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Anybody remember KFI-AM and KGIL-AM radio from the 1970s?

...and I'd probably be wrong. Johnny's two stars are for TV and for contributions to the community. Whit didn't get his until 1978...so unless they waited 18 years to allow DJs, it wasn't him.
 
michael hagerty said:
The photo of Whit & Crane was a spoof of a similar pose from Hogan's Heroes. It was a publicity shot for KMPC, which did a deal with Crane to fill in for Whittinghill a few weeks a year during planned vacations. Whit, who'd been known to tape a week's worth of shows in advance to avoid having someone get a week in his chair, hated the idea. I'm told the photo shoot took less than 5 minutes and Whittinghill didn't say a word.
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Whit didn't look happy at all, and I know very little of Bob Crane aside from published reports. Was Crane really funny? Whittinghill who I just saw playing himself on Dragnet 67 was fun and loved to be back on the radio. He was devastated when we got the news. We all were!
 
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Narrowed it down to one of three: Dick Haynes, Dick Whittinghill or Dave Garroway. And it looks like DJs didn't get in until sometime in the 70s.
 
Hot Hits said:
Whit didn't look happy at all, and I know very little of Bob Crane aside from published reports. Was Crane really funny? Whittinghill who I just saw playing himself on Dragnet 67 was fun and loved to be back on the radio. He was devastated when we got the news. We all were!
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Crane was funny and very innovative...he had his engineer play the records and Bob himself would handle the commercials, sound effects and wild tracks...interrupting spots for a minute or two with bits both live and recorded or a combination thereof that he'd then weave back into the spot at midpoint. Amazing.

The only problem was musically, he was as much a square as Whittinghill...and his fill-ins for Whit in '72 and '73 sounded more dated than Whit to my ears. Didn't stop KMPC from offering him $300K to take Whit's place in '73. But Crane wanted to do movies, so he said no.
 
We may have an answer to the first radio DJ to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Dave Garroway got his star in 1960 but hadn't been a DJ yet. Dick Whittinghill got his in 1978 and Dick Haynes in 1980.

But Stuart Hamblen, a singing cowboy of the 30s, was recruited by Bill Ward to be a DJ at KLAC in 1971. And in 1976, while still jocking at KLAC, Hamblen got a radio star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. No doubt his many appearances over decades factored in, but the fact was that Stuart Hamblen was a DJ in Los Angeles at the time he got his star (Bill Ward supposedly orchestrated the entire campaign to get the star), had been for five years (the minimum required in a field) and, as far as I can tell, pre-dates any other radio DJ's induction into the Walk of Fame.

Next would be Whittinghill, then Dick Haynes and Gary Owens.
 
michael hagerty said:
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Next would be Whittinghill, then Dick Haynes and Gary Owens.
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And it wouldn't be until 1990 that the first local Hispanic Spanish language radio/TV/Film personality got a star.
 
Does anybody remember Gary Owens and Al Lohman teaming up together on KFI? This was about the tail-end of the 1980s. I remember my father loved Lohman and Barkley, and when I lived in Hawaii from 1979 to 1986, I would occasionally DX them on KFI if I got up early enough on "winter" mornings. Anyway, Lohman and Barkley broke up acrimoniously just after I moved back to L.A. and then a while later, Lohman teamed up with Owens. It didn't last long, a year or so maybe, before KFI went all-talk.

Strangely enough, one skit Owens and Lohman did came to mind when I was watching Game 1 of the Dodgers/Braves series. Way back then, there was controversy over the Braves' "tomahawk chop" and the song that goes with it. One of them (was it Lohman?) kept humming the "Tomahawk Chop Song" over and over again while the two were talking about it. Funny the things you remember.

And here it is, 2013, and the tomahawk chop, song and all, still lives.
 
hm insulators said:
Does anybody remember Gary Owens and Al Lohman teaming up together on KFI? This was about the tail-end of the 1980s. I remember my father loved Lohman and Barkley, and when I lived in Hawaii from 1979 to 1986, I would occasionally DX them on KFI if I got up early enough on "winter" mornings. Anyway, Lohman and Barkley broke up acrimoniously just after I moved back to L.A. and then a while later, Lohman teamed up with Owens. It didn't last long, a year or so maybe, before KFI went all-talk.
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Yep. Lohman and Barkley broke up in May of 1986. KFI didn't want Lohman alone and sent him packing. He did a few months at KWNK (670) in Simi Valley. Gary had been playing jazz at KKGO. Ken Kohl became PD of KFI after the L&B breakout, did research on most recognizable personalities and found Gary and Al were near the top of the list, so he paired them beginning in June of 1987.

