KFRC Big 610 Celebration (June 14)

[GeorgeJ.]

[Aren't most of the KFRC greats deceased? I hope John Mack Flanagan & Bobby Ocean show up.

Okay, here's what I was able to pull together on short notice. I'm sure the list is missing jocks and I know it's missing information, but here goes:

Mike Phillips: Dead
Glenn Adams: Unknown
Bobby Dale: Dead
Royce Johnson: Unknown
Tom Rounds: CEO of Radio Express, Los Angeles
Les Turpin: Retired
Howard Clark: Retired
Jay Stevens: Retired
K.O. Bayley: Dead
Dave Diamond: Teaching college in the midwest, recovering from a stroke
Dale Dorman: Retired in Boston
Charlie Van Dyke: Voiceovers in Phoenix
Jack Murray: Unknown
Don Kelly: Director of Broadcast Marketing for iBiquity
Joe Conrad: As Joe Kelly, owner of AV Deli, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix and London
Gene West: Secondary Assistant Principal for L.A. Unified School District
Mike Scott: Dead
Ted Atkins: Recovering from cancer surgery
Paul Drew: Retired
Sebastian Stone: Dead
Jim Carson: KRTH, Los Angeles
Frank Terry: Dead
Chuck Browning: Dead
Steve Lundy: Dead
Bob Foster: Retired
Jack Friday: On air at a cluster of stations in Juneau, Alaska
Citizen Bill: As "Steve Taylor", production director at KBAY, San Jose
Bobby Ocean: Voiceovers and new media strategies, Marin County/fill-ins at KOIT
Eric Chase: As "Paul Christy", weekends at Arrow 93.7 in Houston, Texas
Kevin McCarthy: In Dallas.
J.J. Johnson: Life-FM internet radio
Beau Weaver: Voiceovers in Los Angeles
Michael Spears: Dead
Dr. Don Rose: Dead
John Mack Flanagan: Working security in San Francisco
Rick Shaw: Dead
Big Tom Parker: Working for a non-profit in Portland
Chuck Buell: Voiceovers in San Diego
Marvelous Mark McKay: Voiceovers in Kansas City
Ed O'Brien: Voiceovers in Denver
Donn Sainte-Johnn: Sacramento (?)
Dick Sainte: Dead
Shana: Working as a freelance music publicist in Los Angeles
Dave Sholin: What is Sholin doing now?
Beverly Fox: Real Estate
Shannon: Unknown
Mucho Morales: Westwood One Oldies Channel


Gotta go...this is only about 2/3rds of the list. More later.

Couple Updates for you, Michael...

Jack Murray - dead

Howard Clark - dead

Brian White - Wilmington NC WILT-FM

 

[Starbucks]

This is huge list of jocks for one station. KFRC sounds like they had big turnover (with the exception Of Dr. Don...this is a big list.) Even though they were there for 20 years..I hope this isn't all full -timers.

 

[michael hagerty]

This is huge list of jocks for one station. KFRC sounds like they had big turnover (with the exception Of Dr. Don...this is a big list.) Even though they were there for 20 years..I hope this isn't all full -timers.

Well, 8 of them (Rounds, Turpin, Atkins, Drew, Stone, Spears, Garland and Cagle) were Program Directors without airshifts, so that inflates the list a bit. Still, not many of the rest were weekenders. Until the mid-70s, people didn't stay long at KFRC. Sometimes they didn't work out, often they were moved up the RKO station group:

Dale Dorman to WRKO, Boston, Charlie Van Dyke to non-RKO but Drake-consulted KGB, San Diego as PD, Chuck Browning, Mark Elliott, Jim Carson, Bobby Ocean, Beau Weaver, Shana, Beverly Fox and Mucho Morales (to KHJ). And guys who didn't get moved up the ranks sometimes went to L.A. to work for the competiton (Jay Stevens and Dick Sainte to KRLA, Dave Diamond to KIIS).

Guys we think of as 610 legends (apart from Dr. Don, Dave Sholin, Donn Sainte-Johnn and Marvelous Mark) had relatively short stays: Eric Chase, two years; Bobby Ocean just under three (the first time...he did seven tours of duty at KFRC); Chuck Buell, two years; John Mack Flanagan, five; Bill Lee, three.

Ironically, the PD credited with building the most stable team KFRC ever had (Dr. Don, Rick Shaw, Big Tom Parker, John Mack Flanagan, Marvelous Mark, Shana and Donn Sainte-Johnn), kept absolutely none of the airstaff he inherited. Bobby Ocean lasted the longest under Spears at just under two years (though I'm sure if he'd wanted to stay instead of take the lucrative offer Van Dyke made at KHJ, he would have been welcome). But Spears spent four years as PD, and his successor, Les Garland, waited another year or two to make airstaff changes, given how successful 610 was.

