supposedly) jingle-averse:

I always felt the jingle was used ironically, so that makes sense

 

[michael hagerty]

I always felt the jingle was used ironically, so that makes sense

Shadoe was big on custom jingles—-had them done at KRLA and KROQ (1973-74) before going to KMET. Most were pretty grandiose—- organs and Gospel choirs.

The Pointer Sisters jingle was a throwback to the acapella jingle the Persuasions did for the old KPPC.

kppc jingle persuasions - Google Search

 

[Weiserguy]

Yeah. It was called "Metro Music East" in New York, "Metro Music West" in L.A. There's like 20 minutes of it on KMET that survived, but I can't find it online.

Maybe in L.A., but I have no recollection of that positioner ever being used on-air at 'NEW-FM in the "All-Girls" MOR "era" -- 15 months at most. Not to malign the talent those women had, but there already was an iconic MOR station in the building. In the Northeast, when you thought of MOR, the gold standard was WNEW, so doing that same format, except on FM with women, was a transparent gimmick and second-rate by comparison.

They did the same thing in NY with WNEW. The only survivor was Alison Steele.

Correct, but the others had other concurrent gigs. For example, Peggy Cass also acted on Broadway and appeared on TV game shows like I've Got A Secret. Only Allison was hip enough to make that transition, and even then she was relegated to late evenings or overnights. Though she was absolutely perfect for those time slots on 'NEW-FM, where the prime demo was 18-34 males and she dripped sexiness.

BTW, was the KMET All-Girls format using voice-tracking from the NYC women, or was there a separate roster of local talent in L.A.? It's hard to imagine that there wasn't enough local talent, with styles better-honed to SoCal that the WNEW ladies. If they did repurpose the WNEW-FM staff it couldn't have saved much money, given the technology available in the latter 1960s.

 

[michael hagerty]

BTW, was the KMET All-Girls format using voice-tracking from the NYC women, or was there a separate roster of local talent in L.A.?

I saw something on that a week or so ago and didn't bookmark it, but they were Los Angeles women voice talent. If I find it again, I'll post.

 

[michael hagerty]

@Weiserguy, still looking, but I did run across these gems:







And this article that reveals one of the six women voicing "Metro Music West" was actress Jo Ann Pflug:




For those not of a certain age, here's Jo Ann's IMDB page:

Jo Ann Pflug | Actress

Known for: M*A*S*H, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Fall Guy

www.imdb.com

The thing I saw before but didn't bookmark mentioned that another one of the voices was the wife of KLAC/KMET General Manager Willis Duff. I'm pretty sure that she was the only one identified in that piece.

Alex Cosper's page names Victoria James and June Kenney as two more of the voices. June Kenney was a retired actress who was working in commercial production at KLAC since 1962. Her IMDB lists the KMET voice thing under Trivia:

June Kenney - Biography - IMDb

June Kenney. Actress: The Spider. Petite and amiable blonde 50s B-movie starlet June Kenney was groomed for a performing career from early childhood. By the age of four she was proficient as a singer and dancer. Her mother enrolled her in the 'Meglin Kiddies' dancing troupe (Judy Garland was a...

www.imdb.com

Can't find a thing about Victoria James---or anything that names the remaining two women.

 

[Weiserguy]

While I can only remember three of the WNEW-FM female deejays from 1966-67 without doing a bit of research, I definitely know JoAnn Pflug wasn't one of them. That's a hoot! According to a few websites, she was born in 1940 so she is (or will be) 85 this year. She retired from acting and Hollywood back in the '90s, married again (her first husband having been Chuck Woolery), relocated back to Florida, became "a motivational speaker and a born-again Christian". (In quotes because that was the wording in the source and I find the order of the items sort of interesting.) Thanks, Mike!