B
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B, Christian: KSRF, 1991-92; KACD, 1997-98; KIIS, 1999-2004; "Indie 103.1," 2006-09. Christian Burkholder hosted a Sunday night show called Head Trip on Indie 103.1/fm. Christian B is a well known West Coast electronic music dj, producer and radio host who was on America’s first EDM's terrestrial radio stations– MARS/fm & Groove Radio along with"Full Frequency," his mix show, which ran for five years on LA's, KIIS/fm. |
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B,
Letty: KIIS, 2015-20. Letty started as a promotions assistant at KIIS/fm in
2006 and became part-time fill-in personality in early 2015. She's now with
KGGI in the Inland Empire. She was born and raised in LA. While attending school at Cal State Long Beach, she joined KIIS/fm as part of the Street Team, and eventually received a degree in Broadcast Journalism. Post-graduation, Letty held down the midday slot at stations in Palm Springs, Monterey and San Francisco before returning home to KIIS. |
B, Tony: KIIS, 1991-92; KPWR, 1992-96; KACD, 1996-97; KDLE, 2003. Tony worked at Dance format KDL, 103.1/fm until a format flip in late 2003.
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B, Willie:
KTNQ, 1976-78;
KIIS, 1980. Willie B. Goode started
his career at age 13 in his hometown of Montgomery Alabama. "I
thought being on the radio might help me score a date for the prom.
Only problem: that job was at a small Country station, which no one
listened to…Even ME! By age 18, I lucked in to an undeserved dream
job, doing afternoon drive at B100 San Diego." |
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BABCOCK, George:
KFWB, 1959-61; KABC, 1973. When George passed away he was 74, besides radio, he was a
building contractor, plumbing contractor and an ordained minister. At the
age of 70, he decided to get his pilots license. George was part of management in the news department when the "Seven Swingin' Gentlemen" went off the air in support of the striking newsmen. George jocked the all-night shift. In 1962 he went to KMEN-San Bernardino as a jock. In 1973 he co-anchored the KABC news block with Bob Arthur. |
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BABCOCK, John: KDAY, 1955-57; KFWB, 1957-59; KMPC, 1959-61; KLAC, 1961-63; KABC, 1963-73. In 1970, Don Page
of the LA Times named John newscaster of the year
saying: "John Babcock is one of radio's premier
commentators and a leading documentarian." John
was born the day of the 1933 earthquake and started life as
an orphan. He was shuffled between foster homes until he was
adopted by the Babcock family. While he was in his delinquent
teen years, John was sentenced to two years in the Boys
Republic of Chino. Many years later, he became the president
of Chino's Board of Directors. "I am the first
ex-student to be elected president of this risk school."
After graduating from the University of Texas, John started
out in the newspaper business and WOAI-San Antonio. He came
to the Southland and started with KDAY. |
John retired in 1995 and was active writing and running the Boys school. His wife of 17 years was principal of the Dubonoff School for "kids at risk." Their daughter attended the Peabody Music Conservatory in Baltimore. John died February 1, 1997, at the age of 63. Former KFWB newsman Al Wiman said unequivocally that John "was the best news person EVER!"
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BABCOCK, Sam:
KDAY, 1962. Sam passed away December 11, 1971,
of a heart attack. He was 42. Sam worked at KDAY, the third Top 40 station (KFWB and KRLA were dominant) in the early 1960s. Sam Babcock spent a couple of years working in the Southland with Jim Hawthorne, Earl McDaniel and Pete Smith. He was born in Pougkeepsie, New York in 1929. When he was five years old, Sam got a backyard garden hose, stretched it into his house and talked like he was on the radio. At 12 or 13, he convinced the local radio station to let him talk about saving tin foil for the war effort. At that time most all the men were away in the military, mostly women on the air. At 14 he got a job on the local station. When the servicemen came home from the World War II, he was out of a job! When he was 17, he went to Little Rock, Arkansas with his parents and worked for the local station until he graduated from high school. From Little Rock he went to Joplin, Missouri and worked at KFSB. It was in Joplin that he met his wife Grace and they got married on February 5, 1951. They had 4 daughters. In l952 Sam went to Springfield, Missouri. To work at a tv station and Country radio station. Two years later he had his first taste of Top 40 at WHB in Kansas City. In 1958, he joined WPEO-Peoria, Illinois as program director. In 1958, Sam moved to San Diego as pd at KDEO. When KDAY changed format in 1962, Sam returned to WHB and then on to KDGY-Minneapolis and KRMG-Tulsa. “Sam had many wonderful years in radio and he loved every minute of it!” remembered his wife Grace. |
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BACKUS, Jim: KLAC, 1959-60. The voice of the bumbling, nearsighted Mr. Magoo was part of KLAC's attempt to resurrect the "Big Five" personality era from the forties and fifties. Jim died July 3, 1989, of pneumonia at the age of 76. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease for many years as the self-indulgent millionaire Thurston Howell III on Gilligan's Island for three seasons beginning in 1964. One of his movie roles was playing James Dean's weak-willed, vacillating father in Rebel Without A Cause. He is also remembered as the pitchman for a light bulb commercial imploring, "Don't be a bulb snatcher!"
Jim was born James Gilmore Backus on
February 25, 1913, in |
Bad Girls Club: KLSX, 1995-96. A naughty Saturday evening talk show hosted by Kathlyn Kinmont and Kimberly Hooper. Kathleen is acting and seen in 1998 episode of Mortal Kombat. Kimberly is also an actress and appeared in an episode of UPN's Love Boat.
Bade, Dennis: KUSC, 1982-89 and 1991-95. Dennis works at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and hosts a weekly live concert on KMZT from the Bing Theatre at the L.A. Museum.
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BADEAUX, Jon:
KFXM, 1965-66; KMEN, 1966, KWIZ, 1967;
KHJ, 1968-77; KDAY, 1978-92. Jon passed away March 5, 2018,
at the age of 70, in Palm Springs. He
had been working for Entercom as the
traffic systems manager in the
Northwest. His career began at KFXM-San Bernardino and took a few hops across the state (KLOK-San Jose and KWIZ-Santa Ana) before landing at KHJ in the late 60s when it was run by Bill Drake and pd Ron Jacobs. At “Boss Radio” KHJ, Jon produced such legendary dj’s as The Real Don Steele, Charlie Tuna, and Humble Harve. After ten years of Boss Radio 93/KHJ, he joined another LA station, KDAY, where he initially was production manager. Additionally, he spent five years as music director along with his production responsibilities. There he gained a reputation as having “great ears.” In 1983, Jon produced an album consisting of the Motown library of hits with narration by Smokey Robinson and Lionel Richie. The album was produced in conjunction with Motown’s 25th anniversary and was nominated for a Grammy as Best Historical Recording. |
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BAILEY,
Carl: KBIG, 1952-79.
Carl started work for KBIG by giving over one and a half tons of his
personal record collection to establish a working music library for
the then-new station on He broadcast for five years as “Mr. Big (he was 6 foot, 5 inches tall) of KBIG” from Catalina. KBIG was actually at 740AM and a daytimer during his time with the station.
Beginning in the summer of 1957 he broadcast interviews from the
upper deck of the “Big White Steamer” that crossed the channel from
San Pedro to Avalon. He called them man-on-the-deck interviews. Life
magazine carried a photo of Carl’s broadcast and he was made a
“Commodore of the KBIG's studios were located 16 miles up in the hills of Catalina. Each dj was given his own 4-wheel jeep by the company to make the daily drive up and down from the station. The Big Band format could heard from San Diego to Portland. In 1958, Carl hosted Bailey's Biscuit Barrel during the same time as Al Jarvis' Make Believe Ballroom, Gene Norman's Lucky Lager Dance Time and Peter Potter's Platter Parade. Carl was also program director.
In the mid-1960s he switched to news. He had to retire from
broadcasting just shy of his 50th anniversary following a stroke
that damaged his motor reflexes. |
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BAILEY, Duane "Doc":
KLIT,
1989-94; KEZY, 1996-98; KBIG, 1998-2012. Doc was the production director at
MY/fm (KBIG) until Clear Channel downsizing in late 2012. Originally from Zumbrota, Minneapolis, "Doc" worked for Transtar 41 for a number of years, when it was based in Colorado Springs. He transferred from Transtar's A/C network to KLIT. In the fall of 1994, he left the Southland to program KKLI-Colorado Springs. "Doc" returned in late 1996 to jock at KEZY. He's now living in his hometown of Zumbrota. "I'm still doing some voice-overview for LA clients, and working locally. Would like to do more radio, but retirement is sneaking up on me." |
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BAILEY, Steve: KMPC, 1951-95. Steve was director of the Golden West sports operations.
Born in
He died
November 24, 1995, of complications following treatment for
lymphoma. He was 70.
Sports announcer Dick Enberg reflected for Larry
Stewart in the LA Times:
"Steve was a producer before there were producers. He worked behind
the scenes, but he was a real giant in the business." |
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BAIN,
Jim: KWIZ, 1965-69 and 1974-79 and 1981-85; KIQQ, 1973;
KEZY, 1988; KGIL,
1998-2000. Jim died June 1, 2020, at the age of 82.
Jim was a great example that you can do anything you want to, as long as you are willing to pay the price. He turned his love for radio into a career of inspiring young people by teaching at Fullerton College and running its fm station. He started a comprehensive program at Fullerton in 1981 and realized that he needed to enlarge his own academics. While running the program, he worked weekends at KWIZ and Unistar’s AM Only channel AND went back to school. From 1969 to 1973, Jim was “the Mighty Quinn” on KMEN-San Bernardino. He received a B.A. degree in business management from the University of Redlands in 1988 at the age of 50 and didn’t stop there. Three years later he received his M.S. degree in career and college counseling. His students filled 27 shifts per week on KBPK-Fullerton. His vocational advisory committee includes some of the most respected names currently working in Southern California radio. Jim talked about his love for radio: “This wonderful, sometimes frustrating business, ever challenging but the greatest of all industries and definitely the mistress that owns us all – radio.” |
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BAIRD,
Jon: KNX, 2007-23. Jon is a reporter at KNX. He has been part of the KNX news operation since June 2007 while covering a huge fire at Lake Tahoe. He has done general news, consumer, business and sports reporting. Prior to KNX, Jon was a tv investigative reporter in several cities around the country, including Phoenix, San Diego and Indianapolis. He also spent eight years at CBS-13 in Sacramento, where he was nominated for a couple of Emmys for his investigative work. Just after moving to San Diego in 1994, Jon was awakened by the Northridge earthquake and he spent a week covering the damage in the L.A. area. He also happened to be attending the World Series in 1989 when a devastating quake hit the Bay Area and Jon spent several days in San Francisco covering the aftermath. In Northern California, while working as an investigative reporter, Jon was able to extract confessions from suspects in two very high-profile cases, including the torching of the Sacramento synagogues. Throughout his career he has worked on exposing government fraud and waste doing investigative work. Jon enjoys sports and riding his motorcycle—when he isn’t out covering fires. He and his wife and daughter reside in the South Bay. |
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BAISDEN,
Michael: KKBT/KRBV, 2006-07. Michael's syndicated show started at the BEAT in late
Spring 2006 and continued to the format change and identity of V-100. The Michael Baisden Show is heard in over 78 media markets nationwide with over 8 million listeners daily. Michael ignites heated discussions with themes like Living Your Dream, Your Body Is Your Temple, Do Women Know What They Want, and Pimps In The Pulpit. His media career began when he left his job driving trains in Chicago to self-publish Never Satisfied and began touring the country selling books out of the trunk of his car. Baisden got his start in radio as an unpaid afternoon drive-time host for 98.7 KISS/fm in New York City. The show debuted nationally in 2005. Baisden is a NY Times best selling author with over 2 million books in print, hosted two national television shows, and has produced three films. In December 2009 Michael called for a National Mentor Training Day and announced his plans for a 2010 nationwide campaign. He pledged up to $350,000 of his own money to be donated in over 72 markets he would visit on a bus tour. |
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BAKA BOYZ:
KPWR, 1993-99; KKBT, 1999-2000;
KDAY, 2005-07; KDAY, 2020. "It's
the Baka/It's the Baka Boyz/In the morning/In the morning/It's the
Baka Boys/ And we're gonna wake your ass right up/Because we're two
fat Mexicans." In early 1994, Nick and Eric Vidal moved to the
coveted morning drive slot at "Power 106" while still in their early
20s. Their on-air persona consisted of sending “shout-outs” to
friends and listeners, giving “props” to people they like and
good-natured “dissing” to certain other people -- including each
other. They started at KPWR in 1993 with a two-hour Friday night hip-hop show that was so popular they were soon moved to all-nights, then late-nights and by early 1994, mornings. In an OC Register interview in 1994, Eric said, "We dj on the radio, but we don't consider ourselves radio djs. Everything we know is self-taught. We came from the streets." Their father owned a teen club in Bakersfield where they grew up, which explains their moniker. Former "Power 106" pd Rick Cummings justified the unusual morning team: "In a market like Los Angeles, you'd better do something that's a breakthrough kind of thing, or you'll get lost in the shuffle." Eric and Nick left KPWR in the summer of 1999 and surfaced in afternoon drive August 30, 1999 at the Beat. They left in the summer of 2000. After a year at KMEL-San Francisco, they left in late 2001. Eric and Nick Vidal moved to Miami in early 2003. They are now syndicated. |
Baker, Cory: KGBS, 1978-89. Cory worked for the High Desert 98/99 station until late summer 2009.
