The term "Boss Jock"

[KOOL Listener Lauren]

I think I really only have a slight idea of what the term, "Boss Jock" is. I can't find much by Google, but I do have airchecks (like those of KHJ, etc.) that help me out a little bit.

How could you DESCRIBE it? And do you think the term is loosely used?

 

[davideduardo]

I think I really only have a slight idea of what the term, "Boss Jock" is. I can't find much by Google, but I do have airchecks (like those of KHJ, etc.) that help me out a little bit.

How could you DESCRIBE it? And do you think the term is loosely used?

This is a chicken vs. egg thing. Supposedly, "boss" was a term used in th late'64 and early '65 period to mean "cool" or "hip" so when Drake and Jacobs were preparing to launch KHJ, the term was relevant. I also heard that they learned that an LA competitor was about to use the term, so they launched KHJ with Boss jocks, ample food from Nicodel's on Melrose in Boss Angeles and the famous "preview" programming.

About half of what you hear today about KHJ's launch is urban legend, so take this knowing that it is part hyperbole.

David (who PD'd 930 in LA 30 years later).

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

After spending several years in small-town back-water radio, I moved to Indianapolis in 1965. My first memory of the term Boss Radio and/or Boss Jock was some use of that terminology by Don Burdin's WIFE in Indianapolis in the 1965-1968 era.

(Such memories are beyond the manufacturer's "sell by date" and carry no warranty.)

 

[oldiesfan6479]

...so they launched KHJ with Boss jocks...(snip)...in Boss Angeles...

With the Boss 30 and Boss Hitbounds.

And don't forget the Boss Line--which originally (or at least early on)
for KHJ was HOllywood 1-9353. By the early 70s, if not before, the
local phone companies in the El Lay area created blowout exchange
213-520-XXXX for radio station boss lines and contest lines.

Uh oh, the phone phreaks have ventured out of the woodwork. ;D

 

[davideduardo]

...by Don Burdin's WIFE in Indianapolis in the 1965-1968 era.

...talking about a man who was rewarded in life for his character and virtue.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

I'm pretty sure the Old Gringo had sarcasm mode on in his reference
to Don Burden, as some--if not all--of his tickets were later pulled
by Uncle Charlie for certain indiscretions.

Drake's launch of Boss Radio at KGB San Diego and KHJ, as well as
KFRC San Francisco (which did not image itself as "boss"), spawned
a number of "fake Drake" stations all over the country, many of
whom also used the Boss Radio moniker.

 

[davideduardo]

I'm pretty sure the Old Gringo had sarcasm mode on in his reference
to Don Burden, as some--if not all--of his tickets were later pulled
by Uncle Charlie for certain indiscretions.

Yeah, as an owner, Burden gives consolidation a good name!

 

[fennessy]

One point that hasn't yet been made...is the negative connotation to the phrase " Boss Jock". A lot of radio purists point to the rise of Drake style radio as the beginning of the end of music radio. However, all of the people that Drake actually had on the air in LA were personalities...Morgan....Steele, all working within the Drake structure.

The actual blame for what happened to boss radio and the negative of the Boss Jock, lies at the feet of Drake's clones and imitators. Drake radio drove a lot of very talented people off of top 40, and a huge wave of big deep voices with little or no jock content were swept into radio...and lots of those fellows, hired only for voice, lingered in radio until the end of the 1970s.

When someone calls someone a "Boss Jock", it's a put down.

 

[LKellerIII]

David Eduardo may be correct that a lot of the history of the Drake format has been exaggerated over the years.

But according to Boss Radio Forever, the "Boss" moniker was not chosen by Bill Drake, but by the existing KHJ promotions director - a man named Clancy Imusland. The station's owners (RKO General) would not consider changing the call letters. During the confusion preceding the format change, Imusland was looking for a way to advertise the new format, and decided to use the (then) popular teen-slang word "Boss" in print advertising to give formerly low rated and stodgy KHJ a youthful connotation.

Somehow the slogan worked for a half decade, though the popularity of the slang word "boss" was passe among teenagers by 1966. Nevertheless, Drake used it on most of the stations he consulted to...an exception being KFRC San Francisco, where Drake's competitor KYA had already been using the slogan "The Boss of the Bay" for a year or two. Instead, KFRC had The Big 30, and "610 Men." Perhaps ironically, Drake had been Program Director of KYA in the early 60s, prior to the Boss moniker.