 

[Bryan Simmons]

I'll bet that if you added up names from other stations you would have a long list as well. It seems to me that at even the biggest Top 40 stations of the 60's, 70's and 80's many jocks stayed two years or under. Look at how many stations Big Ron O'Brien worked at. Some heavy call letters on that resume', but not too long at any place. Until I arrived in LA I averaged about 2 years at every stop I made too and I didn't expect LA to be any different. Just got lucky.

By the way, I can think of a few guys left off of the KFRC list like Buddy Baron and Terry Nelson. Terry is an AE at a Stockton radio cluster. I'm sure there are more.

 

[michael hagerty]

I'll bet that if you added up names from other stations you would have a long list as well. It seems to me that at even the biggest Top 40 stations of the 60's, 70's and 80's many jocks stayed two years or under. Look at how many stations Big Ron O'Brien worked at. Some heavy call letters on that resume', but not too long at any place. Until I arrived in LA I averaged about 2 years at every stop I made too and I didn't expect LA to be any different. Just got lucky.

By the way, I can think of a few guys left off of the KFRC list like Buddy Baron and Terry Nelson. Terry is an AE at a Stockton radio cluster. I'm sure there are more.

Yep...and I forgot Thom O'Hair, weekends in '82-'83...dead.

Over on the L.A. board I did a similar list of KHJ jocks from the launch of Boss Radio until John Sebastian took over...50 jocks in 13 years. When Gene Weed closed out the music format on KFWB, he read a list of every jock who'd worked there since the launch of Color Radio 10 years before.
There were 50.

So far, I think we've got 65 jocks at KFRC, but that's over 20 years.

 

[DavidKaye]

Not to sound disrespectful but this sounds more like a memorial than a reunion.

Maybe it's better just to play back the old airchecks instead. Such is life.

 

[GeorgeJ.]

I'll bet that if you added up names from other stations you would have a long list as well. It seems to me that at even the biggest Top 40 stations of the 60's, 70's and 80's many jocks stayed two years or under. Look at how many stations Big Ron O'Brien worked at. Some heavy call letters on that resume', but not too long at any place. Until I arrived in LA I averaged about 2 years at every stop I made too and I didn't expect LA to be any different. Just got lucky.

By the way, I can think of a few guys left off of the KFRC list like Buddy Baron and Terry Nelson. Terry is an AE at a Stockton radio cluster. I'm sure there are more.

Buddy Baron has been doing mornings at WBBN in Laurel MS for quite a few years now...

 

[Starbucks]

I'll bet that if you added up names from other stations you would have a long list as well. It seems to me that at even the biggest Top 40 stations of the 60's, 70's and 80's many jocks stayed two years or under. Look at how many stations Big Ron O'Brien worked at. Some heavy call letters on that resume', but not too long at any place. Until I arrived in LA I averaged about 2 years at every stop I made too and I didn't expect LA to be any different. Just got lucky.

By the way, I can think of a few guys left off of the KFRC list like Buddy Baron and Terry Nelson. Terry is an AE at a Stockton radio cluster. I'm sure there are more.

Yep...and I forgot Thom O'Hair, weekends in '82-'83...dead.

Over on the L.A. board I did a similar list of KHJ jocks from the launch of Boss Radio until John Sebastian took over...50 jocks in 13 years. When Gene Weed closed out the music format on KFWB, he read a list of every jock who'd worked there since the launch of Color Radio 10 years before.
There were 50.

>>>So it seems like the western legendary Top 40 stations were more praised by the call letters then the remembrance of the jocks that work there...where the east coast was different...(example Dan Ingram , Ron Lundy etc. WABC, Hy Lit, Joe Niagra etc. WIBG, WLS, Larry Lujack,Dahl and Meier etc. It seems that the jocks have the legendary notoriety (alot of them made the stations what they are back then) as much as the station call letters, where out west, even todays listeners barely remember any of the jocks except the call letters if that much.

So far, I think we've got 65 jocks at KFRC, but that's over 20 years.

 

[Domino Rippy]

Triva Question:

Name the last jock on 610 KFRC just before midnight when Harold Camping took the station over.

Good Luck

 

[michael hagerty]

Triva Question:

Name the last jock on 610 KFRC just before midnight when Harold Camping took the station over.

Good Luck

Christopher Lance.

 

[jonbruce]

Brian White is now production director and air talent for Sunrise Broadcasting in Wilmington, North Carolina.