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BAKER,
Dave: KGIL/KMGX, 1987-90; KSRF,
1990-93; KABC, 1993; XTRA,
1994-2001; KTWV, 2004-14. Born and raised in
the San Fernando Valley, Dave attended Cal State Northridge. While
persuing a mechanical engineering degree he played around at the
college's radio station, KCSN. "One of the instructors was impressed
with the variety of voices I could do and suggested I put together a
demo tape. My radio journey continued on from there," said Baker. In 1984,Dave started his
radio career doing Sunday afternoons on Rock 90 FM KCME-Simi
Valley, which was a Pirate station then on cable. His time at KGIL/KMGX was as a board op, then engineering supervisor. He left the Valley station to be production director at KSRF in Santa Monica. He returned to KGIL in 1990 and spent three years as production director and air talent. In 1993, he worked at KABC as a show engineer. A year later, Dave became production director and Chargers pre-game host at XTRA Sports 690, 91X and Channel 933 in San Diego. In the new millennium, other jobs included vp of engineering and host of In The Mix at WorldTalkRadio.com in San Diego, and VO/production for Premium Radio 92.1-San Diego. In 2004 and for the next decade, Dave was the production director and air talent at KTWV. Currently he does freelance VO for numerous clients including half-hour national Keurig infomercials. "When not doing VO, I'm tending to a 'farmers market' orchard of various orange, lemon, macadamia nut, apple, persimmon and avocado trees. Also three chickens." |
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BAKER,
James: KBIG, 1999-2001. James was pd at
KFRC ("Star 101.3") in
San Francisco until November 2006. In the fall of 2009, James joined Saudi
Aramco's radio stations in Dhahran as operations supervisor. He also worked in LARadio as Jay Curtis.
After 12 years in Saudi Arabia, James returned Stateside to a new home base in Boise. "Only this time, it will be our final destination!" Baker told The Ramp. |
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BAKER, Pam:
KFWB, 1998-2000 and
2001-2004; KRTH, 2004-05; KKBT, 2005-06;
KHHT, 2008-09.
Pam is an AE at Audacy/Los Angeles. A graduate of UCLA, for over a decade Pam has been involved in Donate Life California which saves lives by inspiring people to sign up with the state organ, eye and tissue donor registry. "I can't imagine one of my children needing an organ transplant and just waiting and waiting for a donor. So many people die each day on the waiting list. It's remarkable to meet donor families and recipient families at events --just such a positive way to change lives," said Pam. She was director of sales marketing for K-EARTH and Dodgers radio in the late 90s through the mid-aughts. In the mid 2000s, she was the co-founder and partner in RP Media, a boutique full service advertising and marketing agency specializing in radio, television, cable, direct mail, outdoor and print advertising, as well as personality endorsements. For a time she was a marketing executive with Disneyland. |
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BAKER, Todd:
KZLA, 1999; KBIG, 1999-2001;
KKGO, 2007. Todd works mornings at WKQC-Charlotte.
Born and raised in Seattle on April 7, 1971, Todd started working at his high school station in Bellevue, Washington, KASB. “I used to play dj as a child growing up listening to KJR [Channel 95] in Seattle. I set up two stereos so I could ‘mix’ the music like I heard on the radio. After hearing the ‘Rick Dees Weekly Top 40,’ I had it in my head that someday I must get on the air in L.A.” Todd’s second job was “Y-100”-Gillette, Wyoming, followed by KLYK-Longview, Washington, KDUK-Eugene, “Z100”-Portland and in Seattle KJR, KUBE and KPLZ. He joined Westwood One in 1998 and hosts “Saturday Night 80s” on the weekend, and during the week he is heard on the network's Bright AC format. |
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BALDWIN,
Mel: KNX, 1951-66 and 1980-91; KNX/fm,
1971. Mel (Marvin Forrest) was one of the ubiquitous personalities at KNX taking on a
number of long-running positions. “I made a quantum leap from
managing a little station in Tillamook, Oregon to replacing
Steve Allen at KNX.” He died November 3, 2020 in
Portland Oregon. He was 96-years-old. During Mel’s time at the CBS O&O, he hosted "KNX Food Hour" with Jackie Olden and later Melinda Lee. He joined the "Food Hour" when Olden's original partner, Don Fitzgerald, died unexpectedly of a heart attack. At the time Mel lived aboard a boat in Los Angeles harbor and never really cooked until he began working on the show. He had a talk show called "Opinion Please" and hosted American Airlines’ "Music 'til Dawn" program for over two decades (including four years based at WBBM-Chicago). During the 1970s Mel took a break from radio and was a building contractor and writer. |
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BALLANCE, Bill: KNX, 1952-55; KFWB, 1955-65; KGIL, 1966; KGBS, 1969-73; KABC, 1974-77; KWIZ, 1977. Born Willis Bennett Ballance, "Billo" and a graduate of the University of Illinois, Bill worked at KOA-Denver and WBKB/TV-Chicago in the early 1950s. One of the original "Seven Swingin' Gentlemen" when KFWB went "Color Radio" in 1958, Bill worked mostly evenings. Bill went to Denver and San Francisco following KFWB where he had impressive success. He then went to Honolulu’s KHVH, was later pd of KGMB and then returned to the mainland to KNBR-San Francisco. Bill suddenly skyrocketed when he converted the routine rock-jock formula at KGBS into the "Feminine Forum." His most lasting claim in Southern California radio was that he was the first to openly address sexuality, issues of sexual intercourse and sexual preference. By 1972 his "Feminine Forum" was syndicated in a number of major cities, simulcast in San Diego and he won the Gavin award that year. Bill gave the phone lines over to the ladies and listened. He wouldn't even call them housewives. They were women in Bill's mind - educated and intelligent - and he treated them that way. Between calls, he played the hits. Bill was profiled in every major publication in the country, as well as the London Times and a Cosmopolitan cover story. Time magazine said, "Bill has many imitators, but no rivals." |
In March 1973, a front-page story in the Times reported that executive vp of Storer Broadcasting, Peter Storer, felt that the image of Bill's program had been "colored and damaged by less-restricted imitators." As a result, it was announced that the program would be dropped. The FCC eventually concluded his show was "not obscene," but it was too late. For all the attention his show attracted, Bill did it with taste. He knew the line not to cross, but his copycats didn't, and Bill got the blame, never getting true credit for his bold, sex-oriented broadcasting. His brilliant command of the language prevented his KGBS show from being dirty. His show was a lot like the old girlie magazines. It wasn't total nudity - it showed just enough to make it tantalizing. His tome, Bill Ballance Reveals How to Cope, had five printings. In 1978 he moved to KFMB-San Diego, where he worked until departing in the summer of 1993.
Bill died September 23, 2004, at the age of 85.
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BALLANCE,
Lance: KOST, 1989-98; KBIG, 1998-2002. Lance is working in Lubbock. I've
been on the radio for over 35 years, in cities as diverse as Los
Angeles, Boston, Memphis, and now the Hub City. Born in Venice, Florida, Lance considers Sacramento his "hometown" since he grew up and graduated high school there. He did much of his early radio work in Northern California. Lance started in Marysville at KRFD and went on to KYBB-Stockton. Lance recalled the scariest part of his L.A. radio tour was "being on the air during the riots when everything was burning around the station." "My greatest thrill was when my wife, Brenda and I welcomed our daughter, Daryn Elisabeth, into the world." Lance is a computer "freak" and designed his own web page. "I really enjoy it when people ask if I'm Bill Ballance's kid. Yes, that is my real last name, and no I'm not." In early 1998, Lance moved from the all-night shift at KOST to midday host at KBIG. He went on to aternoons at KSFI-Salt Lake City. "When I'm not playing great music, I'm usually on the golf course or waiting at the drive-thru at Whataburger. I have two adult daughters who have ensured I'll never be able to afford a boat. I’ve recently married someone I’ve been great friends with since high school, which includes a package of three boys, a girl and three grands along with three dogs and two cats. I am a happy guy, but...seriously, I'll never be able to afford a boat. |
Ballou, Rick: KCTD/KMPC, 2000. Rick worked evenings at "One-on-One" sports. He's a Boston native, Florida State University graduate and veteran sports radio personality having hosted shows in Tallahassee, on the Sporting News radio network, and currently at 1010XL in Jacksonville. Ballou has covered the Seminoles professionally for over 25 years. He is the Jacksonville Jaguars Radio Network sideline reporter and a connoisseur of Jameson Irish Whiskey.
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(Billy Burke and Sam Botta)
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BALTER, Sam:
KLAC,
1940s-62 and 1967. Sam was one of the most popular sports
broadcasters in Los Angeles radio history. He was the former
captain of the UCLA basketball team and a member of the gold
medal-winning U.S. basketball team in 1936 when the sport was
introduced to the Olympics for the first time. Sam was the
voice of UCLA football and basketball teams and worked at
KLAC from 1946 to 1962. He also was a sports columnist for
the Los Angeles Herald Express. Sam died August 8, 1998, at the age
of 88, from abdominal surgery. Born in 1909 in Detroit, Balter was signed by the Chicago White Sox after graduating from Roosevelt High School but chose to attend UCLA, where he played guard on the basketball team. In 1950 he did commentary for a USC-Utah game on local tv. He was the radio announcer for UCLA basketball and football and did television play-by-play for the Los Angeles Stars of the American Basketball Association and the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. Balter was a charter member of the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association and was elected to the SCSBA Hall of Fame and the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame. He also worked at KABC, wrote a sports column for the Los Angeles Herald Express, and had a recurring role as a radio announcer on the 1952-58 Adventures of Superman tv series. |
Banana, Rico: KDLE, 2003; KDAY,
2005; KHHT, 2006-07. Rico worked at Hot 97-New York.
Banda, Tom: KXEZ, 1993-95; KYSR, 1996; KIBB,
1996-97. Tom represents Latin artists.
Banet, Brenda: KKLA, 1999, 2001-02. Brenda works weekends at KKLA and
on Christian Pirate Radio.
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BANKS, Bill:
KNAC, 1976-95. Bill was part of the morning
drive show on KNAC. During his two decades at KNAC, Bill evolved from weekend news to news director to operations director. “This seems like a long time with one station until you consider it covered five different owners, three different formats and two different jobs. I saved a lot of money that would be spent moving from station to station, city to city, by letting the changes come to me.” Bill was born on October 25, 1948, in Peoria, Illinois. “This was a great place to grow up, learn to love radio, then move away!” In high school, his radio class included a daily show broadcast live on a local station. “This pretty much sealed my fate. Over the next couple of years, I also discovered that playing the same records every day was not as much fun as I thought it would be, and that going out on the street to cover news was. All the while, I kept sending tapes to the stations in Chicago.” Bill’s new radio career was interrupted by a war in Vietnam, which brought him to the navy and eventually Southern California. “While Vietnam and the navy had no lasting attraction to me, Southern California did. The weather was obviously better than Chicago, I met the girl I wanted to marry, and this was the place to be in radio. I enrolled in both the radio/tv and journalism programs at Cal-State, Long Beach…. and I’m still here.” From 1995 until 2003, Bill was the operations manger for Liberman Broadcasting.Bill left his post as operations manager at Liberman Broadcasting in the summer of 2002. |
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BANKS, Doug: KDAY; KHJ; KFI, 1978-82. Doug worked afternoon drive for ABC Radio Networks for many years. He died April 11, 2016, at the age of 57. He dealt with a long battle with diabetes and continued to advocate to his listeners on the importance of getting updated doctor check-ups. At the time of his death, Doug was working afternoons at WVAZ-Chicago. The Philadelphia-born, Detroit-raised Doug Banks began his radio career as an on-air personality for his high school’s radio station. Local station WDRQ took note of his talent and hired him for a temporary late-night weekend disc jockey spot. Even though he was the youngest dj, he quickly earned a permanent position. After high school, Doug turned a six-week trial into a multi-year position at KDAY in Los Angeles. When he left KFI, he did his first morning show in Las Vegas at KLAV. Next was KDIA in San Francisco, followed by Chicago at WBMX (now WVAZ), where he took the morning show from a 1.8 share to a healthy 5.6, beating rival WGCI. After much success in the mornings, Doug was offered the opportunity to do a nationally syndicated show. The Doug Banks Morning Show, hosted by Banks along with DeDe McGuire, rose to become one of the top-rated syndicated urban programs in America. Each week, millions of listeners tuned in to hear some of the most creative and innovative programming on the airwaves. |
In 2008, Banks re-launched his nationally syndicated morning show in afternoon drive under the new name ‘The Ride with Doug and DeDe.’ In 2010, Doug’s show again found a new home with American Urban Radio Networks, changing it’s name back to ‘The Doug Banks Show.’ Over the years, Doug has received numerous radio awards, including being honored at the 12th Annual Living Legends Foundation Gala in New York City for his outstanding achievements and contributions as a trailblazer in the radio entertainment community. With his strong track record of assisting various grassroots organizations, Doug has also been successful in reaching out to and mobilizing the Urban community.
In January 2006, in collaboration with Disney and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, he launched The Doug Banks Literacy & Scholarship Initiative. The program supports the development of a fully literate American population by raising awareness about illiteracy and getting the private sector actively involved in supporting literacy across the country. (Chicago Defender)
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BANKS, Robin:
KNX/fm/KODJ/KCBS,
1989-2020.
Born in London, Robin worked weekends at "Arrow 93." and the other
CBS/fm stations. He died in September 2020. His
pd at Arrow, Tommy Edwards,
heard that he had been battling cancer. He was
in his early 70s. |
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BANKS,
Robin: KKGO, 2006-08; KFI, 2015-20. Robin worked
morning drive at Go Country 105.1/fm until February 2008. She returned to
Metro and lost her job in early fall of 2008 due to downsizing and was
rehired in late 2009. |
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BANISTER, Raymond:
KROQ,
1980-2004.
Before there was a
Kevin & Bean at KROQ,
there was Ramondo and The Blade.
From KPRI-San Diego, Raymond came to KROQ in the fall of
1980 to work middays. In the early 1980s, he was part of the
morning drive show, Raymondo & Evans, and in 1982 he teamed
with Richard Blade on the popular morning show, "Raymondo
and the Blade." Tami Heide wrote: “Ramondo, you were always a good friend to me. I remember when we would hang out with your orange kitties at your place in Burbank. A huge loss for the KROQ family.” Freddy Snakeskin: “Just in time for Christmas, some truly terrible news for the whole KROQ extended family. I hadn't talked to him for a couple years, and had no idea he was even sick.” April Whitney: “Feeling very sad this Christmas Eve after learning of the loss of one of my favorite friends, Raymond Bannister. Nearly 40 years of laughing, being there for each other, supporting and encouraging each other, enjoying each other. I’ve been lucky to call him my friend. So many great memories. I don’t want to let him go. Love you Raymond. See ya on the other side.” “Ramondo was the first person to put me on the radio,” wrote Jim Poorman Trenton. “Raymond was quiet in real life, and never received the kudos he should have for being a transcendent radio talent and all-around good guy. He was also really funny. I appreciate all you did for me and our friendship. R.I.P. Dude." |
Richard Blade was the other half of
the KROQ team of Ramondo and Blade. Richard wrote a book
titled World in My Eyes. He devoted a chapter to
his partner and acquiesced to allow highlights from that
chapter. The following is from Richard Blade:
“Ramondo and Blade were flying high. The
two of us just clicked together on the radio. Ramondo’s dry
American wit and precise timing matched with my British
enthusiasm and music knowledge worked well with the
listeners and in just a few months we had hit number one in
the ratings in virtually all of KROQ’s key demographics. We
were friends off the air as well. We had both had similar
experiences in radio, paying our dues and coming up through
the smaller markets. Raymond’s last gig prior to KROQ was in
San Diego at the rock station KPRI and just like me, he had
fallen into an open spot on KROQ.
