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SAN DIEGO'S BEST EVER TOP 40

J

jimmythebassett

Guest
The battleground: San Diego, 1971, Buzz walks across the street in
late-1970 as PD of KGB to KCBQ. The battle begins. Who was the
best. I say (DoubleCashKGB will argue with me because he was a
LONG PLAY KCBQ guy and we used to get into fights over this in
Clairemont in 1971) KGB until 1971 - Then KCBQ. Please no KDEO, 1360
KGB, KS-103, B-100 and Q-106 allowed. As KO would say: For heavy
weights only!

Take the test and see who is heavy?

1.) What did Chuck Browning giveaway on the air at KGB in 1972?

2.) Name the jocks that walked from KGB to KCBQ with Buzz?

3.) Where did Shotgun come from to KGB in 1971?

4.) Drake freaked out in 1971 and started adding what to the KGB playlist?

5.) Nickname: Bobby "blank" Ocean!

good luck
 
Ah but you guys are all close, but no cigar. The greatest of all top 40s in San Diego was the station that had a national influence and was the first in the country to be "Boss Radio". Yes it was "Boss" 3 months before KHJ and several months before Fresno. I am refering to San Diego's oldest station. The great "Boss Radio 136 KGB". The Djs that we now know as legends became famous thanks to KGB. Shotgun Tom, Rich Brother Robbin, Chuck Cooper, Bobby Ocean, Bill Wade, Charlie Van Dyke. From KGB, Boss Radio spread throughout America. The great top 40 stations in this town go in this order of greatness.

136KGB
1170 KCBQ
KKLQ AM/FM
B-100

More people talk about KCBQ because there were more people that worked there, the place was like a revolving door of employees.

If the Boss Radio format was not the greatest then why are all of the oldies stations copying the Boss jingles and using the Johnny Mann Singers, instead of the KCBQ Pams jingles.......Hummmm Pams is out of business.
 
Both were awesome stations that were copied nationally. I would say it's a tie.

KCBQ was #1 from 55-65 that in the early 60's they sent the PD and Happy Hare
to start up a NYC version of KCBQ, WADO. It had a terrible signal that couldn't be upgraded.
KCBQ was the model for KYA, KRUX, WYDE, WAKE, & WOKY.

KGB (not Called Boss Radio intially) under Bill Drake developed a more up to date forward moving format
and dominated Top 40 in the market from 65-68. THe KGBeachboys late became the KGBossjocks, it was KGB's success that lauched KHJ and the RKO stations.

KCBQ rebounded to #1 in 68 with their mix of Top 40 & hip underground, with jocks like Jimmy Rabbitt and Lee Simms. George Wilson thought the station was out of control, and fired Simms, Rabbitt, etc. bringing in circa 1962 jocks from sister station WOKY.

KGB in 69 initated double cash giveaways and with a tandem of Bobby Ocean and Rich Brother Robin
in pm drive and early evenings was a high energy monster and back to #1.

KCBQ in the fall of 1970 back to #1 with Jimmy The Bassett's favorite format Long Play, once again proving that George Wilson's interference in station management in 1969 cost the station's ratings. The mix of the hits and LP cuts once again proved to be too much for Boss Radio.

KCBQ ownership expecting the worse, already hired Buzz Bennett previously of KGB and most recently from
the failed revival of WMCA NYC. Buzz reinvented Top 40 marketing & fomatics with his high energy and even faster than Drake format. KGB by then had been weighed down by dated concepts such as the Million $ Weekend, orchestrated openers, & too much gold in rotation during the week. Add to this Drake's forray into LP cuts, he didn't know what he was doing. Unlike KCBQ's Long Play format, which selected familiar album cuts, Drake simply added cuts from current albums, many were the flavor of the week variety. Although it worked better at KHJ, KGB needed to keep their eye on the ball. Van Dyke a rookie PD was overwhelmed by Buzz Bennett's tricks. By the end of '71 KGB may have had an edge in talent with Ocean, KO Bayley, Chuck Browning, Barry Kaye and others, but it was too late.

KGB's owners jumped the gun and bailed out due to the short-term loss in numbers. KGB could have with a better PD retooled and chased KCBQ. Instead it made SD a one Top 40 town for years and allowed KCBQ to get away with formatic murder. Q was very white sounding, it never leaned towards R&B crossovers, & in 1973 sounded like an oldie station with novelty and one-hit wonders. The "recycled" KGB was cool for awhile but it never worked on AM, strictly on FM. Ron Jacobs cost Brown Broadcasting millions of dollars in lost revenue by egoing out and running a series of terrible formats including the Mellow Home & a weird chicken rock format with jocks like Larry Himmel.
 
I forgot to add. In the Mid 70's Jimmy The Bassett was by far the most dominant jock on KCBQ. He even survived black Friday.
 
You know the sad thing is that everyone of those great stations TODAY are terrible. KCBQ and KDEO are the two worst out of the top 40s, one is ultra-concervative 4th rate talk shows the other is religious boring music and horrible sounding preachers. 106.5 unfortunately died a quick death being spanish. 97.3 is the only one that is doing far better than its top 40 days, and now 1360 is attempting to make a come back with sports. I remember going to the KGB transmitter site and in front were 101.5 and 93.3 (where 1360 KGB/KCNN/KPQP/KPOP sat for 50 years), and you walk into the back hallway and to the left was 1360, then burried in a corner was the former powerhouse 1170, so sad to see the current state of AM radio. The only AM station to be a constant ratings winner and have an amazing site and studios was the MOR (not top 40) giant of AM 600 KOGO.
 
Bobby "Whaddaguy" Ocean.

When I was at KGB he and I wrote (well he came up with ideas and I wrote) a radio production column for Dan O'Day's newsletter.

His non-radio nickname (got this from his brother) was Hap. The brother said it dated from his infant days when everyone called him a "Happy Baby."
 
I totally remember Bobby Ocean!! What a blast from my past! Thanks!!
 
Bob_Hudson said:
Bobby "Whaddaguy" Ocean.

When I was at KGB he and I wrote (well he came up with ideas and I wrote) a radio production column for Dan O'Day's newsletter.

His non-radio nickname (got this from his brother) was Hap. The brother said it dated from his infant days when everyone called him a "Happy Baby."
Click to expand...


OOPS - Bobby and I worked together at KHJ, not KGB.
 
Actually, that 52.0 share which Bill Drake engineered at KYNO/Fresno set the table for his stellar success at KGB, which went from #14 to #1 in the market in less than three months, as he mentioned in a recent interview in R&R.

Then came his spectacular results at KHJ, KFRC and all the rest.
 
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