By the late 60s, college age youth were becoming more radicalized by Vietnam era politics and were listening to the new free-form FM rock stations like KMET and KSAN. Among those people, the terms "Boss Radio" and "Boss Jock" were used pejoratively to refer to Top 40 radio as bubble-gum music, and Top 40 listeners as clueless teeny-boppers. By the late 60s, if you had accused a FM rock DJ of being a "Boss Jock, " he probably would have punched you...or maybe just smoked a joint to "mellow out."

 

[Prais]

When I worked in Lafayette, IN, in the mid 60's, Dave Allison (wherebouts now unknown - if the fbi is reading this) stole bi-coastally.

WAZY Chime Time - from wabc and "Boss Jocks" -from khj. O for a "Burger Chef" flame broiled burger.

 

[LKellerIII]

When I worked in Lafayette, IN, in the mid 60's, Dave Allison (wherebouts now unknown - if the fbi is reading this) stole bi-coastally.

WAZY Chime Time - from wabc and "Boss Jocks" -from khj. O for a "Burger Chef" flame broiled burger.

I'm not familiar with WAZY, but the "Boss" terminology was never copyrighted by Bill Drake or anybody else, so it wasn't technically "stolen"

Quite a contrast to the current times, when radio companies try to copyright everything from "Fresh" to "Jack." A couple years ago, CBS sued Bonneville for using some of the Jack imaging slogans on a San Francisco station. The suit didn't stick though, because Bonneville was smart enough to changes the wording of the slogans just a teensy little bit.

 

[radiorob2.0]

As Lkeller mentioned. It was KHJ's original Promotion's director and hold out of the prior format Clancy Imislund who came up with "Boss". It was a dated term circa 1965 but it worked.

The reason KFRC wasn't boss was not only due to KYA using it a few year earlier as much as KEWB using it on the air prior to the launch of the "Big 610". It almost happened to KHJ. KFWB had acquired the KHJ's formatics from a former disgruntled KHJ employee and put it on the air. KHJ went into the format prior to the start date to establish themselves.

 

[LKellerIII]

As Lkeller mentioned. It was KHJ's original Promotion's director and hold out of the prior format Clancy Imislund who came up with "Boss". It was a dated term circa 1965 but it worked.

The reason KFRC wasn't boss was not only due to KYA using it a few year earlier as much as KEWB using it on the air prior to the launch of the "Big 610". It almost happened to KHJ. KFWB had acquired the KHJ's formatics from a former disgruntled KHJ employee and put it on the air. KHJ went into the format prior to the start date to establish themselves.

I guess there's no point splitting hairs since much of this information is lost in history. But I don't think KFWB had acquired KHJ "formatics." Remember - at that point in the days before the Drake format premiered, the "formatics" consisted of the strict training of DJs to use the tight, uncluttered format Drake demanded; and those Johnny Mann jingles which were obviously proprietary.

It's well documented that when they rushed KHJ on air, they had not yet built a play list, but had used KRLA's playlist as a stop-gap. According to the stories, they gave someone the KRLA Tune Dex, and sent them to Clyde Wallach's Music City (a famous LA record store at the time) to buy all the records.


What KFWB was doing was using the term "Boss Radio" on air...perhaps they did get wind of the Boss terminology from a disgruntled RKO employee...they obviously got wind of it some way. But otherwise they hadn't changed anything about KFWB. Their mistake, because KHJ rolled over them (and KRLA) in the ratings within months. KFWB lasted another 3 years and switched to All News. KRLA hung on as the second banana, and actually out-lived KHJ as an AM rock station.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Ron Jacobs talked about the story in a Radio-Info/Radio @75 anniversary issue. If I can find the online version of the story I will post the link. It wasn't the format per se, but enough of an issue for the new folks at KHJ to nip it in the bud as soon as possible.