Our morning show had a team of characters who
appeared on the air with us including Rhonda Kramer,
our flirtatious traffic reporter, and two surf reporters –
this was Southern California after all – Rockin’ Fig and the
Poorman. But we still had no budget! KROQ was notorious for
being cheap. Our salaries were miniscule and while every
other morning show in LA had a producer, a writer and a
talent booker Raymond and I only had each other. But we made
it work and fortunately, because of our mammoth ratings
every record company, movie studio and tv station would come
to us and ask to have their stars appear on our show.
And it wasn’t just the tv stations and press agents
pushing to get their clients on the air with us, they also
wanted to use our growing popularity and name recognition to
promote their shows, newspapers, and magazines by booking
Ramondo and the Blade to boost their ratings and sell
copies. Suddenly it was Raymond and I who were in demand,
which took us by surprise. There were times we would look at
each other and think, Holy shit!
We were featured in
the Los Angeles Times, Daily News, LA
Weekly, BAM Magazine, The Press Telegraph
– virtually every publication in Southern California came
after us. Then we got a call from Playgirl
magazine. This was big. It was national and international
but we said yes – except I insisted that there be no nudity.
Four months after the shoot the magazine came out with Kurt
Russell on the cover and for the next few weeks Raymond and
I would be met at all our gigs by fans clutching the
magazine and wanting us to sign it. I have to admit it was a
little disturbing to have a fifteen-year-old girl approach
you with a Playgirl in her hand asking for an
autograph.
The main thing that differentiated us,
and the rest of KROQ’s airstaff, from every other station in
the market was the music. We played what nobody else would
play and we played it first. Music was defined and
pigeon-holed by its categories; you had Top 40, rock,
oldies, hip-hop etc. but in Southern California a new genre
was born, K-Rock music. Everyone called it that. We owned
certain bands: Duran, The Cure, The Smiths, New Order,
Depeche Mode, The Police, Tears for Fears, Talking Heads,
Missing Persons, Berlin, Oingo Boingo. If you went to a
record store and bought an album from one of those groups,
and many more, you were buying K-Rock music. It was a
phenomenon.
KROQ became an adjective. And it was
everywhere. Clubs all over LA and Orange County staged “KROQ
nights,” meaning that was the music you would hear if you
went there that evening. No other station in America had
that kind of influence or following and the record companies
knew it. There always seems to be a yin and yang in life and
even as the station soared and “Ramondo and Blade in the
Morning” hit new ratings heights, cracks started to appear.
Two years prior to my arrival at KROQ, Raymond had
been running an errand for the station. He was on his
motorbike heading to Perkins Palace in Pasadena to drop off
advertising copy when he was hit dead on in an intersection.
His bike spun off the road and Raymond was flung over the
hood of the car, but his foot caught in the radiator grill
and the jarring impact shattered multiple bones in his leg.
KROQ had no insurance coverage to offer Raymond, and
with no money himself he had to settle for his leg being put
in a cast and left to heal the best it could. Now, nearly
three years later, his limp was becoming worse every day as
the still-unhealed, jagged bones ground together causing him
excruciating pain. To deal with this daily agony Raymond
tried self-medicating. Unfortunately, his medicine came in a
six-pack.
As 1983 rolled on Raymond’s drinking
became worse and worse. Each morning he’d arrive in the
studio with a brown bag holding his Budweisers. At first I
was at a loss for what to say. He was obviously in pain, and
the alcohol wasn’t affecting his on-air performance, but I
knew it wasn’t right. When he moved from twelve-ounce cans
to sixteen-ouncers it reached the point where I had to do
something; I had to step in to help my friend. I had no
medical training so I went to a doctor who had just joined
the KROQ team to co-host the weekend show, “Loveline.” In
truth he hadn’t finished his medical training yet and was
still a resident but we all called him Dr. Drew.
I explained the situation to Drew the best I could and asked
for his advice. Drew told me that with those kinds of
multiple fractures caused by a traumatic injury being
improperly treated for so long, there was danger of numerous
complications which was probably why Raymond was in such
constant pain.
When I asked what a worst-case
scenario was, Drew looked at me and said three words, “Worst
case? Amputation.” I couldn’t bear the thought of my friend,
my partner on air, and the man who had willing shared with
me his amazing radio skills and impeccable timing possibly
losing his leg. The next day, after our show, I had a
serious talk with Raymond. I told him that from now on there
would be no alcohol in the control room and if he brought
any in there would be trouble. The next morning Raymond
showed up at the station in a shocking state, I had never
seen him that bad before. Rather than bring the alcohol into
the studio he’d sat in the parking lot out back and drank
it, all of it, one sixteen ounce can after another! He was
toasted. I couldn’t let him on the air like that, it
wouldn’t have been fair to the station, it wouldn’t have
been fair to me but most of all it wouldn’t have been fair
to Raymond.
I grabbed him by the shoulders and
walked him outside the small control room into the corridor.
He slumped to the ground and went straight to sleep. He
stayed like that throughout the duration of the show, even
as the staff arrived and the station came to life. After I
got off the air I marched Raymond into Pat Welsh’s
office and demanded that Raymond be given help.
Pat
listened intently and to Raymond’s and my surprise he
promised to take care of it. That morning marked an end and
a beginning. It was the beginning of Raymond’s long battle
to recover from that work-related injury that KROQ should
have taken care of years before. He first went through a
series of operations which required that his leg be broken
again, then pinned, reset and cast correctly. After that, he
was placed in rehab which he embraced with open arms.
But it marked the end of Ramondo and Blade. I was given
something I didn’t want, a chance to fly solo in the
mornings. If I’d had the choice I would have stayed
Raymond’s partner for my entire radio career. I can think of
no kinder, more talented, funnier person to have been
blessed to work with. But it was not just a career choice,
it was a matter of Raymond’s life. When Raymond returned to
the station almost six months later, he was a new man:
clean, sober and without even a trace of a limp. He was
given the afternoon show and a chance to have a real life. I
still talk with him often and refer to him as my Obi-Wan
Kenobi. But to millions of KROQ listeners he’ll always be
the anchor of the Ramondo and Blade show.
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BANOCZI,
Jack. KGGK; KNOB, 1966-87. Jack, co-owner of KNOB with his
wife Jeannette, passed away on May 22, 2020, in Palm Desert of
natural causes. He was 84. He was born in Cleveland on June 18, 1935. Jack served in the U.S. Navy from 1954 – 56 attaining the rank of Petty Officer 3rd Class. He settled in Southern California in 1958 and attended Santa Monica City College. In 1960, Jack married Jeannette Pennino and enjoyed over 50 years of marriage. In his younger years, Jack learned to play clarinet and tenor sax. Later in 1958, he formed the “Jack Banet Orchestra,” providing entertainment for numerous dances throughout Southern California until 1980. In 1961, Jack became the general manager/co-owner of radio station KGGK/fm in Garden Grove. Then in 1966, he became the gm and co-owner of KNOB/fm-Long Beach. Jack and Jeanette sold the station in 1987 for $15 million. In 1970, he added KXTZ-Las Vegas to his list followed by KCKC/AM and KBON/fm-San Bernardino in 1985. Jack’s broadcast career ended in 1989 with his acquisition of KUNA / KESQ Radio in Palm Desert which he ran for almost 10 years. Jack was also an active HAM radio operator (wb6gds) from 1962-69 and a licensed private pilot. He was both an avid golfer and crocheter. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced. |
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BANOCZI,
Jeannette:
KNOB,
1966-87. The former owner of KNOB built stations in Las
Vegas, KCKC-San Bernardino, KBON-Lake Arrowhead and KUNA AM&FM-Palm Desert.
She was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on January 21, 1922 and died
in Palm Desert, August 15, 1917. She was 95. Jeannette was the lead trumpet player with Phil Spitalny's world famous all-girl orchestra in 1938. She also played with the Ina Ray Hutton group. In 1961 she started her first radio station, KGGK-Garden Grove. In 1966 Jeannette acquired KNOB and sold it for $15 million in 1987. Her decision to finally relocate to California came after her coming to Hollywood to play in the movie When Johnny Comes Marching Home. She and her husband Jack eventually owned seven radio stations in Southern California and Las Vegas. Jeannette knew how important music was to children, as she first picked up the horn at age 10. So, in 1995 she founded the Buddy Rogers Youth Symphony. She wanted to expand children's music even further and in 1997, formed the Beginning String Conservatory where paid musicians would teach beginning students free of charge. To this day, thousands of children have come through the Symphony doors. |
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BARABINO, Barbara: KFOX. Barbara hosted a Reggae music show during much of the 80s. She is by far the queen of female promoters in Los Angeles that span three decades on the reggae music scene. After KFOX succumbed to the new ownership, she continued on in her reggae mission by producing/promoting SoCal reggaemusic concerts; in particular, the annual Bob Marley Day event. She called her entity for live music events "Raggamuffins Productions." She also was an L.A. County exec in the realm of child services. She is now retired. |
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BARAJAS,
Larry: KNX, 1998-2015. Before joining the KNX traffic team,
Larry was an airborne reporter for Shadow Broadcast Services
in San Diego. He went to work for Total Traffic. Larry's career started back in 1981, when he attended UCLA and studied recording engineering. After doing some studio work as a recording engineer, and several years of road work as a soundman, Larry left the music business and had careers as a paralegal and computer programmer. Larry returned to radio in 1990 as a radio personality and has worked for numerous radio stations in the California market. |
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BARBER,
Andy: KROQ, 1974; KTNQ, 1978; KWST, 1981-82.
In 2020, Andy retired from mornings at KBEZ-Tulsa ending a 50+ year
radio career. Barber was a staple in Tulsa mornings since the early
1990s with stints at KHTT, KIZS, KQLL, and KJSR before joining KBEZ
in 2013. The pre-Tulsa career for Barber dotted the country with stops in Wichita, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Seattle, Spokane, Los Angeles, Portland, Houston, Jacksonville, Salt Lake City, and Louisville. |
Barber, Jerry: KLOS/KABC, 1972-83. Jerry now works for Disney ABC in Hollywood in the "on air promo department" for the ABC/TV network.
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BARBERIE, Jillian:
KABC, 2015-19. Jillian, former co-host of Good Day LA and NFL Pre-Game weather
girl with Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long, joined KABC for middays with
John Phillips. In January 2015, the pair
moved to afternoon drive. Jillian and John were working morning drive until a
massive downsizing and she left at the end of 2019. Jillian spent 18 years at Channel 11’s Good Day LA with Steve Edwards and Dorothy Lucey. When she left GDLA, Jillian said: “There are many theories out there. I’ve definitely shared the truth,” said Jillian. She said she loved what she did. “I would have stayed. I would have taken a pay cut. It wasn’t about money. They told me they wanted to put me out in the field a couple of days a week. Wasn’t sure if they meant out to pasture. They said they were going a different route. I told them the news was becoming a dinosaur and that we were all about big social media and that we should do Twitter and I told them I could help them do that and bridge the gap. They said, ‘nope.’ So I decided to walk away and it was very hard for me. That show is horrible now.” Regular viewers to Good Day LA on KTTV/Channel 11 knew that Jillian loved radio. She was always quoting from something Howard Stern said. “When she talks about radio and Howard, Jillian lights up like a Christmas tree,” said John about his broadcasting partner. “She knows more about the radio industry than she does about tv, which is odd considering she made her career in tv. She follows it very closely.” Jillian was very open about her breast cancer in 2018, which had spread to her lymph node,” she wrote on social media. She underwent a double mastectomy to combat the cancer. “To be honest, I just want the boobs gone and the cancer outta me. Then tackle the lymph node. But hey I’m no expert,’ said Jillian. “And all I can think is dammit. I should have done Playboy while I had those beauties." Canadian born Barberie was busy with tv in Montreal and Quebec after completing her diploma. She had tv roles in Clueless, VIP, Melrose Place, and several CBS comedies series Yes,Dear and MADtv. |
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BARD,
Adrienne: KNX, 2007-10. Adrienne was a reporter for KNX and is based in
Mexico City. When news is breaking in Latin America Adrienne is there for
CBS Radio. One reason is it's in her "back yard." Her beat extends to the U.S.-Mexican border where she has reported on illegal immigration, drug trafficking, tainted produce, the maquiladora industry and the Ciudad Juarez murders. Bard earned a Masters Degree in journalism at Columbia University (M.S. 1985) and studied both Journalism and History at the University of California, Berkeley (dual B.A.’s 1980). She speaks fluent Spanish and has studied French, Hebrew and Italian. Adrienne is married with three children. |
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BARKLEY, Roger:
KLAC, 1961-67; KFWB,
1967-68; KFI, 1968-86; KJOI, 1986-89;
KABC, 1990-96. Roger was part of the iconic morning
team of Lohman & Barkley. Roger passed away
December 21, 1997, after a short battle with cancer. He was 61. Roger grew up in Odebolt, Iowa, and dreamed of being either a radio announcer or preacher. "I guess the ham in me needed to have a stage." After high school he attended the American Institute of the Air in Minnesota and was a page boy at WCCO-Minneapolis. He started his radio career at KYSM-Mankato, Minnesota. Two years later he was pd at KSUM-Fairmont, Minnesota. He moved on to KALL-Salt Lake City. Roger served in the U.S. Army and returned to the microphone at KBOX-Dallas followed by KIMN-Denver. As director of programs at KLAC, Roger hired Al Lohman for the morning show. When the station was sold to Metromedia, the new owners began a search for a two-man morning team. "We figured we were all going to be fired so Al and I thought perhaps we should do the morning show as a team. this way we could buy some time to look for another job." The partnership lasted a quarter of a century. During the 1990s, Roger teamed with Ken Minyard for mornings at KABC. |
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BARKER, Bruce:
KCAQ, 1988-93; KPLS, 1993-2000;
KKLA/KRLA/KFSH, 2000-02. Since 2002, Bruce
has been a voiceover artist and owner of RightAfterThis.com, a tv and radio
production studio. Bruce’s radio career began in 1975 with a gig in television. While in high school he was the cameraman for the evening news in a small fishing village near Alaska’s west coast. At KYUK-Fairbanks AM/TV combo, he was a board-op before getting his own shifts while attending the attending the University of Alaska. He hosted game shows and news programs. In 1987 he moved to a much weather climate in Glendora and began commuting to Q-105 (KCAQ, now “Q-104.7”) in Oxnard. After four years working evenings and as the production director, he moved to KPLS-Orange. Originally Spanish New/Talk “La Voz” (“The Voice”), KPLS was changing formats in early 1993, and needed one person to do production, on-air, and operations work. “The owners had discovered the dubious wonders of automation.” The new format was Minneapolis-based Childrens Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio AAHS. “This was a not-much-sleep period, as I was still full-time at KCAQ for a few weeks as well.” Soon KPLS was fully staffed, the AAHS Network was up to 32 stations, and Bruce was named network ops-manager for the West Coast. In the summer of 1995, he was back on the air with his own show, broadcasting nationally from Disneyland. In 2020, Bruce won an award for Best Film Noir Short (They Don't Scare Easily) at the After Hour Film Festival |
Barnard, Bill: KBLA, 1966. Unknown as to the whereabouts of the KBLA newsman.
