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Radio/TV Host Les Crane Dies

Bob,
I just read Les Crane's obituary on Wikipedia, I never knew he graduated from Tulane University. I remember him being the first late-night challenger to Johnny Carson from different articles I had read in the past, but good to know he made it okay outside of broadcasting in computer software.
 
Good to know he got out of radio and went on to bigger and better things. His getting fired by Fred was probably the best thing that happened to him because he went from disk jockey into a new direction, though forced into that direction against his will at the time. If not, who knows, he could still be a disk jockey robotically reading liners for a radio genius and industry legend like Andy Holt, the obvious successor to Bill Drake, and never have been a major celebrity who made millions.

Yes, Les got fired from WTIX and became a million dollar celebrity and Fred (and I loved Fred dearly) who fired him, himself was fired by Storz Broadcasting in 1975 after a prestigious 20-year career during which WTIX was built into a radio steamroller under his guidance, and he spent the last four years of his life selling insurance.

George (Bud) Armstrong, a career-long friend of Fred's and the traveling crap-stirrer of the Storz Broadcasting chain, was the one who drew the short straw and had to fire his friend Fred in 1975. A handful of years later Storz fired Bud after 30+ years of loyalty, told him he had one hour to get out of the building, and they hastened the humiliation by putting all of his office belongings in a box on the floor in the hallway in Omaha immediately.

That's radio. But it all works out for the best. There are two types of people in radio, like in coaching...those who have been fired ... and those who are gonna be fired. But find faith in yourself and what else you can do. Don't give your blind love to the whore goddess Radio. Dig deep into yourself when it happens to you and use your God-given talents to make something *else* of yourself.

Look around at radio and realize the dead-end and cesspool it is today, with the losers who are running it in management. Enjoy radio for a few years then move on while you're young, and let the corporate gypsies make a career in their own 2008 hell, which they helped create and deserve being tormented in.

Or better yet, think of radio as high school. You have to get out and grow up sooner or later.

And ALWAYS have something in your back pocket to fall back on.
 
Les Stein, who took the air name Les Crane sometime in the early 60's was an unknown and uncredited innovator in radio programming. He, with Chris Lane, devised a “clean and uncluttered” more music format at KYA, San Francisco in early 1960. One of their jocks was the late Bob Mitchell. One day, Bob came out with the great line: “This is the Boss of the Bay, Radio KYA”. Less and Chris saw the strength in the line, so “The Boss of the Bay” slogan was adopted by the station. A few years later, a young jock was transferred by the Bartell group from Atlanta to San Francisco, where he became the pd of KYA, inheriting the format that had been created by Les and Chris. The young jock turned pd, Phil Yarborough assumed he name Bill Drake. Later he left KYA and moved to San Diego, where he took the format with him...and the format became known as “Boss Radio”. ‘Twas an invention of Les Stein (Crane) and Chris Lane and the name came from the great jock Bob Mitchell. Drake’s genius was not in creating the format, but by (with Gene Chenault) spreading it across the country. Now, you know the rest of the story. Les was a very creative and brilliant man, who will never receive the credit he so earnestly deserves. He was a pioneer in both radio and tv.
 
That's a great piece of radio history that I, for one, was not aware of. Thank you, Ronn, for sharing it with us. Radio amazes me, there's always some history to be learned that led to its greatness.
 
I found this quite fascinating...

Mr. Crane married five times. His fourth wife was the actress Tina Louise whom he met and married while she was at the height of her popularity as the glamorous sexpot on the 1960s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island.” They divorced in 1971 after a five-year marriage. Besides his daughter, a television writer who lives in Los Angeles, he is survived by his wife of 20 years, Ginger Crane.

His 4th wife played a character named Ginger and his 5th wife was named Ginger. And Desiderata? How cool!
 
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