• 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

Record Ratings (7.4 6+) for KRTH

michael hagerty said:
If you want to talk about an even stronger roster of clients, look at KMPC. This is an hour of Geoff Edwards in November of 1973. This is a personality Adult Contemporary station---they're not aiming for long music sweeps here.

LEGAL ID/NEWS (10:00 AM)
News sponsor: Vons Supermarkets
BREAK 1 (10:05 AM-Adjacent to newscast)
Glendale Federal Savings

Fortunes-Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again

BREAK 2
Costa Viva Condominiums, Mission Bay, San Diego (LIVE COPY)

Sonoma-Love For You

BREAK 3
KMart Fisher Price Toys (LIVE COPY inside donut jingle)
WEATHER (LIVE)
The Los Angeles Times
California Federal Savings (LIVE COPY)

(Call-in phone bit---"Radio's Beloved Answer Lady". Geoff gives smart-ass answers to listener questions. Although it's the "answer lady", Geoff uses his usual voice. A weekly feature---Dan Sorkin did it daily as "Ask Bernard" at KSFO.)

BREAK 4
Norbest Turkeys

Ian Thomas-Painted Ladies

BREAK 5
Datsun (now Nissan)
Channel 5 Evening Movie "The Young Lions" (LIVE COPY with movie dialogue)
NEWS (10:31 AM)
WEATHER (LIVE from Geoff)
Las Vegas Convention And Visitors Authority (LIVE COPY)

Cher-Half-Breed

BREAK 6
Bob's Big Boy Restaurants (LIVE COPY follows 30-second jingle to make a :60)
Pacific Southwest Airlines (known as PSA)
Coldwell Banker Realtors

Englebert Humperdinck-A Man Without Love

BREAK 7
MOVIE: Ash Wednesday
Sears

(Geoff blows off two records to take listener calls about a possible proposal not to drive on Sundays---this was the beginning of the first Arab Oil Crisis.)

BREAK 8
Hollywood Refrigeration (LIVE COPY)

Ronnie Aldrich-Ride My See-Saw

BREAK 9
Red Pack Tomatoes (LIVE COPY in a jingle donut)
Forest Lawn Mortuary
LEGAL ID/NEWS (11:00 AM)
Click to expand...
Six songs in 60 minutes. Reminds me of Howard Stern on WNBC.
 
CTListener said:
Six songs in 60 minutes. Reminds me of Howard Stern on WNBC.
Click to expand...
Not so Ironic that the last spot was for Forest Lawn mortuary, because that is exactly where I would be if I was subjected to that. I mean really, you're only going to play six songs featuring four absolute stiffs AND "Half- Breed" by Cher?

AYKM??
 
KilowattKat said:
What were evenings and overnights like as far as the amount of music being played?
Click to expand...

It was more like ten to twelve songs an hour. But again---it's a personality radio station. They weren't trying to play more music.

Dick Whittinghill had been doing mornings there since 1949.
Geoff Edwards was 9-noon from 1968.
Wink Martindale did noon-3 from 1971 on.
Gary Owens had been doing 3-6 p.m. since 1963.
Roger Carroll was 6:30-10:00 p.m. since 1959.

The only real turnover was in nights. Johnny Magnus did 10:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. from 1963-1973, got tired of not having a social life and being pre-empted by late-running baseball games and bailed out. Clark Race (a legend at KDKA, Pittsburgh) had been weekends and fill-ins since 1971 and took Magnus' slot. They brought Kathy Gori down from KSFO for 1:00-5:00 a.m.

And the spot load was solid, with high-quality sponsors. Scrolling through an 11:00-11:30 pm half-hour of Clark Race in 1973 found:

Pollard-Whitman-Robb Mercedes-Benz
Beneficial Finance
Plymouth
Aer Lingus (Irish airline)


KilowattKat said:
Were overnights automated?
Click to expand...

NEVER. Always live talent with union engineers (I believe KMPC finally went combo in the 1980s when they went back to music after a disastrous attempt at talk).

And until 1980, the overnight newscasts were live, local KMPC newscasts, not network.

In fact, in the late 70s, Dave Hull, who had been L.A.'s #1 afternoon drive jock at KRLA until KHJ and The Real Don Steele took over, was KMPC's overnight talent, replacing Sonny Melendrez, who had replaced Kathy Gori.
 
Last edited:
ChannelFlipper said:
Not so Ironic that the last spot was for Forest Lawn mortuary, because that is exactly where I would be if I was subjected to that. I mean really, you're only going to play six songs featuring four absolute stiffs AND "Half- Breed" by Cher?

AYKM??
Click to expand...