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BARNES, Brenda:
KUSC,
1997-2017. Brenda was
the general manager and president at KUSC. In 2017, Brenda took over Classical KING/fm 98.1 in Seattle. “I have been at the helm of the USC Radio Group for 20 years,” emailed Brenda. “I have known this time was coming for several years and have been planning to announce my departure when the organization was very strong. It has never been stronger, so this summer I made the very difficult decision to retire from USC at the end of this year. Within a few days I received a call from the search committee of the Classical station in Seattle looking for a new ceo. After meeting with them it was clear I could make a contribution there, so I accepted their offer to lead KING/fm, and I will begin in January. It was the perfect next chapter for me: an opportunity to make a positive impact on a great station in an incredible city.” Brenda thinks it is the right decision for her. “It is difficult to leave a great job working with and for outstanding people within the USC Radio Group and USC. I will miss it more than I can say. My husband will continue to be here so we are keeping our house and I will come back weekends.” USC is in the process of putting together a plan for the search, but they will definitely do a nationwide search for the next President of the USC Radio Group. |
Barnes, Clarence: KIIS, 1999-2006; KMVN, 2006-09. Clarence joined the Rick Dees morning show at Movin' 93.9/fm in the fall of 2006 and left in early 2009 with a format flip to Spanish. He was program director at KKUU-Palm Springs until late summer 2013.
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(Jodi Becker, Jaime Barragan)
Barnes, Jeff: KCXX, 1999-2002. Jeff worked
all-night at the Inland Empire station.
Barnes, Hoss: KBBQ, 1968-71. Hoss
has his own ministry called Encouragement in Christ. At Country KBBQ, Bill
Strickland was known as Hoss Barnes. He left radio in 1972 to join the
ministry. “We have our own ministry and the Lord has supplied all our needs
even in difficult days,” emailed Hoss. “We have traveled the world and have
friends in many countries. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not
to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct
your paths - Proverbs 3:5-6. These are the days to increase your trust in
Jesus!”
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BARNETT, Russ:
XTRA, 1960-62; KMPC, 1963-72;
KABC, 1972-73. Russ worked at KLIF-Dallas and when
Gordon McLendon (owner of KLIF) turned XTRA into the
world’s first all-News station in 1960, he tapped Russ
as manager for the launch. On New Years Day 1963 Russ joined KMPC as pd and was named Program Director of the Year by Gavin. "From the time I was a young guy, I felt that if I could go on the air and add a few smiles to the lives of my listeners through my rather corny sense of humor and make enough money to support my family, I’d be well pleased with my contribution to life. Know what? I am." At his memorial, the Count Basie band played in honor of Russ. Russ died October 16, 1998, at the age of 69. |
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BARNHART, Brian:
KMPC/KRLA/KLAC, 1998-99.
Brian was part of the Anaheim Angels broadcast team. He's now the play-by-play
voice of the University of Illinois football and basketball teams.
As a youngster growing up in the Midwest, Brian’s father took him to see the University of Illinois basketball games. Thirty years later, his father still sits in the same seat. Brian goes to all the games but now has a different seat. He’s in the press box calling the action as the “Voice of the Illini,” carried on 45 stations throughout the Midwest. Not only does he do football for the University of Illinois but he also calls men’s basketball for the school. But we know Brian as the two-season play-by-play voice for the Anaheim Angels during the 1998 – 99 seasons. How he got here to be the Angels broadcaster with Mario Impemba is a wonderful story of patience, tenacity and a lot of luck. And his audition process is something you’ve never heard before. A native of Tolono, Illinois, Barnhart graduated from Unity High School and Liberty University where he broadcast many of the sporting events. His exposure to the world of sports offered by his father spawned the idea of becoming a broadcaster. He paid his dues. Brian served as the play-by-play voice of the Lynchburg Mets and Salem Buccaneers before moving up to the Oklahoma City 89ers, the Class AAA affiliate of the Texas Rangers, from 1988 – 94. Barnhart then did high school football and other sports play-by-play for 11 years. He was also the voice for Oklahoma Baptist basketball from 1992 – 94 and Oklahoma City Blazers minor league hockey in 1993. From 1996 – 98, he handled news, sports and play-by-play at WWLS in Oklahoma City. |
In 1997, Brian started the process of sending out audition tapes. He felt that a half-dozen years with triple A baseball had prepared him well, so he was ready for the major leagues. Brian was interviewed in Dallas for an opening with the Texas Rangers and ironically, the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. “I used to be in close touch with Mark Holtz, who used to do the Rangers and passed away a few years ago,” said Barnhart by phone from his office at the University of Illinois. “He gave me some critiques and advice. He said, ‘You’re a big league guy and you’re going to make it.’ That was a big encouragement. He said my delivery style was conversational and he said that was a hard thing to learn to do. So I’ve always tried to be aware of that no matter what sport I was doing. I wanted to be sure the listener was comfortable with me on the air. And it was always important to be giving the score and what stage of the game we’re in and what inning was being played. It was a good reminder from him that people are always tuning in and out of a game all the time.”
After an onslaught of tapes were sent to major league ball teams, the Angels gave Brian a call in February of 1998. “Bob Starr had been ill the summer before and Mario, who is now in Detroit, had been handling much of the load by himself,” Brian remembered. “Starr told the ballclub that he wouldn’t be back for the ’98 season. They went through a lot of tapes in a hurry. I didn’t know that I had sent one specifically to the Angels but I knew I sent a bunch of tapes out.”
Angel exec Andy Roundtree called Brian and invited him to Anaheim for an interview. Apparently Brian’s tape was the best of the 100 audition tapes. “When I got on the plane to California it really helped me to have already gone through the interview process in Dallas the year before. I knew kind of what to expect when I got there and the type of questions that might ask, knowing that if I didn’t get it I would just stay in Oklahoma City and continue to keep sending out tapes. But I did feel comfortable as I anticipated a Major League interview.” Yet the interview/audition process took the most bizarre turn. Brian flew into John Wayne Airport in Orange County and was picked up by an Angels staff member. He was taken to the then-Doubletree Hotel near the stadium, off the 57 Freeway.
“I wasn’t nervous but I was excited about meeting everyone the next day.” The next morning there was a ‘FanFest’ going on at the Angels Stadium parking lot with many booths, games and activities. One of the activities was a trailer where a fan could go inside, sit in front of a monitor and microphone, put on earphones to hear the roar of the crowd and call the play. After calling the play, the fan got a tape of his play-by-play as a souvenir. The play they had on the screen was Jim Edmunds who made an unbelievable over-the-shoulder catch in center field against Kansas City. That was the play the fans got to describe.
“Andy Roundtree stood in front of the trailer and said, ‘This may be your audition. Go for it.’” Now Brian is standing in line with a bunch of pimple-faced young kids with baseball caps on backwards and Brian is in a jacket and tie. “I sit down and put on these little headphones and thought, ‘here goes.’ I've called a lot of plays in my minor league career in my life. I’m used to it. I got it done, nailed it and they really got the excitement that I would bring. I think it was a test to see how I would do under pressure. When I got done all these people were looking at me like, ‘Who’s that?’”
Roundtree and Angels president Tony Tavares huddled outside the trailer and Brian saw Tony tell Andy to hire him. “Did I just see him say what he said? I think there were a couple of things going on. They already heard my tape and they wanted to meet me in person before they made a hire, and after they heard me in the trailer they knew I had enough experience to do the job. It was the most unusual interview I’d ever been involved with.” They offered Brian a two-year contract. He had no agent but he had been pursuing a Major League job for a lot of years. They were in a hurry and the money they offered Brian worked for him. “I didn’t know what a typical play-by-play guy made at this level but I knew it was more than I was making at the time, which was $2,500 a month for Triple A ball and that was for eight months out of the year. I was very grateful for the opportunity.”
Brian was named Sportscaster of the Year in Illinois for 2008 by the Illinois Broadcasters Association, as well as the 2007 “Silver Dome Award for Best Sports Play-by-Play’ for his call of Illinois’ football upset of #1 Ohio State. The Sportscaster of the Year Award was just the second awarded to a downstate Illinois broadcaster since 1959 by the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. The others have all been from Chicago: Pat Hughes (Cubs radio) and Len Kasper (Cubs tv) were the other two finalists this year.
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BARON,
Buddy: KEZY, 1975-76. Born John Mullin September
30, 1949 and raised in Jacksonville, Buddy used the moniker "B.B."
only at KEZY. In 1968, he got his first radio job doing weekends for $2 an hour. Stationed at NAS Atlanta in 1969 he worked part-time in local radio. Released from the Navy in 1972, Buddy landed a three-year job at WSAI-Cincinnati. In 1975 he joined mornings at KEZY, but in 1976 a new program director fired the entire airstaff. Buddy then went to KIMN-Denver doing mornings as "Lee Randall." He then moved back to Atlanta to a disappointing string of jobs, but arrived in San Francisco in the late 70's to do afternoon drive at “The Big 610 KFRC.” Fans remember him as J.B.Baron and for his occasional guest hosting duties for Dr. Don Rose. In 1980, Buddy returned to mornings in Florida at WYNF-Tampa. The regional program director in those days was Randy Michaels. Buddy recalls going through the competition's trash with Randy at three in the morning and discovering the details of their upcoming fall promotion. In 1981, WYNF flipped to album rock and Buddy headed to afternoon drive at KOPA-Phoenix. In 1983 he took over middays on Dallas AC station, KVIL He met and married his wife, Pat in 1985. In August of that year Buddy moved to mornings when WWNK-Cincinnati doubled his KVIL salary. Buddy spent two years at WWNK. In 1989 Buddy returned to San Francisco to host the morning show at country KSAN, posting the highest ratings in that station's Country music history. Buddy has provided his comedy writing to Phyllis Diller, Jay Leno and the Premiere Radio Networks. He lives in Las Vegas. |
Baron, George: KSRF,
1965-71. George was the original general manager of the Santa Monica-based station.
He died November 14, 1997 at the age of 72. K-SURF had gone on the air at
103.1/fm in 1960 with a Beautiful Music format, broadcasting from a tower at
Pacific Ocean Park, an amusement park located on the Santa Monica Pier. The
station eventually switched to adult contemporary. In 1967, Baron hired Jerry
Hahn, who had been working at KLFM (now KBUE) in Long Beach. Baron had an
exhaust fan installed in the broadcast booth so Hahn didn't have to give up
smoking cigars while on the air. Baron's son Craig began working at KSRF in
the mid-'70s and eventually took over management.
Barone, Don: KIEV, 1972. Unknown.
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BARONFELD, David:
KLAA,
2011-14. David was the general manager at the Angels' flagship station, KLAA.
He left the station in June 2014. In early 2020, he became market
manager/gm of Pacific Media Group/Oahu. Baronfeld, a graduate of Hofstra University, began his radio career at the age of 18 in New York City and moved into sales at 27. At age 34, he was appointed to his first senior management position as gm at KSJO-San Jose. He went on to spend nearly 10 years at Westwood One as Senior Vice President of the Western Region, overseeing 19 cities in the western half of the United States. For three years before joining KLAA, Baronfeld served as general manager of Viamedia, a cable television ad sales rep firm, and built the advertising sales unit for Verizon FiOS TV in Southern California. |
Barragan, Jaime: KYMS, 1993-95; KOLA, 1995-97. In 1992, Jaime started as an intern at K-EARTH.
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BARRERA,
Tessa: KFI 2018-19. Tessa was a news anchor at KFI
for a year before leaving to go to Houston as a morning show
sidekick at KTBZ (94.5 The Buzz). She also previously worked at KZTV/KRIS where she was the first Latina sports anchor in South Texas, covering the Astro's minor league affiliate, Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Texas A&M Kingsville. |
Barreto, Pepe: KALI, 1977-85; KLVE, 1985-2001; KXOL, 2004-07. Pepe anchored the very successful Spanish morning drive slot on "K-Love." Born in 1947 to Peruvian parents, he and his wife moved to California in 1972 and started as a dj in San Francisco. He came to the Southland in 1985 to work at KLVE and KVEA/Channel 52. Pepe works mornings at KXOL. He received a Star on Hollywood in Spring of 2004.
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BARRETT,
Dickie: KDLD/KDLE, 2005-06. Dickie, the announcer on the ABC Jimmy Kimmel
Show, started doing mornings at "Indie 103.1fm" in late January 2005.
