How many of the original 1965 KHJ Boss Jocks are still with us now?

K.M. Richards said:

My recollection is that it wasn't until KGBS-FM went automated as the AM became KTNQ that there was any voicetracking done for the Country format ... but I do remember voicetracks getting out of sequence as Steve recalled in the post ahead of yours, Scott.

If you think it's a matter that needs to be decided, I can always ask Bob.

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It would be neat to know when Bob (Morgan) did mornings, how many Minuteman news announcers they had and if he ever did news, what led to Landry doing afternoons, when voice tracking was used as Bill Balance did live breaks & introduced my family while we were standing there,(let me push the Love Angeles sounder) and when Dave Hull started in afternoons, he was just too much! 440Fun has a ? for Hull's time there.

Ultimajock, the Chris Lane at WYNE was not the Chris Lane from KGBS/KHTZ. And there was a third Chris Lane, a female news anchor who worked at KFI a few years ago. The KGBS/KHTZ Chris Lane began in radio at WMMT in McMinnville, Tennessee. He also worked at KISN, KJR, KYA, WJJD, WIL, WOKY, KEGL, KFOX, XEPRS (voice-tracked), KLAC and KNX. Whew!

I remember one of Chris Lane's voice-tracked programs where he announced a song by Crystal Gayle: "It's 4:00 and here is an appropriate song to begin the hour." Then he played Talking In Your Sleep. Yeah, that's fine.....but the song begins with "Three o'clock in the morning." Three o'clock. I also remember Lane playing the Kendalls' first hit, Heaven's Just A Sin Away and calling them a "father-son duo." It was Royce and his daughter Jeannie. His daughter.

Thomps2525 said:

The KGBS/KHTZ Chris Lane began in radio at WMMT in McMinnville, Tennessee. He also worked at KISN, KJR, KYA, WJJD, WIL, WOKY, KEGL, KFOX, XEPRS (voice-tracked), KLAC and KNX.

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The XEPRS gig wasn't a real gig. They were the test station for the syndicated automated format "Big Country" in the late 1970s, and Chris did middays.

To bring this thread closer to where it started, Bob Morgan did afternoon drive on that format.


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Will you allow me to bring this thread farther from where it started? Bill Earl, the KRLA-1110 historian and author of When Radio Was Boss and the KRLA history Dream-House toured the XEPRS transmitter site many years ago. (He invited me to go with him but I declined. He asked again, telling me, "This is your chance to visit a foreign country." I don't share Bill's interest in transmitter sites.....and that would not have been much of a "visit" anyway.) An engineer gave Bill a copy of a 90-minute voice-tracked Rick Ward program for 1974. Bill made a copy for me. This is when XEPRS had an oldies format. In the early '70s, the station played r&b and was known as "The Soul Express." I remember listening to XEPRS during the "Big Country Express" era. I think the playlist each week had only 30 to 40 songs. When DJs recorded voice tracks for XEPRS, were they used only once or were they re-used? The tracks on the Rick Ward tape are very basic, mostly just identifying song titles and artists. There were no time checks and nothing topical.

That is about the time Rick went to prison for his Bootleg Oldies Cassettes he peddled on KIEV & XEPRS (his only commercial). You should have visited the XEPRS transmitter site of all sites. How could you not be interested? The Studios for XEPRS moved to the Hollywood Max Factor building in the mid 70's. I met Bill Byrd who did afternoons and might have been P.D. at the Hollywood Sizzler near Vine with another radio buddy.
Sent this to Don a few months ago from Billboard about Ward who claimed on the old R-I it never happened???

Story found on General News Page 1 column 4 and Page 6, column 4, "Taxe named In 2 Suits", "Taxe 3 others land Jail sentences":

https://books.google.com/books?id=PgkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT5&lpg=PT5&dq=six+months +and+a+$2,000+fine+and+Rick+Ward,+nine+months+and+ a+$2,000+fine,+started&source=bl&ots=gs4lDgMQc9&si g=b5fBbmAjubnjfvx0zNcXfLo-oY8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0jVAVbnUIYfgoASo4oGQDw&ved=0CCEQ 6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=six%20months%20and%20a%20%242%2 C000%20fine%20and%20Rick%20Ward%2C%20nine%20months %20and%20a%20%242%2C000%20fine%2C%20started&f=fals e

Thomps2525 said:

Will you allow me to bring this thread farther from where it started?

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I have learned that saying "no" to that question never stops you from doing so anyway, Steve.

Just want to say thank you. As a long time radio fan (and yes, I was listening to KHJ in the 50's and 60's), it's threads like this that make this site a daily stop for me. The 'inside' history and current news which the 'regulars' here provide is SOOO appreciated.

Just want to say "You're welcome." After President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, KHJ dropped music and provided full-time news coverage until Kennedy's funeral three days later. When KHJ returned to music, it was very low-key, mostly instrumentals and ballads. Do you remember listening to Steve Allen on KHJ? In 1945-46, Allen hosted a daily 15-minute comedy program called Smile Time with Wendell Noble and June Foray (who would later become famous as the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel). In the early '60s, Steve Allen and his wife Jayne Meadows hosted a mid-morning show which was broadcast from their home. Robert Q. Lewis, a panelist on dozens of television game shows, hosted mornings for a year or so. I'm wracking my brain trying to think of who else was on KHJ back then. Hey, I was just a itty-bitty kid! And besides, I was listening mostly to Color Radio Channel 98, KFWB.