Lohman and Owens were DJs together in Denver in the 50s, but never did a show together. Gary introduced Al to the future Mrs. Lohman. And when Al came to L.A., he was hoping he'd be teamed with Gary, but Gary introduced him to Roger Barkley. So there was a long friendship and a ton of history.

It lasted until late August, 1988. I was in Los Angeles that week. One night, I parked the car at the hotel with the radio on KFI. I'd heard Gary and Al that morning and the station IDs were Gary's voice saying:

"KFI, Los Angeles...we're talking Southern California."

The next morning, I got in the car and the legal ID was a "listen or we'll kill you voice" saying:

"KFI, Los Angeles....mouthin' off for a living!"

I kinda figured Al and Gary were through.

Al went to Palm Springs after that, and I don't believe Gary has done a live show since (he voice-tracked his daily shows at KGIL and KLAC).
 
In 1992, after Gary Owens replaced Gabe Kaplan ("Mr. Kotter") as host of KLAC's nightly Sportsnuts program, each hour was mostly comedy and not a lot of sports...but that was fine with me. On one program Jonathan Winters was his guest. I thought Gary did those shows live. Did he?
 
LARadioRewind said:
In 1992, after Gary Owens replaced Gabe Kaplan ("Mr. Kotter") as host of KLAC's nightly Sportsnuts program, each hour was mostly comedy and not a lot of sports...but that was fine with me. On one program Jonathan Winters was his guest. I thought Gary did those shows live. Did he?
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I wasn't aware he hosted Sportsnuts. That may have been live. His music shows, however, have been tracked since KFI, with the exception of his two-day appearance on the KMPC farewell in 1992.
 
I just found this Web page and am delighted to read the thread about Lohman & Barkley. I produced their KFI Radio show in the early 1970s and have such fond, wonderful memories of working with these two wonderfully talented gentlemen. I miss them.
 
I remember moving to L.A. in 1977 and being AMAZED that tv stars like Geoff Edwards, Wink Martindale, and Gary Owens were pulling air shifts on KMPC. What a great station. Sonny Melendez overnights too!
 
joeybabe25 said:
I remember moving to L.A. in 1977 and being AMAZED that tv stars like Geoff Edwards, Wink Martindale, and Gary Owens were pulling air shifts on KMPC. What a great station. Sonny Melendez overnights too!
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Joey: Geoff and Gary became TV stars because of KMPC...not the other way around. By '77, the station was in decline, but all through the 1960s and the first part of the 70's, KMPC was a big deal, and it encouraged its air personalities to do TV projects.

Dick Whittinghill was the first, with a role as a TV reporter in the film "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?". He was friends with Jack Webb, which got him roles on "Dragnet" in the 50s and in its 1960s reboot as well as on "Adam-12" and "Emergency". Dick also had acting roles on "The Untouchables", "Bourbon Street Beat", "Bonanza", "Gunsmoke", "Make Room For Daddy", "Perry Mason", "The FBI" and "Mayberry RFD".

Gary Owens did appearances on "McHale's Navy", "The Munsters", "The Green Hornet" and "I Dream of Jeannie" before landing a weekly role on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" in 1968.

Ira Cook had one-shots in "The Name of the Game", "Dragnet", "Marcus Welby, M.D.", "McCloud" and "Ironside".

Roger Carroll started doing off-camera announcer work for variety shows with the Smothers Brothers in 1967, and continued on with Glen Campbell, Leslie Uggams, Tony Orlando and others.

And Johnny Magnus did an episode of "Batman" and one of "The Name of the Game".

Geoff Edwards was doing acting roles before arriving at KMPC in '68 ("That Girl", "I Dream of Jeannie", "Petticoat Junction"), but followed Wink Martindale into game shows in the early 70s. Wink had been doing them for several years before his hiring at KMPC in 1971.
 
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