He left in the spring of 2006. The Rhode Island-native gained fame for his raspy vocals and catchy lyrics as the frontman for the successful ska band, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. They had a big hit in 1997 with their single, The Impression That I Get. It landed at the top of the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks list and led the way for the album, Let's Face It. Dicky has shared the stage from the beginning of the Bosstones with Tim Burton (AKA Johnny Vegas) on the horns, Joe Gittleman slapping the bass and Ben Carr as the dancer and backup vocals. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones continue to play together and released the album, While We're At It, back in 2018. |
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BARRETT,
Don: KIQQ, 1971-74. As publisher of LARadio.com,
Don chronicled radio news and lists 6,000 people in Los Angeles who
work or have worked in radio in the past 60+ years. Barrett is a
historian of contemporary Los Angeles radio history and author of
Los Angeles Radio People, published in 1994. He published a
second volume of the book a year later, along with the launch of a
daily website column. The website ended publication on October 5,
2020. In 2013, he started as the radio columnist for the Orange County Register. Barrett's Southern California roots (Santa Monica) include a bachelor's degree from Chapman University (Man of the Year, 1964). He also earned a master's in psychology. He spent 10 years in radio working as a disc jockey, program director, national program director (Gordon McLendon Corp) and general manager (W4-Detroit and WDRQ-Detroit). He launched KIQQ (K-100) Los Angeles in the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s Don joined the motion picture business, working as a marketing executive at Columbia, Universal, and MGM/UA. Barrett was part of the marketing team that released E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Back to the Future, Thelma and Louise, Rocky and James Bond movies. He also represented a number of films at the Cannes Film Festival. He was the first recipient of TALKERS Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award. Don has been honored with an honorary Golden Mike and Special Recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists. |
Barrett, John: KRLA, 1961-69. John was partnered with Norm Epstein in a travel-related marketing firm.
BARRETT,
Rona: KFWB, 1985; KABC. Rona
was more than a gossip
columnist who appeared regularly on
Good Morning America
and later The Today Show
as an entertainment reporter, she was one of the most feared woman in
the industry. Anne Helen Petersen recently wrote an in-depth profile of
Barrett at
BuzzFeed.
"At the peak of her powers — back in the mid-’70s, when she was
essentially practicing therapy on stars while millions watched — Rona
Barrett drove around Hollywood in a Rolls-Royce with a license plate
that read MS RONA, the nickname she’d picked up when she first started
delivering Hollywood tidbits at the end of the
ABC Evening News." She
also dispensed entertainment reports on KFWB and KABC during the 70s and
80s.
Rona moved to
the Santa Ynez Valley (think Chumash Casino/Solvang) in the 1980s and
started The Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated
to the aid and support of senior citizens.The Grand
Opening of the Golden Inn & Village, which was inspired by her father,
Harry. The next phase is dedicated to the construction of "Harry's House
- A Home for Memory Care and Assisted Living." In her fundraising
literature: "Sixty rooms in all, with meals, activities and an extensive
menu of enriching programs. This care residency will have its
architecture, exterior spaces and landscape aligned with our senior
Independent Living campus."
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BARRI,
Barbara: KZLA, 1979-93. Barbara had quite the Southern
California career – radio, tv and announcing. You may best remember
Barbara from her years at Country KZLA. She had a long run from 1979
to 1993. She bought a community radio station in the East Hampton,
New York. When her parents died two months apart, she decided to buy
their house and return to her roots where she was born. “I tried
everywhere to get a job in L.A. and all I got was, ‘We’ve got our
female on the air,’ or that I was too well known from Country music
so I wouldn’t fit their format,” said Barbara. “When my parents
passed away suddenly I just couldn’t pass up on this house. I am in
the middle of the woods. Every morning there are about a half dozen
deer outside my door waiting for some food. I live on a little lake
in Southampton and my driveway is 100 yards long to the road. I just
couldn’t pass up living here.” Barbara sold her house in Burbank and is now engrained into the community of her early youth. “I tried doing voice work for a group in Oregon, Nevada, and Tennessee, but it just never panned out in order to make a living at it. In 2003, we started working on this radio project with our congressman.” Barbara’s community is closer to Connecticut than it is New York City. She landed and launched her radio career near Cape Canaveral at WCKS-Cocoa Beach and WLOF-Orlando. After a brief stop at WLEE-Richmond in 1978, she joined KZLA. "During the next 15 years I saw 2 locations, 3 sets of call letters, 3 corporate owners, 4 formats, 5 general managers, 11 program directors [I stopped counting the morning men], 3 shifts and I never changed jobs.” During this time at KZLA, Barbara hosted Top 40 Videos on KCOP/Channel 13 and was the announcer on the syndicated Singles Magazine tv show. She left the station after the combo sale with KLAC. |
Barry, Bill: KMPC, KZLA; KOST; KGIL, 1984-92. Bill hosted The Channel 5 Theatre on KTLA from 1971 to 1981 and the weekly Pinbusters show. Bill was a reporter with Shadow Traffic in Los Angeles at the time of his death in October 29, 1993, following a brief illness. He was 50.
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BARRY,
Lee: KRLA/KTIE, 2007-19. Lee reported overnight traffic and news at KRLA until 2019. Born in Glendale, he grew up in the San
Fernando Valley listening to Top 40 KHJ and KRLA in the 60s.
“At age 14 I experienced true culture shock when my parents
left L.A and all that great radio for the redwoods of
northern California,” remembered Lee. In the redwoods he
could only hear one local AM station, nothing on fm and
“just a bunch of static wafting out of a very distant San
Francisco.” After high school in Willits, Lee attended college at Humboldt State University as a Radio/TV/Mass Communications major with a minor in Journalism. He started working at the college station, KHSC/fm in Arcata before getting his first commercial radio job as a 17-year-old weekend jock at KINS-AM & FM in Eureka. Following a stint in the Navy, Lee obtained a First-Class FCC license from the Bill Ogden Radio Operational Engineering School, which helped him get a morning anchor gig at all-News KARM in Fresno. He went on to work for the NBC News/Information Service and eventually a station in San Luis Obispo, and then to make ends meet he joined the airlines industry where he spent 21 years. Then came 9/11. Lee was caught up in the massive airline layoffs after the 2001 terror attacks. In 2007 he answered an ad for a Traffic Producer job at Airwatch, computer skills and radio experience preferred. “I could do that! Within a few months, after a 27-year absence from radio, I was on the air again with a weekend news shift on Salem's KRLA(870 AM), doing fill-in work the rest of the week.” He did that for over a decade. He's now retired. |
Barry, Thom: KLAC, 1987-93. Thom is a successful on-camera commercial actor.
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BARTEL, Dennis:
KUSC, 1975-80; KUSC, 2007-17. Dennis, aka James Bartel, worked mornings at KUSC, after fourteen
years on-air at WGMS-Washington, DC. He stepped down at KUSC after
being diagnosed with State 2 Parkinson's. “Beethoven had no use for critics. “Beethoven even wrote letters to the newspapers deriding critics,” said Dennis. “He felt that critics do a disservice more often than not. I guess I feel the same. We’re not talking about individual critics, I’m sure they take their work seriously and do the very best they can, but we’re talking about the very act itself. The act of criticism seemed to Beethoven harmful in some ways. One person’s red meat is another person’s cow dung. I think people should be left to decide for themselves on a work of art. Beethoven seemed to think the same thing. Previously he was the founding program director and an on-air personality at WJHU-Baltimore (1986-1990), and dj at WQED-Pittsburgh. His book of short stories Voyeurs was published in 2006. It contains two stories set at radio stations. His second book, High’d Up, was published in 2015. |
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BARTH, Paul:
KWIZ, 1971-74. Paul founded Hunter Barth
Advertising in Newport Beach. In the mid nineties, the firm was
acquired by its management team and is now known as Orange Label Art
+ Advertising. It remains the longest-standing, privately held
advertising agency in Southern California. Paul continues to consult with the firm and participate in selected client relationships, according to LinkedIn. Paul owned two radio stations in Redding. After six years of profitable operation both stations were sold with a solid return on investment. Paul then began to devote full time to his passion - helping business owners grow their companies into market leaders. Paul works with business owners and management teams to focus on critical problem-solving and identifying strategic growth areas. He also regularly conducts workshops on leadership and change facilitation. |
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BARTHOLOMEW,
Casey: KFI, 1994-99. Casey and Scott Hasick
were partners at KFI and worked mornings at KTRS-St. Louis until the
Spring of 2006. In the summer of 2021, Casey was named program
director at KFRU-Columbia, MO. He's now working at WBAP-Dallas/Ft.
Worth. Casey is a versatile Talker who works fill-in and emergency host for dozens of radio stations around the country. He was the program director for WFSX 92-5 Fox News, in Fort Myers, Florida. In 2008, he responded to a LARadio questionairre on how to make radio better. "I worked for one of the most successful talk radio stations in the country (New Jersey 101.5), and there is not one, single syndicated show on the station. I’m not saying that syndicated shows are bad. They aren't. If you’re running a talk station and you can get Rush Limbaugh, you take him. But, it used to be that you would have one, maybe two syndicated shows, and the rest of your day was local. Now it’s the other way around. If you had a major, local issue wouldn't it be better to have someone living in the area, knowledgeable about what was happening, going on your airwaves? Or, would you rather have someone 3,000 miles away who MIGHT reference it, in passing, just to keep some affiliates happy?" |
Bartley,
Dick. Dick hosts a number of syndicated Oldies programs.
Bass, Dick: KMPC, 1976-87. Last heard, the
former Ram running back was the customer relations executive
for a trucking firm, ICX.
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BASTIDA, Don: Don
was director of ops at TotalTraffic for Clear Channel until the spring of
2012. He pursued a career as a screenwriter/producer. He went on to work at Entercom
(now Audacy)
at KCBS Radio, San Francisco. He manages the Traffic Operation. "I miss
Southern California but it's nice to be close to my parents," texted
Don. On leaving the Southland, Bastida sent the following note: 'Dear Friends: I’m reaching out to you in the spirit of networking. As you know me, you know that I’m also a writer and in recent years I have been making short films. Don’s father was a butcher and meat cutter for over 40 years. Don's parents never quite understood why their son didn’t get a job that would take him to retirement. But since then, they have been supportive. The fact of the matter is, the world has flattened out and has been turned upside down. And once you think about it, you only get about 25,000 days on earth. How do you want to spend these days? |
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BASTIEN, Brian: KPOL; KFWB, 1968-77; KBIG/KBRT, 1977-80; KFWB, 1980-83. Brian has an active voiceover career and he teaches karate. Brian was a longtime respected news anchor at KFWB. He joined KBIG to oversee a new public affairs department. In 1983 Brian embarked on a free-lance career. For many years he was the voice of Murata Pearls and Martin Cadillac. |
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BATCHELOR,
John:
KFI, 2008-09; KABC,
2009-10. John's
syndicated show was carried on KFI Sunday nights until late 2009. He was heard
briefly on weekend nights at KABC. He's still in syndication, based at
WABC-New York. For seven decades he didn’t smoke, drink, or otherwise partake in dangerous behavior, according to the Princeton Alumni Weekly. "So when Batchelor was diagnosed in October 2018 with oropharyngeal cancer — more specifically, a malignant tumor at the base of the radio host’s tongue that threatened his ability to speak on air — it came as a shock. Cancer meant surgery and radiation, fatigue, and changes to his distinctive voice — maybe even no voice at all." In November, John entered Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for surgery. He opted to walk into the operating room, through the maze of identical corridors, rather than ride a gurney. Batchelor said he wasn’t scared until noticing a massive chart detailing his case for doctors as he lay down for surgery." He awoke to find the surgery a success. Next came six weeks of radiation therapy. By the end of the six weeks, Batchelor’s voice was ragged. Batchelor is now encouraging middle-aged men to have themselves checked for the largely symptomless cancer caused by HPV, the human papillomavirus. |
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BAUER,
Jacque: KWIZ, 1980-82; KIQQ, 1981-82;
KBRT, 1982. Jacque was 18 years old when she
started the late evening shift on KWIZ. She later went to work for a
Christian record label, returning to her home in Denver. She spent a
year in South Bend working for a promotion company. "I wanted to check in and say thank you for the mention about my amazing broadcasting years in Hollywood and other stations," Jacque wrote in the summer of 2021. "I was in South Bend for a stint for one year at WHME/Pulse FM in 1996 and then I went to Colorado Springs and worked at a station there. In 2000, Jacque changed careers and started working full time in the mental health field. "I’m currently in Tampa and I am now a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, LMHC, with my own private practice, 'Get Psyched Behavioral Health Services.' My current website is www.getpsychedtoday.com. I value the broadcaster’s I worked with through the years. Working with the top voices in Hollywood, Bruce Chandler, Tony St. James, Jay Coffey and Jim Carson at KIQQ will always the best of my professional broadcasting career," concluded Jacqueline Bauer Gibb |
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BAUGH, Jeff:
KFWB,
1986-2008; KNX, 2008-17; KFI, 2017-23. Jeff was an airborne traffic reporter at
all-News KNX until the Spring of 2017 when he joined KFI. He co-authored,
Stick With Us & We'll Get You There. Baugh wrote about the world of traffic reporting: "We could all do a lot better. We're that little part of the “clock” or show that has been in need of a makeover for a long time. Now… more that ever! The ties between business, family time, anxiety, quality of life and traffic are undeniable. As broadcasters, we must have credibility with our audience. If what we say is not true, why in the world should they stay tuned? The audience is clearly defined. Television can help the person still at home or office and about to drive. Radio speaks to the person who is already in the vehicle driving, or perhaps just about to leave. The two require specific language. Let's break new ground. Let's try new “traffic language.” Let's improve our game. Get off the incident. Tell our audiences how to get around the problem. Understand our audiences. One of the most astonishing things an airborne reporter can watch, is every on-ramp jammed with drivers trying to get on a section of freeway that has been closed for an hour. We need to do a better job. We need to throw out the old traffic jargon and think "traffic reporting." We can all do a lot better. |
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BAXTER,
Danny: KDAY; KRLA, 1964-65; KHJ,
1968; KGBS, 1969.
