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Tom Campbell

R

radioman148

Anyone know whatever happened to Tom Campbell who worked at KYA in the 60s?
Last I heard he was doing lots of commercial work in LA & San Diego, but I haven't heard his voice in a long time.
He once billed himself as the world's fastest talking DJ.
 
radioman148 said:
Anyone know whatever happened to Tom Campbell who worked at KYA in the 60s?
Last I heard he was doing lots of commercial work in LA & San Diego, but I haven't heard his voice in a long time.
He once billed himself as the world's fastest talking DJ.
Click to expand...

He's still the fast-talker, sounding as if no time has elapsed; while DXing KNX 1070 in Lodi last month, I heard Tom do a
spot for Linder's Furniture. This article may include info you'd like to know:

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6250...E-tailing&industryid=23098&pubdate=08/22/2005

--jay
 
CAL Stereo was a company he pitched for in the 70's, as I recall their was some kind of interesting activity.

.. He was a substitute teacher at my high school back in the 60's when he was on KYA.
 
mred said:
CAL Stereo was a company he pitched for in the 70's, as I recall their was some kind of interesting activity.

.. He was a substitute teacher at my high school back in the 60's when he was on KYA.
Click to expand...

I remember those CAL stereo commercials. Would you care to elaborate on "interesting activity?"
 
My favorite Tom Campbell-ism, from an ad for "Mathews Top Of the Hill Daly City"

"Every major brand you can almost think of!"
 
Tom also voiced commercials for "undercurrents water beds" in the early 80s and "Peaches records" also in the 80s.
However, I remember the CAL stereo commercials the best. They were all over the radio in the late 70s in California.
Also Tom had a ton of listings in the San Francisco phone book for his home phone, ship to shore phone, etc.
 
radioman148 said:
Tom also voiced commercials for "undercurrents water beds" in the early 80s and "Peaches records" also in the 80s.
However, I remember the CAL stereo commercials the best. They were all over the radio in the late 70s in California.
Also Tom had a ton of listings in the San Francisco phone book for his home phone, ship to shore phone, etc.
Click to expand...

"The Comfort Zone" (waterbeds?) and "Grand Auto" also come to mind as his being a pitchman for...

In fact, here's Tom for "Grand Auto" on the first commercial in this set of KTXL, Sacramento, spots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBO-srTxPtw
--jay
 
djj said:
radioman148 said:
Tom also voiced commercials for "undercurrents water beds" in the early 80s and "Peaches records" also in the 80s.
However, I remember the CAL stereo commercials the best. They were all over the radio in the late 70s in California.
Also Tom had a ton of listings in the San Francisco phone book for his home phone, ship to shore phone, etc.
Click to expand...

"The Comfort Zone" (waterbeds?) and "Grand Auto" also come to mind as his being a pitchman for...

In cast, here's Tom for "Grand Auto" on the first commercial in this set of KTXL, Sacramento, spots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBO-srTxPtw
--jay
Click to expand...


"Aaarrrgggh! Tossing and turning again all night on that lumpy ice-cold dead bed! GET RID OF IT!!! It's time for a Comfort Zone Waterbed!!!

...17 the Nimitz at Fremont Boulevard - THE COMFORT ZONE!!!
 
Did he rattle off the cities in northern Cal for CAL Stereo?
In southern Cal, I think he said every town in Orange county in about 3 seconds.
 
radioman148 said:
Did he rattle off the cities in northern Cal for CAL Stereo?
In southern Cal, I think he said every town in Orange county in about 3 seconds.
Click to expand...

"SantaClaraSanFranciscoDublinBerkeleySanLorenzoCupertinoSanJose."


...Or that might have been DeNevi Camera...
 
Here's some Tom Campbell memories for those ha may be interested...

One of the last Cal Stereo stores to open in Southern California when Tom was affiliated with them was the San Bernardino store...this was about 1975. The store was located, I believe at E Street and some other corner...Tom's tagline or San Bernardino was "right on the corner, right on the price..."

I was working at KFXM (AM Top 40) at the time. The FM was beautiful music KDUO. Cal Stereo ran on the FM, but they wouldn't run the hyper Tom Campbell spots so the FM PD would recut the spots in a mellow style. But on the AM, they LOVED all the cash coming in from Cal Stereo. So much so, that they gave Tom the Hotline number and he was allowed to call the jock and ask for additional Cal Stereo spots to be added to the log at his request...

The main problem with Cal Stereo spots is that Tom would try to get 70-75 seconds while paying for a :60. On one hand, the traffic department would get pissed if I dubbed Cal Stereo spots and put :75 spots on the air. On the other, the Sales Mgr. was Tom's good buddy since he was getting the commissions from Cal Stereo so he'd get pissed if I sped them up or edited them. After I got canned at KFXM in 1976, the Sales Mgr. (Al Anthony) called me at my new station to ask if I had done any editing or sped up the Cal Stereo spots before I left. Hell yes, Al, they were 75 seconds long...Apparently Tom was spitting mad because he wasn't getting his 75 second spots on the air...HA!
 
