K
K.M. Richards
Guest
The basketball team that played at the old Forum was the Los Angeles Lakers, not the Inglewood Lakers. Hah! I gotcha there.
Please 'splain to me how that overrides the community of license provisions in FCC rules.
The basketball team that played at the old Forum was the Los Angeles Lakers, not the Inglewood Lakers. Hah! I gotcha there.
My only thought about that: Did KHJ play Mr. Soul?
Big A: Yes. Double-sided hit with "Bluebird". Peaked at #2 on the Boss 30.
Probably only in LA, since BS was an LA-based band. I can't find any national numbers, so it probably never made the Top 40.
The official single lists "Bluebird" as the A side, which is logical since it features Steve Stills as the lead singer, and he also sang their only national Top 10: For What It's Worth.
The other interesting note is that the single version of Mr. Soul had a different lead guitar solo. The single is mono, too bad since Mr. Soul had a lot of interesting stereo effects. Written & sung by Neil Young.
Michael probably already knows about this site---Is there anything radio-related that he doesn't know?---but several years of surveys from KHJ, KFI, KFWB and KRLA, along with surveys from stations in Albany, Chicago and Minneapolis, are on the Oldies Loon website:
http://oldiesloon.com/
And for a really deep dive, there's even a list of songs that were Hitbound, but never made the Boss 30:
93/KHJ Hitbounds That Didn't Chart
I bet Ed Sullivan would have been thrilled to see which Rolling Stones song is on that list.
I assume you mean the hit song "Let's Spend Some Time Together"?
Some of you guys might enjoy this link:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000511115403/http://www.drakechenault.com/khj.htm
I do love the bogus story about "KK" being an "obscenity" en Espanol (crude, yes...obscene, no). What conveniently got left out and the FCC didn't figure was that since the station didn't use its call letters except for a legal ID....and legal IDs must be done in English, it would never be an issue.
On February 1, 1986, KHJ became "Smokin' Oldies" KRTH-AM. Just before the change, Robert W. Morgan and Dave Sebastian hosted a farewell broadcast. A montage of KHJ jingles was played and one of them was "Wonderful KHJ." David, do you know which years that jingle was used? And was it KHJ's first jingle?
I can take a crack at that one, Steve. It was circa 1960-61, from PAMS, I believe. A fairly popular package at the time, used in many markets. KHJ's San Francisco sister, KFRC (610 AM) used it, too, and in 1961, branded themselves as "61-derful". Whether it was KHJ's first jingle or not, I have no idea. It may have been, since a lot of MOR stations didn't bother with jingles until well into the 60s. Gene Autry was among the pioneers in the format at KMPC, and to a lesser extent, KSFO. Still, there exists a 1961 aircheck of a complete hour of Don Sherwood on KSFO where there are not only no jingles, but the call letters are only mentioned by the newscaster as he begins the top-of-the hour newscast with a legal ID.
For those interested in Bay Area radio history, the Bay Area Radio Museum http://bayarearadio.org/site/ has a 1964 air check of (Fred) Van Amburg on the pre-Drake KFRC. At the time, KFRC was trying unsuccessfully to compete in the MOR arena with KSFO and KNBR, much as its RKO General sister station KHJ was getting its clock cleaned in LA at the same time by KMPC and KNX.
Amburg was most famous - some would say infamous - for later (70s and 80s) losing the "Fred" and being the top-rated anchorman on KGO-TV's NewsScene, known for teaser headlines like "Penis found on railroad tracks. Details at 11:00."
But in 1964, "Van" was still toiling away in relative obscurity on KFRC. Much like the KSFO air check mentioned by Michael, there were practically no jingles (maybe one or two slow sleepy ones), and almost no mention of call letters, or anything we associate with "stationality" these days, or with Top 40 stations even in those days.
In fact, the whole air check is so sleep inducing and boring, it was hard listening all the way through.
Van gets credit (blame?) for the "Penis found on railroad tracks" tease, but I was watching that night. It was Valerie Coleman. The line was: "Severed penis found on railroad tracks in the East Bay. Film at 11."
Van, however, did do my favorite: "He drove up to the tollbooth with a dollar in his hand...and left with a bullet in his gut. Film at 11."
Those teases were classic Al Primo, the man who invented the "Eyewitness News" style at WABC and then consulted all the ABC owned and operated stations.
Most over the top? A practically frothing-at-the-mouth Jerry Dunphy on KABC, Los Angeles: "Hollywood vice squad cops bust kiddie porn bookstore and our cameras follow 'em in! FILM at 11!"
Having been back in California for a year and a half now, I'm surprised at how un-sensational KABC and KGO have become.
I miss Van.