At KRLA his sports show was called "Inside the KRLA Book," which
offered sports predictions and sports commentary. Off-the-air, his
colleagues marveled at what a marvelous handicapper Danny was,
especially at baseball. He was sports director
of KHJ's 20/20 News. Born June 26, 1924, Danny’s parents gave him up at birth and he lived in a Jewish orphanage until the age of 5. “I was boarded out to a family in the Bronx, where I spent most of the time down the street with his best friend, Milton Nadworney, and his family,” remembered Danny. “Milton had two brothers and one sister and they were all attorneys who constantly encouraged and corrected my speech, until I spoke perfect English.” At 14, Danny was taken out of school by his mother and put to work in a factory making dinner trays for inmates at Sing Sing Prison. He never made it to high school. At 18, hoping to be a baseball player, he joined a White Sox minor league camp, but he was cut as a player. Danny decided to become an umpire in the minor leagues and he did that for a couple of years. “I took a course in baseball business management at Florida Southern Institute,” said Danny. “While there, I was ‘discovered’ and went to Idaho Falls, Idaho, to announce minor league baseball games.” He went on to call games in Newport News, Virginia, Columbus, Ohio, and he worked as a dj in Detroit between baseball seasons. In 1960, when the California Angel franchise began, Danny worked hard to become part of the broadcast team, but was ultimately disappointed that he wasn’t signed. He was hired to write a baseball handicapping column for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. |
| Later that year, he joined KDAY, doing
double duty as a dj and sports commentator. “I talked the station
manager into hiring Tom Clay who was in Detroit.
They also brought in Alan Freed and we also had
Art Laboe in the afternoon. Two years later I
joined KRLA. While at KRLA, a poll conducted by the
Herald-Examiner showed me in a close second place behind
Vin Scully as the most popular L.A. sportscaster,”
remembered Danny. At KRLA his sports show was called “Inside the KRLA Book,” which offered sports predictions and sports commentary. Off-the-air, his colleagues marveled what a marvelous handicapper Danny was, especially at baseball. “I credit ‘Emperor Bob’ Hudson for making a large contribution to whatever popularity I attained while at KRLA because Hudson was constantly talking with me about his knowledge of baseball – the game and its history.” Danny went on to work for KGBS, KHJ, KLAC, KFOX, and KHJ/Channel 9. He slowed down in 1982 following open heart surgery. Danny’s formal sports background began with his graduation from George Barr’s National League School for Umpires, according to a KHJ sales sheet. While a faculty member at New York City’s Cambridge School of Broadcasting, Danny originated and taught a sportscaster’s curriculum that covered all major American sports. Danny has umpired professional baseball throughout the South. His sports broadcasting credits include baseball play-by-play in Idaho radio, football play-by-play in Virginia and Ohio, and three years of radio coverage of the entire Southern California sports scene. Danny was living in Las Vegas when he died in August 2010, at the age of 86. |
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BAXTER,
Dennis: KCAA, 2004-09. Dennis left morning drive at the Inland Empire station,
KCAA, in 2009. He also worked as news anchor and in his final year was
general manager. He is now producing and narrating Audiobooks for Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. "I loved old radio theater of the mind and felt I missed it's heyday in the 1930's and 40's. Born to late, I thought, but hey what's old is new again and that is what's happening with audiobooks. Acting the parts of several characters, not just reading. Funny how the world goes round." |
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BAXTER, Ed:
KROQ: KMPC; KIIS.
The award-winning
journalist can be heard on Bloomberg Best, featuring the best
stories of the day from Bloomberg Radio and Bloomberg Television.
Ed is a member of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame. He spent most of his career as anchor/host of the morning and afternoon news programs on KGO-San Francisco. Along the way he substituted for Paul Harvey on his News and Comment program which at the time was the world’s number one rated radio program. Baxter was his main substitute from 1993-2000. He has won over 50 national, regional and local awards for all facets of news. This includes winning the Edward R. Murrow award for best newscast in the country. Baxter has experience doing technology and consumer news on radio and tv as well as early career jobs in news, talk, and disc jockey in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Atlanta. He and his family reside in the San Francisco Bay Area. |
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BAXTER,
Frank: KRLA. Frank headed "Oak Knoll Broadcasting," the non-profit group
that operated KRLA between licenses. During the 1950s, the professor of English at USC, produced Shakespeare on TV, which won seven Emmy Awards. He starred on a PBS series as "Dr. Science," explaining science to children. Frank was a news commentator for many years in Los Angeles. He starred on a PBS series as “Dr. Science,” explaining science to children. In the sixties and seventies, Professor John Russell conducted a nationally acclaimed television program on astronomy and Professor Frank Baxter's tv sessions on Shakespeare were "must watch" at about the same time. Less well known, perhaps, following World War II, and for decades thereafter, were many offerings in a variety of programs, both on and off campus. He died on January 18, 1982. He was 85. |
Baxter, Gene: KROQ, 1990-2019. Gene, as Bean, is part of the Kevin & Bean morning team at KROQ. In the spring of 2019, Bean announced he was leaving to live in England.
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BAYLEY,
Lee: KIQQ, 1978-80, pd. If you grew up in Tulsa in
the 1960s, you knew Lee Bayley. He was the morning host on Top
40-radio station KAKC. He also hosted
Dance Party
on Channel 6.
“He was a small-town kid raised in Sam Walton's backyard,” wrote
Bob Shannon in R&R. “Lee met his only wife
in second grade and never lost her. In his 40 years in our business
he's had only seven jobs, has never been fired and, in the last
18-years of his career, has quietly consulted. He was a morning man
with a 60 share, one of the guiding forces of 24-hour syndicated
programming, and someone who worked so closely with Bill
Drake that when they parted company, Drake was brought to
tears.” Lee Bayley died February 17, 2013.
Before coming to L.A. Lee started radio at the age of 15 in
Arkansas. He was the morning man for Armed Forces Radio and TV in
Panama. Upon leaving the Army he became pd and worked morning drive
for KAKC-Tulsa, where he first met Bill Drake. Beginning in 1971,
Lee moved to L.A. as vp of programming for Bill Drake and
Drake/Chenault.
The company programmed over 300 stations across the country with
five different formats. Lee joined KIQQ in 1978 as pd and left for
Dallas to be gm of Disney’s TM Programming in 1980. He formed his
own consultancy in 1981.
Bayley retired in west Texas in early 2000s, but his daughter said
he was still active, emceeing community events and serving as a
volunteer firefighter. |
Barrazo,
Miguel: KPWR, 2006-07. Miguel started evenings at Power 106 in the fall of
2006.
Beach, Sandy: KDAY, 1970-71. When Sandy left
radio, he founded Rogers Sound Labs.
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BEACH, Sandy:
KROQ, 1977. Sandy, nee Brad
Sobel, died April 19, 2007. He was 54. He was rembered by Darrell Wayne: "Brad was one of the first people I met after joining KROQ in September of 1976. He was instrumental in putting both KROQ AM and fm back on the air that year on a shoestring budget, and worked the first several months of his morning air shift driving up and down the fire roads of Glendale every day. Brad made headline news with L.A. pirate K-POT and the FCC raid that put it off the air. After his stay at KROQ (back then it WAS a station someone would leave), Brad spent many years working engineering and technical consulting in the Lancaster/Palmdale area, where he oft times spoke of living his dream in a ranch-style environment, raising horses and radio towers, including LPFM KFXM in Lancaster. Brad was always upbeat and friendly and attended the KROQ reunion I organized in 2001." |
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BEARDSLEY,
Len: KABC. Born on November 16, 1917, Len was a
radio and tv announcer and actor, who died September 29, 2010,
at the age of 92. A trail-blazer of early radio and television, his Seattle show "This Is Jazz" was followed by a 3-decade career including ABC's Monday Morning Headlines and Farewell to War with Chet Huntley. He worked for a time in the 70s and 80s doing the KABC/tv sign-off. |
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BEASING, Dave: KXEZ, 1993-95; KYSR, 1995 and 1996; KRBV/KSWD, 2008-17. Dave was appointed program director of the new Bonneville station (100.3/fm The Sound) in the spring of 2008. He left in late 2017 when Entercom sold the station to Educatonal Media Foundation and the station flipped to Christian K-LOVE. In the early summer of 2008, Dave joined the senior management team as program director of 100.3fm/The Sound, a Triple A station launched a year earlier. In 2009, Beasing made his first appearance on the list of the Best Off-Air LARP of the Year. Before joining The Sound, he was a senior consultant with Jacobs Media for 13 years. When he was appointed pd at The Sound he said: “From the moment I first heard The Sound I knew whoever programmed this brand would experience the opportunity of a lifetime. Before arriving in the Southland, Dave also programmed KMZU-Carrollton, Missouri, KLIN-Lincoln, KRMG-Tulsa and spent three years with WLTI-Detroit where he had been appointed pd in 1990. |
Beasley, Dave: KGFJ, 1973-74. Unknown.
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BEATON, Fred:
KIEV, 1961-98. The
Beaton brothers (Ron and Fred) co-owned 870/KIEV from 1961 until selling the station to Salem
Communications in 1998. Fred died August 29, 2018.
He was 84. Fred was involved in the media since 1954, working for CBS in both radio and tv departments from 1953 through 1958. Born October 11, 1933 in Los Angeles, Fred was partner and owner of B&B Financial Atd. LLC. He attended LA City College and UCLA. Fred was assistant manager at KWKW for eight years and was chairman of the Board of KIEV and co-owner with his brother Ron from 1961 until the station was sold to Salem in 1998. He served in the US Army from 1955 to 1957. |
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BECK,
Glenn: KIIS/AM, 2001-02; KMXE/KLAA,
2006-07; KGIL, 2009; KRLA,
2010-12; KEIB, 2014-23. The syndicated host joined
Orange County's 830AM in late summer of 2006 and went on to KGIL briefly. He worked morning drive at Salem's KRLA until April 2012.
He's now heard on 1150 AM, The Patriot. In 2020 Glenn was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. |
Beck, Ken: KIQQ, 1976-78; KMPC, 1978-82; KFI, 1982-83; KFWB, 1988-92. For over a decade Ken has held various executive posts at Entercom. He's based in Seattle.
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BECK, Thom: KRLA, 1966-70; KIIS, 1970-72; KBBQ, 1972; KGFJ, 1972; KRLA, 1974-76; KFI, 1980. Thom was one of the founding members of the nationally acclaimed and highly innovative satirical news group, "The Credibility Gap" in 1968. He narrated the popular "Pop Chronicles" in 1969, a weekly series that chronicled popular music from the mid-1950s to 1969. In the early 1980s, Thom worked evenings at KIIS when it was MOR. He also hosted a midday jock show at KRLA. He returned to his roots in Texas and taught acting. Thom died a few years later of a heart attack. |
Becker, Jodi: KFI, 2005-09. Jodi was part of the KFI news department until late spring 2009. She returned to Wisconsin to get married. She left WTMJ-Milwaukee in May 2015.
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BECKER,
Patty. KWST, 1981; KLAC, 1981-83.
Patty was part of the KiiS Broadcast Workshop early in her career.
Patty started her broadcast journey at KERN-Bakersfield in late 1980. Hired as a cub reporter, she also anchored the afternoon news, and conducted the station’s weekend public affairs show. Longing for home, she returned to the L.A. area and soon began an internship at Rock station KWST. First hired as a traffic reporter for the Raechel Donahue morning show. Patty sometimes assisted lifestyle news reporter Bill Fraser on his many stints in the field, even accompanying him to the historic first Space Shuttle landing at Edwards AFB on April 14, 1981. Patty provided post-game interviews for the Dodgers and Angels baseball games. (KWST was the only fm station achieving National League Playoff and World Series credentials in 1981.) She was promoted as board op for the new London & Engelman morning show, becoming their sidekick “Peon Patty.” She performed many female voiceover characters to their comedy skits. It was her dream job, and she was only 20 years old. Patty got caught up in the middle of the AFTRA union vs. KWST lawsuit, Patty’s role as a witness for the union forced her hand in leaving the station. She went on to work briefly as a KRLA “Hitman.” She moved on to Dean Sanders' KLAC news department. She occasionally performed voiceover character work for the legendary Jim Healy. She went on to enjoy an award-winning career spanning 20+ years in Network Television Marketing. "I will always cherish those crazy/cool years I spent in LA radio," Patty said. She retired in 2004 and lives in Valencia. |
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BEE,
Krystal: KPWR, 2011-18; KAMP,
2018-21. Krystal worked weekends at AMP Radio and moved to morning
drive in 2019 until the station changed format. Krystal was an on-air personality Big Boy
for eight years on Power 106 and later with Cruz.
Always wanting to pursue television, Krystal joined the cast of AMAZINGNESS on MTV. In addition to radio and television, Krystal has hosted events such as the MTV Music Awards, backstage broadcasts at the hottest concerts and red carpet interviews with Hollywood’s A-List. Krystal has reported from lifestyle events that range from Coachella, Rock the Bells and also hosted various events for Nike. In addition to MTV, Krystal has appeared on Revolt TV, Dish Nation, Fox11 nightly news and as host for Steve Aoki’s, Dim Mak Studios. Krystal was born and raised in East Los Angeles. When she is not on the airwaves or in front of the camera, she loves staying active as a triathlete and marathon runner while being an advocate Vegan as well. |
Bee, Ron: KRLA, 1980-89; KLAC/KZLA; KBLA. Ron works for the Asian station in L.A., KBLA.
Bee, Tommy: KBLA, 1957-64; KBCA, 1966-84. Tommy has passed away.
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BEEBE,
Richard: KRKD, 1958-59; KRLA,
1959-70, nd; KPPC,
1971-72; KRLA, 1981-85
and 1991-94; KGIL;
KMET; KABC;
KMNY. Best remembered as
a co-founder and member of the nationally acclaimed and highly
innovative satirical news group, "The Credibility Gap," Richard had
a relationship with KRLA that lasted over five decades.
Richard passed away August 29, 1998, at the age of 68.
Richard was
born in |
It was 1959 and Canadian millionaire Jack Kent Cooke had just purchased KRLA. Richard remembered his instructions from Cooke when he started doing morning drive news: "I want it as fast as you can go and make it exciting." Morning man Emperor Bob Hudson syndicated "The Emperor" idea and soon there were “Emperors” in cities across the country. Each station received custom promos featuring Richard as Colonel Splendid and Casey Kasem as Lt. Cavendish. As a news alternative, the award-winning “Credibility Gap” was an irreverent presentation reflecting the volatile political landscape of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. In June 1971, the “Gap” group moved to KPPC. They went on to record four albums (An Album of Political Pornography on Blue Note; Woodschtick and More on Capitol, A Great Gift Idea on Reprise, and The Bronze Age of Radio on Warehouse) with Richard as co-writer/performer/producer and they toured college campuses. The group broke up in the mid-seventies and Richard returned to radio news.