Now if I can only find some video clips from Tom's VERY short-lived
"Super Bowling" show which he emceed on KPIX 5 in the mid-1970s...

Shot inside a small TV studio: One lane (with no gutters) lined by
glistening lights and a blue-neon lower-case-lettered "super bowling"
logo at the end o' the lane. Definitely NOT one of Tom's biggest
moments on TV...

Lkeller said:
"SantaClaraSanFranciscoDublinBerkeleySanLorenzoCupertinoSanJose."

...Or that might have been DeNevi Camera...
Click to expand...

Correct on the latter - and later put into an inane, yet campy and
memorable, jingle. The head honcho of DeNevi did the TV spots...

Somehow, I could picture Tom Campbell rattling those cities in 5
seconds! lol!
--jay
 
GeorgeJ. said:
Here's some Tom Campbell memories for those ha may be interested...

One of the last Cal Stereo stores to open in Southern California when Tom was affiliated with them was the San Bernardino store...this was about 1975. The store was located, I believe at E Street and some other corner...Tom's tagline or San Bernardino was "right on the corner, right on the price..."

I was working at KFXM (AM Top 40) at the time. The FM was beautiful music KDUO. Cal Stereo ran on the FM, but they wouldn't run the hyper Tom Campbell spots so the FM PD would recut the spots in a mellow style. But on the AM, they LOVED all the cash coming in from Cal Stereo. So much so, that they gave Tom the Hotline number and he was allowed to call the jock and ask for additional Cal Stereo spots to be added to the log at his request...

The main problem with Cal Stereo spots is that Tom would try to get 70-75 seconds while paying for a :60. On one hand, the traffic department would get pissed if I dubbed Cal Stereo spots and put :75 spots on the air. On the other, the Sales Mgr. was Tom's good buddy since he was getting the commissions from Cal Stereo so he'd get pissed if I sped them up or edited them. After I got canned at KFXM in 1976, the Sales Mgr. (Al Anthony) called me at my new station to ask if I had done any editing or sped up the Cal Stereo spots before I left. Hell yes, Al, they were 75 seconds long...Apparently Tom was spitting mad because he wasn't getting his 75 second spots on the air...HA!
Click to expand...
Those CAL Stereo commercials were classic. I never timed them, but I'm not surprised at the extra length. Tom talked fast but he got alot in in the supposed 60 seconds.
 
Our (somewhat barebones) Tom Campbell Collection on the museum website:

http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/tom-campbell/

The last entry among the recordings on the page includes a Tall Tom mix tape of spots for Mathew's, Bimbo's 365 Club, Linder's Furniture, etc., from across the years.

Little-known fact (that I've now repeated three times here) (at least): Tom Campbell was hired for his first job in radio by Al Hart, who recently retired from KCBS ... at KEEL/Shreveport, when Tom was fresh out of the Air Force.

So now you know...
 
By the way GeorgeJ, is 147 KXOA on schedule to return to the airwaves on April 1?
 
Tom Campbell is sadly one of the most memorable voices in Bay Area radio history. Sad because he was not talented in any meaningful way. His ability to squeeze a lot of copy into a short period of time was/is just a parlor trick. Hearing his spots on the air, many of which were restricted to after 10pm by radio stations, was repulsive and creepy to say the least.
I will agree he was a slick businessman and he promoted the hell out of himself, but if you aspired to be another Tom Campbell, I feel sorry for you.
Ironic that at the same time there is a Tom Campbell thread operating on this board there is also one for Dan Sorkin. As an intern at KSFO in the mid-sixites, I loved to hang-out in his booth or the control room during his afternoon drive show. He was almost too good for radio. During the years he was at KSFO (Post-Chicago) he was as good as his morning counterpart, Don Sherwood.
Sorkin's Synanon period was a bit of a blemish for some of us, as he was obsessed with it at times to the detriment of his airwork. Still, I'd give radio a chance again if he ever re-surfaced.
 
Tom also worked for WONE-AM Radio in Dayton, Ohio in the mid 1960's.

If you'd like to hear an aircheck of "Campbell's Case Of Music", go to:

http://www.daytonbroadcasthalloffame.com

Click on the "media page" and scroll down till you find it.

When he worked in Dayton, Tom had a very unusual oddity for the 60's...a mobile telephone in his car. One night when I spoke with him on the request line, he gave me his mobile phone number. And I did call him a couple of times on that number. Always thought he was a good guy. He left for California around, I'm thinking 1967 or so...(I could be off a bit on that one, but it's pretty close).
 
I remember Campbell's name was in the San Francisco phone book listing all his mobil & ship to shore numbers.
The guy did promote himself well.
 
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