To think that KHJ once employed a fulltime 50 piece orchestra and a staff that just operated the Turntable!

Dave Andrews and Jim Hilliker wrote a brief---too brief---history of KHJ. Unfortunately, none of the 1920s-30s-40s-50s announcers are mentioned. What we all know as 93/KHJ was originally 83/KHJ. The station went on the air in 1922, broadcasting part-time at 833 kilocycles (360 meters). KHJ moved to a succession of frequencies: 750, 760, 742, 740, 750, 900 and finally to 930 in 1941. Eight different dial positions---is that a record for a Los Angeles station?

http://www.socalradiohistory.com/khj.html

Thomps2525 said:

I'm wracking my brain trying to think of who else was on KHJ back then. Hey, I was just a itty-bitty kid!

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As was I, Steve. But I do remember my mom never missed Michael Jackson's evening talk show on KHJ. And a quick check of the Google Books Billboard archive shows Red McIlvane, Don Ross, Paul Compton, Joe Dolan, John Gentri and Frank Evans as having been on the staff along with Steve & Jayne when the format change rumors started swirling in March of 1965.

Red had been at KLAC before KHJ and was at KFI after before going off to Las Vegas, where he was the town's #1 morning man at KORK for years.

Don Ross went to KNX from KHJ and then to KFMB in San Diego.

Paul Compton, who had been at KIEV before, went on from KHJ to KMPC, KGIL, KFI and KRLA.

Even Don Barrett has no idea what happened to Joe Dolan or where he was before KHJ. And he only shows John Gentri's stint at KHJ in 1965 and the fact that he passed away in 1976.

Regarding Joe Dolan, the Wikipedia entry for KEWB/KNEW(now KKSF) in San Francisco has this:

"In 1966, the station was purchased by Metromedia Broadcasting, which changed the call letters to KNEW (purchased from a Spokane station for $75,000) to match its New York station WNEW.

Starting with an all-night talk show hosted by Joe Dolan, Metromedia dumped the Top 40 music format and switched to controversy-focused talk radio, based in elaborate new waterfront studios at 66 Jack London Square in the Port of Oakland building. The studio featured extensive space for and tours of some of Metromedia owner John Kluge's art collection (also displayed at KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles). "

--- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKSF_(AM)

It is my understanding that Joe had previously replaced Michael Jackson on KHJ, leading to Michael's going to KABC, only to himself be dumped when the station converted from talk to Boss Radio. I've no idea how long he lasted in San Francisco, but the talk format was scraped in 1969. Jackson on KABC of course became the dominant morning talk show host for many years to come.

Thomps2525 said:

Dave Andrews and Jim Hilliker wrote a brief---too brief---history of KHJ. Unfortunately, none of the 1920s-30s-40s-50s announcers are mentioned. What we all know as 93/KHJ was originally 83/KHJ. The station went on the air in 1922, broadcasting part-time at 833 kilocycles (360 meters). KHJ moved to a succession of frequencies: 750, 760, 742, 740, 750, 900 and finally to 930 in 1941. Eight different dial positions---is that a record for a Los Angeles station?

http://www.socalradiohistory.com/khj.html

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We recently spoke here about Tom Dixon landing his first Radio job in 1939 at KHJ

When he retired in 1998 at 82, Dixon was known as the Southland's longest-running radio host.


Tom Dixon dies at 94; L.A. radio's voice of classical music for over 50 years



http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/01/local/la-me-tom-dixon1-2010apr01

Pat Weaver, the NBC-TV president who created The Today Show and The Tonight Show and was the father of actress Sigourney Weaver, died in 2002 at age 93. The obituary in Variety noted that he was a "writer, announcer, producer and salesman" at KHJ in the early 1930s. He also worked at KFRC before joining NBC Radio in 1935.

http://variety.com/2002/scene/news/pat-weaver-dies-at-93-1117864027/

In a letter posted on LARadio.com June 9, 2014, radio historian Jim Hilliker named several Los Angeles radio personalities who are not yet in the National Radio Hall Of Fame. Among them: "John S. Daggett, who was KHJ's first announcer-manager from 1922-1927 and had a national following in those early days of radio."

http://www.laradio.com/june2014.htm

I found a 1929 Los Angeles Times article about a singing contest at KHJ. It was written by---wait for it!---John S. Daggett:

http://framework.latimes.com/2013/10/09/winners-of-1929-radio-audition/

We established on page one that four of the original Boss Jocks are still with us: Gary Mack, Sam Riddle, Donn Tyler and Johnny Williams. We didn't intend to start talking about everyone who ever worked at KHJ since the station went on the air in 1922 but you know how us old-timers like to reminisce!

Maybe this thread should be locked and we could start a new thread devoted to KHJ's history. Maybe.

...Don Wilson, prior to becoming a decades-long employee of Jack Benny, was a sportscaster on KHJ in the early '30s, doing play-by-play on some of the earliest Rose Bowl games to be nationally distributed (KHJ was then a CBS affiliate). Wilson was personally fired circa 1933 by station owner Don Lee, who also had a successful Cadillac dealership, because Wilson had bought a Packard from Lee's arch-rival, Earle C. Anthony of KFI and KECA...

Sorry, Frank---I know we're off topic again. We're approaching the 70th anniversary (August 1) of the release of RKO's comedy film Radio Stars On Parade. The aforementioned Don Wilson was one of the stars along with Sheldon Leonard, Frances Langford, Ralph Edwards, Skinnay Ennis and many other performers.

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/87562/Radio-Stars-on-Parade/