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BEHARRELL,
Greg: KLOS, 2017-23. Greg was a weekender at the Classic Rock station until
early 2019 when he was given the evening shift.
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BEIGEL, Les:
KFWB, 1967; KBIG, 1968; KLAC,
1969; XPRS, 1973; KGBS, 1974-78. Les did voiceover work for a tv/radio
production facility. He passed away April 28, 2012 of lung cancer, at the
age of 69. Les was the son of Glenn Miller’s trumpet player Leslie Beigel and their travels took them to Seattle when Les was starting the 6th grade. After graduating from school, Les was working at Boeing Aircraft while doing weekends at KOL-Seattle. “I was told that I was never going to be a good quality control inspector so I moved into radio full-time. I also did utility work at KVI-Seattle.” At some stage Les became bored in Seattle. “I needed to move to the next level and I looked at the map and L.A. seemed to be all down hill.” At KFWB he called his midday show the “Beigel Bash.” He was a part-time engineer and owned his own production studio. |
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BEIRNE,
Brian: KRTH, 1976-2004. When "Mr. Rock 'n' Roll" arrived at
"K-Earth 101" on April 1, 1976, it was the end of a long journey
that began 30 years and 12 stations before. Brian, who was born in
San Mateo in 1946, spent much of his youth in Oregon, where he got
his start as a broadcaster on KBZY-Salem. Brian described his early
radio job in Oregon: "It was a real mom and pop operation. It was
great training ground because you got to do everything. You read the
news, you did your show and you had other duties. We even had to
feed the cows out in back and water the lawn." He went on to work in Sacramento, KFRC-San Francisco, Cleveland and Chicago. At "K-Earth 101" Brian has earned his reputation as one of the top modern music historians in the United States and in 1991 was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. "I wanted to tell the history of rock 'n' roll on my shows and pass on the music to new generations." As a historian, does he collect records? "I have 40,000 in my collection including my first record, Goodnight Irene, by Gordon Jenkins and the Weavers. I keep some at home, some are in vaults, but none are ignored." A self-described Hopalong Cassidy fan, Brian attends the “Hoppy” festival each year in Cambridge, Ohio. From 1985-87, Brian was the entertainment reporter for Channel 11. He left the legendary Oldies station on December 15, 2004. He is a concert promoter of groups from the early Rock era. |
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BELL,
Art: KABC, 1995-2000; KFI, 2001-02
and 2003-07; KABC 2015.
For some strange, bizarre
reason, it somehow seems fitting that Art Bell, creator and original
host of “Coast to Coast AM,” heard locally on KFI, died on Friday
the 13th (April 13, 2018). He was 72. No matter what you might have thought about what Art Bell talked about – and that included the paranormal, abstract, conspiracies, and the world of UFOs – Art was a radio original. Broadcasting from a double-wide trailer in the Nevada desert for more than two decades, Art talked to his listeners in the middle of the night about their stories of alien abductions, crop circles, anthrax scares and, as he put it, all things “seen at the edge of vision.” While serving in the US Air Force in the Vietnam War, Art indulged his childhood passion for radio by operating a pirate station that played anti-war music otherwise unavailable on official channels, broadcast to American servicemen. Following his time in the service, Art’s love of radio led him to working as a disc jockey for an English-language station in Japan. Over there, he set a Guinness World Record for broadcasting some 116 hours straight to raise funds to rescue over 100 Vietnamese orphans left stranded by the conflict in their home country. |
Back in the states Art started his radio journey doing overnights on KDWN in Las Vegas. Syndicated nationally in 1993, Coast to Coast AM became a phenomenon. He frequently would end up on the yearly list of Best LARP.
Art drew an audience of about 10 million listeners a week, when his show was syndicated on as many as 500 stations. He believed in possibilities, and he loved the idea that his openness to paranormal events had helped build the nation’s appetite for Twin Peaks, The X-Files and other expressions of the edges of reality. Born June 17, 1945, in Jacksonville, N.C., Art grew up with a seven-transistor AM radio tucked under his pillow at night. When he was supposed to be sleeping, Art listened instead to the pioneers of talk radio as they batted around alternative ideas about who really killed John F. Kennedy or how the CIA controlled people’s minds.
His nightly “Coast to Coast” show ran from 1989 to 2003, then he continued broadcasting on weekends until 2007. Art briefly returned with a satellite radio show in 2013 and an online program in 2015. That show ended after a few months, because, Mr. Bell said, someone had taken to firing a weapon at his Nevada property.
Art was married four times. At the time of his death, he was married to Airyn Ruiz, whom he met when she befriended him online after the death of his previous wife. Ruiz was then 22 and living in the Philippines.
Bell was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2006 and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2008.
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BELL,
Mike: KROQ, 1988-89. Mike did live afternoons
on '98.5 The Fox' in Bakersfield and voice tracking afternoons at Country
KTPI in Lancaster/Palmdale. Born in Bakersfield in 1958, Mike started as a “go-fer” in 1974 at KERN-Bakersfield. By the late 1970s, he was working part-time at KERN and KBAK/TV-Bakersfield. Mike moved to mornings at KMGN-Bakersfield and in 1981 became pd of KLYD until 1983. During the mid-1980s, he worked mornings in Seattle at KYYX, KPLZ and KISW. When Mike left Southern California he went to do mornings in Palm Springs. In 1991, he returned to his hometown of Bakersfield to be production director and creative director at KRAB/KKXX. He worked mornings at KDFO-Bakersfield until the fall of 2000. He was the creative imaging director for Clear Channel Bakersfield, and afternoons at KRAB. |
Bell, Tom: KACD, 1997; KSSE,
1997-2005-06. Tom was gsm at KSSE and left in late 2006.
Bellamy, Sam:
KMET, 1974-83; KMPC/KEDG, 1987-89. Sam lives in the Palm Springs area.
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BELLMAN, Joel:
KBIG, 1987. Joel
was press
deputy to LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. He's now retired. Joel was born August 29, 1955, in Chicago. From kindergarten on, Joel lived in Southern California and loved all the Top 40 stations of the 1960s, especially KRLA. His tastes changed as he came to appreciate the border stations (e.g. XERB with Wolfman Jack) and the “underground” stations. In 1975 he visited England and was fascinated with British pirate stations like Radio Caroline. “In 1969, I read a cover story in the LA Times’ West Magazine that really fired my imagination about old-time radio and master archivist Martin Halperin [written by Joel Siegel, who briefly hosted a pair of old radio programs on KPPC before going on to fame and fortune as tv critic on Good Morning America]. I set my cap on a radio career and began collecting old radio tapes and volunteering at KPFK when Ruth Hirschmann (now KCRW gm Ruth Seymour) was the pd.” n 1973 Joel started college at Cal Poly, Pomona and he worked all four years for the campus station, KCPK. While in school he was the overnight operator at KWOW-Pomona. He graduated in 1977 with a B.S. degree in communications and earned a Master’s in broadcast journalism from USC. Beginning in 1980, he joined the news department at KBIG. He was laid off from KBIG on January 16, 1987, the same day he picked up a prestigious Golden Mike award for a documentary on the late Orson Welles. He has won six Golden Mike Awards. Joel joined the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner as an editorial writer until the paper folded in 1989. In late 1989 he became press deputy for County Supervisor Ed Edelman. |
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BEMIS, John:
KFMU, 1964-65; KLFM, 1965; KFOX, 1965-66;
XEGM, 1966-68; KGFJ,
1968-73; KWIZ, 1972-74; KUTE, 1973-74. John lives in Lake Havasu City,
Arizona and has
a career in real estate. Born January 4, 1939 in Lincoln, Nebraska, John moved to Long Beach when he was in the 6th grade. “While living in Naples, I listened to a Country music show on KFOX called ‘Night at the Rancho.’ I discovered rhythm & blues around 1951 and started my collection of 5,000 records by buying 78 rpm recordings like Go,Go,Go by Treniers, Crawlin by the Clovers, and Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, etc.” As a young teen, John would spend hours in a make-believe studio in his home garage. “ In the mid-1950s I spent two years on the USS Ammen DD-527. In the summer of 1959, I married my wife who is still by my side today.” In 1964, he attended the Grantham School of Electronics and obtained a First Class Radio-Telephone License and started at KFMU. For his show at XEGM-Tijuana, John would record his show and for $1, Greyhound transported the tapes. “My wife and I would often drive around Long Beach on Sundays, from 5-8 pm, and listen to the playback.” In 1968, John started a five-year run with KGFJ working with “Big Jim” Randolph, Larry McCormick, Jim Wood, Al Waples, Buster Jones, Joe Terry, and Roland Bynum. |
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BENDER, Aron:
KFI, 2007-19. Aron was
the morning news anchor at KFI. He exited the station in late 2019. Aron has been in radio news for more than 20 years. The SoCal native has a journalism degree from Cal State Northridge, and before joining KFI in Los Angeles he worked at WIOD in Miami and KMPH in Fresno. He is how a professor at CSUN. He also can be heard on Santa Clarita Signal podcasts. |
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BENDER, Marty:
KNAC. KROQ. Marty joined WOFX-Cincinnati in Ocotber2016
from WSHE-Chicago, where he was program director. Prior to that, he
served as vp/programming at Premiere Radio Networks, and was
executive producer of syndicated "The Bob and Tom Show." Marty ended his five year run in Cincinnati to open his own business, 'Worst Consultant Ever.' Bender has also served as operations manager for WFBQ-WRZX-WNDE in Indianapolis and pd and morning man for WKRQ (96 Rock) in Cincinnati. "At KROQ, I did weekends and overnights when they needed someone. I was working at Tower Records at the same time. I used to get album catalogues from the promotion people I knew and stocked the KROQ library. (Radio promo people didn't pay much attention to KROQ in those days) I also did weekend and fill-in at KNAC (at the same time!) And then ended up working at Cashbox Magazine doing the Top 200 album chart (and writing as well) |
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BENEDICT,
Chuck: KLAC, 1963-69. Chuck, a charter member of
the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association and a
two-time president of the organization, died at his home in Glendale
on November 9, 2002. He was 83. "I never got to be great, but I
sure was fortunate to have worked with great people!" That's the way
the folksy conversation started in 1997 with the man who was "Joe
Pyne on KLAC Fridays." (Joe worked a four-day week for a reported
$2,000 a week and Chuck worked the fifth day.) Born April 17, 1919, in Woodside, Maryland, he grew up in South Carolina, where he played high school baseball. Chuck was the son of a talented family. His mother, Margaret, was active in the early days of network radio and his father was a poet and athlete. Being around some of the greats like Arthur Godfrey sparked his fascination with radio. Chuck started in radio in 1934 while in high school at WIS-Columbia, South Carolina. During and after World War II, he was active in Armed Forces Radio. "I got fired from more jobs - which was beautiful. I got to travel and meet more interesting people as a result of moving around. I had a ball," Chuck told me while being interviewed for Los Angeles Radio People. Through a varied career, Chuck had been a sports commentator associated with the L.A. Rams, for 40 consecutive years. He wrote 23 sports annuals for Petersen Publishing during the 1970s and free-lanced with the 700 Club and Christian radio. |
| Chuck was in charge of the Heisman Trophy
Award voting in the 12 Western states and he worked with Tom
Harmon. He was a sports anchor at KTTV/Channel 11 from
1964-70 and was a charter member of the Southern California Sports
Broadcasters Association and served as its president for four terms.
He was the first general chairman of the SCSBA's annual Hall of Fame
awards luncheon. Over the years, Chuck has made more than 2,500 speeches on the personal appearance circuit. Since 1990 Chuck has written a twice-weekly column for the Glendale News-Press. He was always a master storyteller who always seems to be in the right place. Chuck was in the underground Summa headquarters the day Howard Hughes died. "Hughes died on an airplane between Acapulco and Houston. A recluse, he never had been in his own underground Summa office." Chuck broke the story. “Chuck Benedict's departure from this planet is everybody's loss,” wrote Jim Hawthorne.” He and I worked together during my early years in broadcasting, and his never failing willingness to contribute to the end result reflected his loyalty and drive to achieve success. In recent years we have had a continuous email correspondence and his attitude was just the way it was in those beginnings - always upbeat and positive. Damn, I will sincerely miss him!” |
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BENNER, Michael: KNAC, 1975-76; KWST, 1976-77; KLOS/KABC, 1977-87; KLSX, 1990-95; KPFK, 1993-2007; KCBS, 1997-2001; KPFK, 2021-23. Michael heads a stress management company based in Los Angeles. He belongs to the part-time faculty of Rancho Santiago Community College to teach Emotional Intelligence to the Orange County Sheriff's Department. His Ageless Wisdom Show ran every Tuesday until July 2022, when he hung up his headphones.
A graduate of
In 1987, Michael started a stress
management and personal development company for individuals, couples
and business. Also a federally licensed amateur radio operator,
N6IJR, Michael volunteers with the American Red Cross, the City of
Michael lived on Maui for five years
and returned to the mainland in 2012. |
Bennett,
Beau: KIIS/AM/KXTA, 1997-98. Last heard Beau was pd for a
station in Boise, Idaho.
Bennett, Chuck: KFI,
1963-69. Unknown.
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BENNETT, Frank: KNAC, 1975-78; KWST, 1978-80, KROQ 1980-83. Frank went on to do afternoons and production at KOME-San Jose from 1985-94 and then KFOX-San Jose/San Francisco until 2001. Frank became Frances and is now a multimedia web developer for a Silicon Valley based high-tech multinational corporation, working from her home in the lake/hill country above Austin. Her website is auntfran.com. |
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BENNETT, Kelly:
KSBR, 1996-2019. Kelly was a Public Affairs Specialist at
Time Warner Cable from 2006-11. In 2011, she won a Golden Mic, an
Associated Press Award. Kelly started her career at KSBR 88.5/fm in 1996. She served Orange County Newschannel as a Senior Assignment Editor for two years. Later in 2001, she joined Adelphia Communications as the host of Prime Story. She was a co-host for KSBR 88.5FM Radio's Breakfast with Gary and Kelly, on this show she has interviewed several celebrities and musicians including Linda Evans, Debbie Reynolds, Bobby Caldwell, Al Jarreau. In 2009, she founded Bennett Unlimited PR, a Public Relations firm based in Laguna Niguel. |
Bennett, Matt: KFOX, 1982. Unknown.
