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Question regarding three LA/SD radio superstars.....

M

Marv-L.A.

Does anyone happen to recall if Charlie Tuna ever worked at either KGB (or was it KFMB?) and/or KCBQ when Charlie Van Dyke and 'Shotgun' Tom Kelly were employed at either station at the same time?

I know that Tuna was doing morning drive at KCBQ in either 1970 or 1971, and KCBQ's signal came into LA pretty good back then, but I don't know if Tuna ever worked at an FM station in San Diego.

I THOUGHT that I read an article in R&R several years ago which stated that Van Dyke was the PD when Kelly worked at B-100, but I'm not sure if that was the case, but the year might have been 1970 or 1971.

Thanks!!!
 
Marv-L.A. said:
Does anyone happen to recall if Charlie Tuna ever worked at either KGB (or was it KFMB?) and/or KCBQ when Charlie Van dyke and 'Shotgun' Tom Kelly were employed at either station at the same time?

I know that Tuna was doing morning drive at KCBQ in either 1970 or 1971, and KCBQ's signal came into LA pretty good back then, but I don't know if Tuna ever worked at an FM station in San Diego.

I THOUGHT that I read an article in R&R several years ago which stated that Van dyke was the PD when Kelly worked at B-100, but I'm not sure if that was the case, but the year might have been 1970 or 1971.

Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

Marv: Charlie Van Dyke was the PD at KGB from mid-1970 through late 1971. Shotgun Tom was part of the KGB airstaff then.

Charlie Tuna went to KCBQ for six months in 1971 to burn off his L.A. non-compete after quitting KHJ. The station brought Robert W. Morgan back and wanted Tuna to do middays. He said no. Ironically, Charlie Van Dyke got that job. As soon as the six months were up, Tuna went back to L.A. as part of the original KROQ (AM) staff.

Shotgun Tom bounced out of KGB and went to KRIZ, Phoenix in 1972, but was back in San Diego by 1973, at KCBQ.

Bobby Rich left KHJ for the PD gig at KFMB (AM) in 1974. He then convinced Midwest to let him flip KFMB (FM) to B-100 in March, 1975. He hired Shotgun Tom away from KCBQ to do mornings at B-100 in September, 1976.

---Michael Hagerty
 
Michael---THANK YOU for that very thorough reply: I can still recall Charlie Tuna doing an outro on KCBQ in late 1970 or early 1971 (....KCBQ with George Harrison and 'My Sweet Lord'.....those were my EXACT thoughts when alarm clock went off at 3:00 this morning!!!!); ahhhh, the joys of waltzing down memory lane.

I didn't even know that non-competes were even in existence back then.

I also seem to recall that other members of the airstaff at KCBQ included one Christopher Cain (or Cane?), Rich 'Brother' Robbin (who claimed to have had a hand in creating the 'Q' format utilized by Buzz Bennett when he was KCBQ's PD), and a gentleman named Matt Guinn (or Quinn???) whom I later heard again in 1974 on a top 40 station in Houston.

Thanks for the information about Bobby Rich, but would you happen to know when (and why) he left San Diego for Tucson where he also became a morning drive superstar?

Thanks again!!!
 
Marv-L.A. said:
Thanks for the information about Bobby Rich, but would you happen to know when (and why) he left San Diego for Tucson where he also became a morning drive superstar?

Thanks again!!!
Click to expand...

I don't know his reason, but Bobby arrived in Tucson 15 years ago...1992. He's been PD and co-host of what is in nearly every book the #1 station in Tucson...and I believe he's got a piece of the ownership pie, as well. A good move.

---Michael Hagerty
 
michael hagerty said:
Charlie Tuna went to KCBQ for six months in 1971 to burn off his L.A. non-compete after quitting KHJ.
Click to expand...

Michael--I have a cassette labeled "L.A./San Diego, July 1972"
which I made then while on a trip to SoCal, and it includes a
'check of Tuna on the Q.

I recall one of the songs (played at 48 rpm) was I Need You
("...the baker's love song" as intoned by Dan Ingram) by America
which was out in spring/summer of 72.
 
Brain fade. Charlie Tuna went to KCBQ for six months in 1972. His last show at KHJ was Friday, January 14, 1972. It was supposed to have been Saturday, the 15th, but he mentioned it on the air so he could say goodbye to his engineer, Walt "Failsafe" Radke and his newsman, J. Paul Huddleston, both of whom would be off on Saturday. That apparently was too much for either PD Ted Atkins or uberconsultant Bill Drake, and Charlie was gone one day early.

Charlie was back in L.A. as part of the launch of KROQ-AM on Labor Day weekend, 1972.

---Michael Hagerty
 
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