 

[RadioStarOne]

C.L. talked with him just before the change at midnight, heck Sue Hall didn't know the AM had been sold till I told her, and she still couldn't believe it. The jocks are always the last to know, that's the radio biz.

 

[michael hagerty]

C.L. talked with him just before the change at midnight, heck Sue Hall didn't know the AM had been sold till I told her, and she still couldn't believe it. The jocks are always the last to know, that's the radio biz.

In the good old days, you at least had six months or so while the FCC examined the sale. But now with Local Marketing Agreements (LMAs), buyers take over as soon as the deal is done and run the station, figuring FCC approval is a formality.

 

[Madmansam]

C.L. talked with him just before the change at midnight, heck Sue Hall didn't know the AM had been sold till I told her, and she still couldn't believe it. The jocks are always the last to know, that's the radio biz.

In the good old days, you at least had six months or so while the FCC examined the sale. But now with Local Marketing Agreements (LMAs), buyers take over as soon as the deal is done and run the station, figuring FCC approval is a formality.

I am curious, Has any radio station (not just the Bay Area or any other part of the US?) ever been taken over by an LMA only to have the FCC to deny the sale, thus ending the LMA?

 

[rickradio]

Just a reminder that The Big 610 Celebration - A Salute To The Legends Of KFRC will take place next Tuesday, June 14, at the Doubletree on the Berkeley Marina.

Exactly who will be there? All I see so far is Dave Sholin and Ben Fong-Torres. BF-T didn't work at KFRC, and Sholin was only there in the final 6 months or so. So, who will be there to meet'n'greet?

Aren't most of the KFRC greats deceased? I hope John Mack Flanagan & Bobby Ocean show up.

Ocean tells me that although he WILL be there, his stay'll be abbreviated due to a scheduled fill-in shift on KOIT.

 

[radio dx]

It might of been cool had KFRC had done some things on the air, old air checks, former DJ fill-ins during the day
but keeping in the true CBS tradition.....they wont spend $ just keep on playing that laud mouth 24/7 Scott shannon.

I only wish they would had let KFRC die in peace so we could remember it the way it was and retire the calls to the great call letter grave yard of our past.

 

[Merfelberf]

I only wish they would had let KFRC die in peace so we could remember it the way it was and retire the calls to the great call letter grave yard of our past.

CBS would never do that. "KFRC" isn't just heritage calls, it's a "brand", intellectual property. They need to have those calls parked to await the time when they can trot them out of mothballs and use them to brand some future format.

Perfect example: one of the most legendary sets of call letters in radio history is "WNEW", New York City. The AM, on 1130, for their decades of playing the Great American Songbook with some of the most iconic MOR DJ's in radio history (Martin Block, William B. Williams, Gene Klaven, Ted Brown, etc.), and likewise the FM, 102.7, for three decades of rock. Those calls retired to Florida a few years back, but they might as well have been sent to Jupiter. Oh wait, they were! Jupiter, Florida. The TOH ID on that station says "WNEW-FM Jupiter, 'B106.3' ".

By the way, Sebastian Stone had two tours of duty at the Big 610. The first as a jock in 1967, the second as PD starting around '71. Between the two he was PD and 9-Noon jock at WOR-FM, New York.

 

[DavidKaye]

CBS would never do that. "KFRC" isn't just heritage calls, it's a "brand", intellectual property. They need to have those calls parked to await the time when they can trot them out of mothballs and use them to brand some future format.

I disagree about the value unless they have a tie to a format or a local landmark. Examples would be KFRC sounding like San Francisco, KSFO, same thing, KOIT the tower, KJAZ the jazz format, KCBS, the network identification.

But KFRC's value other than sounding like San Francisco or Frisco, is negligible I think. The people broadcasters want to reach are too young to remember the golden years of KFRC. Thinking KFRC has any value as a top-40s or an oldies station is as dumb as thinking that KROW, KPO, or KQW have any value to our generation.

 

[1069_KIFR]

I simply think as of today KFRC are just great sounding call letters. If some new format were to come along, not necessarily OLDIES, but the call letters of KFRC would do a station good. Oh sure I miss the Big 610, BUt to brand a station as KFRC and call it nothing but (Frequency) KFRC would be terrific.

 

[LKellerIII]

I simply think as of today KFRC are just great sounding call letters. If some new format were to come along, not necessarily OLDIES, but the call letters of KFRC would do a station good. Oh sure I miss the Big 610, BUt to brand a station as KFRC and call it nothing but (Frequency) KFRC would be terrific.

Good point. How about this - we make all the call letter nerds happy, and transfer K-C-B-S to 1070 AM in LA. Then we go with "All News 740 and 106.9, KFRC." ;D