I'd say it was the other way around. KIIS went through a series of formats, and had just flipped back to Top 40 when they hired Dees. His morning show was the anchor that made KIIS the powerhouse it was. He also had a great production team and management. He didn't do it alone. But KIIS was not the station it became until he took over morning drive.
-
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
Best On-Air Talent Ever In The City Of Angels
- Thread starter MChase2017
- Start date
I'd say it was the other way around. KIIS went through a series of formats, and had just flipped back to Top 40 when they hired Dees. His morning show was the anchor that made KIIS the powerhouse it was. He also had a great production team and management. He didn't do it alone. But KIIS was not the station it became until he took over morning drive.
I saw Elton John in concert last Thursday, a 2 1/2 hour show filled with 70's and some 80's hits and two songs from his latest album, "A Wonderful Crazy Night", which is also the same name of his latest tours with his full band. Interestingly, he didn't touch his 90's music, not even the Lion King songs. The show was fabulous and memorable! Yeah, I haven't heard his latest music on the radio either.
Last edited:
KIIS GM Wally Clark gets most of the credit. A guy who believed 30% of your overall budget needed to be in promotions. So, yes...Rick Dees was the high-profile morning show KIIS needed, but let's not discount the power of a KIIS billboard on the side of every RTD bus and a Porsche 944 with 25 grand in the glovebox every Friday.
If promotion money was all you needed to be #1 in mornings, you'd see more being spent. At the end of the day, the ONLY thing listeners care about is: Are you entertaining? Do I feel a need to listen? If the answer is yes, the promotion money is unimportant. Yes, promotion reminds people that he's there, but it's what he does that causes them to STAY there a while.
This is mostly off topic, but it reminded me of the original KIIS billboard, when they first went on the air as a light-rock AM - about 1971. The billboard had a close-up of 2 pairs of lips (1 male, 1 female) kissing. The caption was
"KIIS. And Listen."
A couple of months later, K-Day (then Album Rock) put up billboards of a shapely young woman dressed in hippie-type clothes, and a head-band. The caption: "K-Day. And Get it On!
Last edited:
my vote has to go to Jeff Dugan of QSKY 71.1 "where we never come down to earth"...and pioneer of headphones-free radio
TeaPartyDude
Banned
Mo Kelly, KFI
I am surprised no one has mentioned Mark and Brian or Kevin and Bean. Both pairs were very successful on rock stations that did not have a particularly successful (longevity wise) morning show prior to their respective arrivals. Both pairs lasted literally decades. Staying relevant and successful for that long in any format, but particularly the ever-changing active rock format, is quite the accomplishment. And M & B would still be on KLOS today if they hadn't called it quits themselves.
H
Hot Hits
Guest
5 Pages and not the slightest mention of Tuna too
I thought the world of Charlie Tuna as a human being and as an air talent, but in a thread about "best air talent ever" in Los Angeles, he finds himself in the shadow of others---especially Robert W. Morgan, but to some extent, Charlie Van Dyke, Rick Dees, and Lohman and Barkley. If this were a "10 best" list, I'd bet Tuna would be on a lot of people's posts.
For what's it's worth, Mark & Brian had the distinction of helping to topple a Mayor (of San Francisco). For awhile in the 90s, their show was simulcast on KRQR (The "Rocker"). They convinced the incumbent Mayor - Frank Jordan - to take a shower with them. The photo of the two with the not too fit Jordan - naked...from the waist up, in any case...did not play well in SF. Former Speaker of the Assembly Willie Brown took Jordan out in the election that November. And everybody knew Brown had...uh...let's say...flexible ethics. But at least, nobody ever saw him naked.
https://www.google.com/search?q=mar...w=1920&bih=1105#imgrc=K3lD0WqOHpodvM:&spf=192
Does anyone remember Jack Lacy on KIQQ? I'm not sure he ever regained the level of success he had achieved at 1010 WINS New York.
Here's an aircheck of him on 100 FM from Easter Sunday, 1983: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVoGRorTnYI.
Here's an aircheck of him on 100 FM from Easter Sunday, 1983: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVoGRorTnYI.
Wolfman Jack.
The Real Don Steele.
Tom Leykis.
Frazer Smith.
Charlie Tuna.
Dave Hull.
Michael Jackson.
Tom Clay.
Harry Shearer.
Tom Snyder.
Others were listenable, but there were the best.
The Real Don Steele.
Tom Leykis.
Frazer Smith.
Charlie Tuna.
Dave Hull.
Michael Jackson.
Tom Clay.
Harry Shearer.
Tom Snyder.
Others were listenable, but there were the best.
H
Hot Hits
Guest
Frazier Smith, right on! Great on KLOS, hardest working lowest rated morning man in town, and even better on KLSX with the Late Ass Radio Show & Saturday Night Fraze. Tom Clay was a radio con man and not pleasant to work with. Women loved him.
Frazier was definitely very funny. I used to listen to him mornings on KLOS. But Frazier could never hold a gig for too long because listening to his show was like spending four hours between the pages of National Lampoon and Mad magazines. It was very niche, there were a lot of inside jokes that a new/casual listener wouldn't get, but most of all women universally *hated* his show and for good reason - it was the boys clubhouse, if not frathouse. That was fine by me and no one had a "problem" with it, it was the 70s and early 80s after all - good times!
But by being so inside and alienating potentially half the audience, his show was never going to enjoy mass appeal. That was actually the secret to Mark and Brian's success. They let you in on all the jokes and women were very much invited to participate; in fact women became a huge part of their loyal audience.
But Fraze, wherever you are, here is a cheeselog for you!
I loved Fraze at the time, but having tripped over a couple of airchecks in the past few years, it doesn't hold up well. He was very much a creature (and a caricature) of Southern California excess in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
One of the tapes I heard was from his night show at KROQ. It was 1978, and he was running for Governor of California on the platform "A gram of cocaine in every hatband and a Cadillac in every pool."
Too hip---gotta go!
H
Hot Hits
Guest
"Shecky Get the Jet" was another of his favorite lines. I have about 3 hours of an unscoped aircheck from Fraze in 1998 at 97.1 The FM Talk station playing all music on the weekends. I would love to share it, he even put me on the air with Jimmy Kimmel, and Buck Pike, one of his sidekicks! On KLOS he did 4 hour themed morning shows that were unlike any other morning show ever attempted on the Radio. Smith is noted for his KROQ-FM simulcasts of the 1978 World Series, Wild!
No contest.. Sluggo.
- Status