Flip, you're from L.A. Nobody---NOBODY---listened to KMPC for the music. Same with KFI in the pre-Top 40 days. All the music was supposed to do was not chase away the 45-year-old that was listening to get a little bit of everything (news, traffic, weather, sports, some humor and a little---very little---music).
 
michael hagerty said:
I won't do the full rundown, but there's a 12:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m. Johnny Williams aircheck from this same date. It has spots for Pan Am and Hillcrest Cadillac.

Hillcrest ran in all dayparts because it was owned by Willett Brown, RKO board member, owner of KGB, San Diego and Hillcrest furnished cars to KHJ execs, so that was a tradeout.

As for the Pan Am spot, well, just turn this up and let it wash over you:

NOBODY puts that kind of effort into 60-second radio advertising anymore.
Click to expand...
Nobody puts that much effort into overnights any more, for that matter.

I especially liked the way Johnny Williams handled the cold start to the Chairmen of the Board. Normally a "here is...." type of intro would be considered lazy but it absolutely fit in that instance, and his intonation and pacing were just right.
 
But---and this is key:

A lot of old radio guys like to say Bill Drake killed Top 40. He didn't. What he killed, downstream, was personality adult music radio.

Let's do one more breakout---an hour of Bill Ballance doing 9-Midnight on KFWB on August 18, 1959:

LEGAL ID (9:00 p.m.)

Elvis Presley-Big Hunk o' Love

BREAK 1
PSA: Fire Safety
PSA: Guide Dogs For The Blind (LIVE COPY)

Playmates-What Is Love

BREAK 2
WEATHER (LIVE)
Champale Malt Liquor (LIVE COPY)
Boys' Supermarkets

Webb Pierce-I Ain't Never

BREAK 3
Anthony's La Paloma Spaghettini and Spaghetti Sauce (LIVE COPY)
Hinshaw's Department Stores (LIVE COPY)

Ray Charles-What'd I Say (part 2)

BREAK 4
Channel 98 Sports Scoreboard
Mobil Oil (LIVE COPY by sportscaster after jingle)

Dodie Stevens-Butterfly

BREAK 5
L&M Cigarettes
Norm Sopp's Car Wash (LIVE COPY)

Floyd Robinson-Makin' Love

BREAK 6
Gillette Adjustable Razor (LIVE COPY)
WEATHER (LIVE)
Robert Hall Clothiers

Milt Grayson-It Ain't Necessarily So

BREAK 7
The Legend of Tom Dooley (MOVIE)
L.A. TODAY NEWS
Rambler Automobiles (LIVE COPY by newscaster followed by jingle)
WEATHER (LIVE)

Sarah Vaughan-Broken-Hearted Melody

BREAK 8
Santa Fe Wine
Revlon Living Curl Hairspray

Johnny Mathis-Small World Isn't It

BREAK 9
Granny Goose Potato Chips
WEATHER (LIVE)
Bubble Up (LIVE COPY after jingle)
KFWB Message To Advertisers (asking them to be patient with the "more music" policy(!))

Ricky Nelson-Half Breed

BREAK 10
Red Star Fertilizer
NEWS UPDATE/9:55 NEWS TEASE
Johnny Otis Revue in El Monte

Skip and Flip-It Was I

BREAK 11
Gillette Adjustable Razor (LIVE COPY)
Dr. Pepper

Connie Francis-Who's Sorry Now

(9:55 PM)
NEWS

This was Top 40. The number one radio station in Los Angeles. At 9 o'clock on a weeknight.

In four years, this would be considered "teen time" and Dick Biondi at KRLA would blow these guys out of the water, only to get blown out of the water himself by Humble Harve----to say nothing of the Billy Pearls, Beaver Cleavers and Rich Brother Robbins that would dominate the daypart in the 70s.

But KFWB was selling time for malt liquor, spaghetti sauce, cigarettes, razor blades, wine and fertilizer!

It was a lot easier for someone growing out of Top 40 in the early-mid 1960s to transition to KMPC from this at KFWB than it would be from Boss Radio or anything that followed.
 
Last edited:
Mark Roberts said:
Nobody puts that much effort into overnights any more, for that matter.

I especially liked the way Johnny Williams handled the cold start to the Chairmen of the Board. Normally a "here is...." type of intro would be considered lazy but it absolutely fit in that instance, and his intonation and pacing were just right.
Click to expand...

Johnny Williams was tremendous. Nine years (apart from a six-week run in 9-noon around 1967) in overnights (1965-1974) at KHJ and never did a bad show. Guy was smooth as silk.

And props to KHJ for understanding that even if you have to give spots away, keeping the structure of breaks maintains a sound and a pace for the overnight guy.
 


Back
Top Bottom