 

[Oldbones]

Somehow the slogan worked for a half decade, though the popularity of the slang word "boss" was passe among teenagers by 1966. Nevertheless, Drake used it on most of the stations he consulted to...an exception being KFRC San Francisco, where Drake's competitor KYA had already been using the slogan "The Boss of the Bay" for a year or two. Instead, KFRC had The Big 30, and "610 Men."

WRKO in Boston used "Now Radio" for their slogan. I know WBZ used "the boss sound of boss-town" briefly as a slogan in the spring of '67...I'm guessing they got wind that Drake was coming to town and co-opted his term. Then again, the term "boss" was pretty passé by 1967, and WRKO didn't get the full Drake treatment until sometime that summer, so maybe they went with "Now" as sounding hipper.

 

[LKellerIII]

Somehow the slogan worked for a half decade, though the popularity of the slang word "boss" was passe among teenagers by 1966. Nevertheless, Drake used it on most of the stations he consulted to...an exception being KFRC San Francisco, where Drake's competitor KYA had already been using the slogan "The Boss of the Bay" for a year or two. Instead, KFRC had The Big 30, and "610 Men."

WRKO in Boston used "Now Radio" for their slogan. I know WBZ used "the boss sound of boss-town" briefly as a slogan in the spring of '67...I'm guessing they got wind that Drake was coming to town and co-opted his term. Then again, the term "boss" was pretty passé by 1967, and WRKO didn't get the full Drake treatment until sometime that summer, so maybe they went with "Now" as sounding hipper.

Passe or not, "Boss Town" was a natural for Boston, just as it was for "Boss Angeles."

A note about Clancy Imuslund , the holdover KHJ publicity guy who is credited with coming up with the Boss terminology. If you google Clancy, you'll find a number of links to the man's interesting history. A recovering alcoholic himself, Clancy has been Managing Director of the Midnight Mission in Los Angeles, and has helped many alcoholics - both the famous and everyday people - recover from their addictions.

Now that's boss.


http://www.midnightmission.org/default.asp?pg=aboutus2

 

[Ultimajock]

Passe or not, "Boss Town" was a natural for Boston, just as it was for "Boss Angeles."

A note about Clancy Imuslund , the holdover KHJ publicity guy who is credited with coming up with the Boss terminology. If you google Clancy, you'll find a number of links to the man's interesting history. A recovering alcoholic himself, Clancy has been Managing Director of the Midnight Mission in Los Angeles, and has helped many alcoholics - both the famous and everyday people - recover from their addictions.

Now that's boss.


http://www.midnightmission.org/default.asp?pg=aboutus2

...indeed it is. As the surviving son of an alcoholic, I say more power to him. And as far as "Boss-Town" goes, M-G-M Records also used it in '67-'68 to promote its Boston-based psychedelic rock bands The Beacon Street Union and Ultimate Spinach...

 

[actioncentral]

Re: The term "Boss Jock"/Good Guys

In the early and mid 60's, it appeared that stations felt it wasn't worth the filing fees to trademark slogans
and brands. I don't think "Boss" was registered by Drake, so you had all these "bogus boss" stations all over the place. The same thing with the "Good Guys" brand and its related smiley face. Chuck Blore used the smiley
face when he started "Color Radio" on KFWB in LA in the late 50's. KFWB's sisters: KEWB and KDWB also used the smiley face. In 1961 during an AFTRA strike at KFWB, he dubbed the on air staff of management and scabs "The Good Guys." Well, Harold Neal at WABC in NYC loved the Good Guy name used the brand from December of 1961 through mid 1963. MEANWHILE, WMCA PD Ruth Meyer (who worked with Blore) also loved the Good Guy moniker. She started using the brand while WABC was still using it, gave Blore's female smiley face a sex change, gave out WMCA Good Guy sweatshirts and out-promoted WABC's Good Guys. When
Rick Sklar became WABC's PD, he changed the jocks to the All Americans. I don't believe that brand was
ever trademarked. Both Good Guys (with the smiley face and shirt) spread throughout the world.
Even KFWB briefly re-activated the Good Guys and the smiley face in (I believe) 1965. The smiley face, though became an globulal with a smile.
"All Americans: also spread throughout the US, but Good Guys was the prime brand. Even Salem used the
Good Guy moniker on WMCA -- and it's paid preachers.
action central ---smiley face