Bennett, Mike: KFI, 1984; KIKF, 1985-88 and
1992-93; KYSR, 1993-96; KBIG, 1996-98. SEE Mike Carlucci
Bennett, Myron: KABC, 1960. Unknown.
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BENOIT,
Dave: KMZT, 2011-12; KKJZ, 2015-23;
KMZT, 2021-22. The five-time Grammy nominated composer
and pianist, David has had an expansive career as a contemporary
jazz pianist that has included over 25 charting solo recordings. He
is the on-going conductor of the Asia America Symphony Orchestra.
David works mornings at K-JAZZ along with a weekend show at
K-MOZART. |
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BENOIT,
Sharon: KMPC, 1969-74. Sharon was a
publicity
whiz during the glory years at 710/KMPC in the ‘60s and ’70. She later
became a trade publication executive. Sharon died July 20, 2010, at the age 63, from cancer. She was very active in her church and community and spearheaded numerous fundraisers. Friends in her La Canada church loved to hear her tell stories of working at KMPC, which was known as “The Station of the Stars.” They would marvel at what a great storyteller she was. Michael Nash shared memories of Sharon at her Celebration of Life. They both were hired as teens at 710/KMPC and remained lifelong friends. “We had the greatest playground in which to learn and grow,” said Michael. “The thing we remember best about Sharon was that effervescent smile, eyes that served as a welcoming beacon to one and all, and the laughter that echoed throughout the hallways of the radio station. She was genuine, which was a rare quality in Hollywood. It didn’t take long to realize that once embraced by Sharon you would be able to count on her loyalty forever.” “She participated in a great deal of charity work in the past few years. What I will remember most is her love of life and a smile that wouldn't quit. There were no shades, either, behind her eyes - they would absolutely glow when in the company of those she loved, and the combination of the two was hard to resist. You had to feel good just being around her. She was close to all the KMPC heavyweights, Gary Owens, Wink Martindale and Roger Carroll.” |
Benoit, Steve: KNNS, 1995-96; KNX. Steve is sales manager of Universal Mail & Courier in Van Nuys and is part of Shadow Traffic.
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BENSON, Don:
KIIS, 1981-82.
Don's legacy in Los Angeles radio was hiring Rick Dees
to do mornings on KIIS. Don left February 22, 1982, to rejoin
WQXI-Atlanta and later became a consultant with the Burkhart/Douglas
firm working with various CHR, Hot AC and AC stations. Don is
president of the radio division at Jefferson-Pilot.
A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Don first joined WQXI AM/FM as a programming assistant in November of 1974 under the tutelage of Scott Shannon. He rose quickly to assistant program director and in 1977 was promoted to program director of WQXI/fm. He changed the format and identity; it became Top 40 94Q. In 1979, Benson left, however WQXI lured him back in 1992, this time as operations manager. In 1994, Jefferson Pilot hired Don for the newly created position of corporate vp of programming & operations; later he became senior vice president. In 2006 Jefferson Pilot merged with Lincoln Financial to become Lincoln Financial Media. In 2008, Benson was promoted to his present position, president and chief executive officer, based in Atlanta. Benson currently serves as a member of the Broadcast Advisory Board for the Associated Press and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Radio Advertising Bureau. He also currently represents the top fifty continuously-rated radio markets on the Arbitron Advisory Council. Don was named to Radio Ink’s list of “The 40 Most Powerful People in Radio.” |
Benson, Gordon: KGIL, 1965-66; KEZY, 1966. Unknown.
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BENSON, Sam: KLAC, 1947-84. For almost four decades, Sam (Bensussen) was the only constant through management, ownership and format changes. He saw it all from the legendary "Big 5" djs to Joe Pyne to "Future Fonic Sound," Haynes at the Reins and the transition to a Country format. Sam passed away on November 12, 2012, at the age of 90. Sam was director of publicity, public affairs,
and promotion. The native Angeleno spent his entire life in
California except for a stint in the Air Force (where he met his
wife Dorothy). After Los Angeles City College, Sam worked for KIEV
and KVEC-San Luis Obispo and after his military commitment, he
returned, ironically, to both KVEC and KIEV before joining KLAC. In
1984 Sam was editorial director for KTTV/Channel 11 and retired in
1987. For a couple of decades, Sam worked public relations every September for the Los Angeles County Fair. How did he survive for almost 40 years with KLAC? "I was the only guy willing to do the job. Before deregulation, there was plenty of public affairs material that had to be prepared at license renewal time. I bobbed and weaved. I always had a pencil behind my ear and I moved down the hallways on my way to a 'very important meeting.' It was difficult to hit a moving target." |
Sam was born on
February 1, 1922 in Los Angeles to Turkish immigrants. He grew up near the
Coliseum and USC, graduating from Freemont High in 1940. He cherished his
years at Freemont and helped spearhead his annual class reunions through the
60th and beyond.
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BENSON, "Uncle" Joe:
KLOS,
1981-94; KLSX, 1995-96; KLOS, 1996-97;
KCBS/fm, 1997-2005; KLOS, 2005-13;
KSWD, 2013-17.
An AOR legend, for 15 years he was the host of KLOS's Sunday night
"7th Day" program, highlighting entire albums with in-depth
background stories. In 1968, Joe started working for a small station in Dubuque. After stops in Milwaukee and Cleveland, he joined KLOS in October 1980, then was let go in November 1994 as part of a major station housecleaning. In January 1995, the "Classic Rock" station, KLSX, hired Joe to reprise his popular Sunday night show, as well as do fill-in. In summer 1996 he returned to KLOS to host "7th Day," and by January 1997 was working afternoon drive. In August 1997, Joe took the morning shift at "Arrow 93," featuring more of his 'stories' to compliment the music intensive Classic Rock format. Over the years, he has written several volumes of discographies, Uncle Joe's Record Guides. Joe, a racecar enthusiast and driver, has also been covering motor sports on-air since 1986, and has been announcing at the California Speedway since its inception in 1997. Joe left the Classic Rocker "Arrow 93" in March 2005 following a format flip and started afternoons at KLOS in late spring. Joe was moved from afternoon drive at KLOS to weekends in late summer 2009 and in 2012 rejoined afternoons at KLOS. In February 2013, Joe took over mornings at 100/The Sound, KSWD and moved to middays. He left in mid-November when Entercom sold the station to Educatonal Media Foundation and the station flipped to Christian K-LOVE. |
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BENTI, Joseph:
KJOI, 1987. The longtime
television broadcaster and newsman, dispensed commentary on
"K-Joy." He was seen on KCET. He describes his current vocational
status as "retired and extinct." A charasmatic look, demeanor and voice that demanded you pay attention when he was on. Benti never shied away from controversy. He served as anchor othe the CBS Morning News from 1966 until 1970. Based in Los Angeles for most of his career, Benti later worked as a local anchor forKABC/Channel 7 and KNXT/Channel 2. Benti, alongside Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace anchored the network's overnight coverage of the assassinaton of Senator Robert Kennedy. When Kennedy was shot shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Benti was at a nearby bar before preparation for his duties as CBS Morning News anchor. Benti was the first to announce the shooting on CBS and was the lead anchor in the early hours of the networks coverage of the assassination. Born in 1932, Benti studied at Indiana State University. He received a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Iowa in 1962 Benti doesn’t mince words when asked his opinion of local news shows. “They are awful,” he exclaims. “In the old days, you won your spurs in journalism by blazing a trail in news coverage. Most of the people who are running the newsroom have never covered a story on a regular basis.” News directors today, Benti told the LA Times, “are all experienced in corporate politics of the station. They know who to kiss and who not to kiss to get the job as news director. They know where all the bodies are buried, but the one thing they don’t know or don’t have in their gut is a news instinct.” |
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BENTLEY,
Jason: KCRW,
1991-97; KROQ,
1996-98; KCRW, 1998-2023. In the fall of 1995,
Jason was listed in Buzz
Magazine as one of |
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BENTLI,
Ty: KBIG, 2010-12. Ty worked afternoons at MY/fm until late spring of 2012.
In July 2012, he joined Top 40 WNOW (92.3 Now) in New York for mornings. He went on to be part of Cumulus' nationally syndicated America's Morning Show for the NASH Country network. . . In February of 2020, Ty announced that he was leaving radio. |
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BENTON,
Nelkane: KABC/KLOS. Nelkane, born in Kanas City on
June 15, 1934, spent decades at the two stations in the area of
community affairs. She died January 23, 2016.
Raised in New York City, she started as a 19 year-old publicist for singer Bing Crosby. Nelkane went on to run KABC's Ombudsman Service, rising to become Community Relations Director for KABC, KLOS and Radio Disney. She was well known for her Spotlight on the Community broadcasts, and she organized numerous pet adoption parties, Red Cross blood drive, gift-giving drives for service members, food banks for veterans, and scholarships for youth in foster care. Nelkane's work won several National Association of Broadcasters Crystal awards for community service. |
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BENZING, "Big Wave Dave”: KFSH/KKLA, 2002-20. Dave works weekends at "The Fish." He works middays at 99.5, KKLA. He's also production/creative services director for Salem Los Angeles. He joined 95.9 The Fish in 2002. Prior to Southern California, BWD spent most of his professional career in Nashville as production director of legendary stations WLAC AM&FM and WSIX, as well as 107.5 The River, The Beat, 101.1 The One, The Rock @ 105.9 and the Salem Music Network. He has also worked radio stations in Virginia Beach and Boston. Radio was in his blood at a very young age. His mom has tapes of him reading The Cat In The Hat and other books into an old Radio Shack tape recorder. Born in Tucson, he was raised in Milford, NH. Dave graduated from Trevecca Nazarene University with a BA in communications and human relations and a BS in theater. Dave earned his MBA from Hope International University in 2006. |
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(Rob Brookler and Pepe)
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BERENDS, Tim:
KBRT, 1986-87 and 1992-94. Tim used to co-host "Mornings with Tim and Al"
(with Al Gross) on KBRT in 1986-87 (winning the LA Herald Examiner's
Top Jock Contest in 1986). In 1994 they spent a decade at KJSL (the old KXOK)
in St Louis. Tim now hosts a weekly program on KKVV in Las Vegas. Jim has been doing radio broadcasting and handing out Christian tracts since 1970. He grew up in Grand Rapids, where his father was a Baptist preacher who led him to the Lord at a very young age. He began broadcasting in 1970 at Moody Radio's WMBI-Chicago. He has also worked in San Diego and KJSL Radio in St. Louis. Tim has a passion for handing out Christian tracts and has been doing it for over 40 years. Everywhere he goes he has tracts ready for any opportunity to share the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has shared the Gospel and handed out tracts worldwide, ranging from the gang neighborhoods of America and Mexico to terrorist neighborhoods of Ramallah. |
Berg, Dale: KYMS, 1981-83; KBRT, 1983; KOCM, 1983-84 and 1987-91; KYMS, 1991-92. Dale is orchestrating one of the Internet versions of KNX/fm.
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BERGENDORFF, Fred: KNX. Fred was the former long-time marketing director at KNX. He died January 27, 2008, at the age of 63. The initial cause was respiratory distress. Fred helped thousands of homeless pets get adopted through his Pet Place television show. He retired from KNX in 2002. He created The Pet Place in the early 1990s after searching for a cat that had been taken to an animal shelter. The shelter experience led him to seek a way to find homes for animals that didn't have them. A radio version of the tv show began in 2006 with KGIL. It continues Saturday mornings with Marie Hulett, freelance Register columnist, as host. |
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BERGER, Ed:
KEZY, 1979; KWIZ,
1980-85; KFI, 1995-2003. Ed Berger, beloved broadcaster,
teacher and one of the nicest people in LARadio, died December 9,
2003 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 43. The native Californian married fellow AirWatch colleague Peg Stewart just seven months before his death. In the early 1980s, Ed was part of the morning drive team at KWIZ with Ronni Richards and Ed Nix. In addition to his weekend news work at KFI, Ed was a full-time radio broadcasting instructor at Fullerton College. He worked at KEZY and KWIZ before turning his attention to weekend news work and full-time teaching. |
Ed was born in Torrance and grew up in Lancaster. He listened to Antelope Valley radio and remembered, "Gosh, I can do that. But, of course, it was Lancaster radio." Ed went to Antelope Valley City College and Fullerton College. At KWIZ, Ed was part of the morning drive team with Ronni Richards and Ed Nix. "The fact was I did a bit of everything. I did the news, fill-in, remotes and even morning drive." In 1985, there was a major personnel change at KWIZ and Ed made a decision. "I didn't want to bounce around from radio station to radio station, so I got out."
For the next decade Ed worked at Creative Media in Cypress.
“So sorry to hear of the passing of Ed Berger, emailed Roger Marsh. “We worked together [briefly] one semester at Fullerton College and I remember him to be a class act and a true professional. He will truly be missed . . . but never forgotten.”
“OUCH!!! I am very saddened by the news,” wrote former KFI talk show host Rabbi Mentz. “He was such a pleasure to work with! His soul lives on in all that remember the class act that Ed brought to the radio. May G-d bless his wife Peg during these rough times, and bless the memory of Ed Berger.
Pat Mathews wrote: “I am shocked! I worked with Ed many times when he was an engineer for Tim Keenan. I am deeply saddened and feel very badly for Peg. I had no idea he was sick.”
“Sad news,” emailed KBIG’s Bryan Simmons. “I lost a parent to the same type of cancer and can attest that it's an aggressive and most painful form of the disease. My sincere condolences to Ed's wife Peg and all those who knew him. I had the pleasure of working with Ed those few times when he'd fill-in for Mike Nolan at KOST and he was not only a professional, but a good guy as well.”
KBIG’s Lori Ryan wrote: “You know how our hearts were broken over the death of Mark Denis? History repeats itself with Ed Berger. We've been blessed to know Ed, he was always kind and upbeat and never, ever said a bad thing about anyone. God bless Ed Berger. He made the world a better place.”
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BERGER, Hal: KMPC; KHJ. The baseball announcer died February 6, 1980. Hal was born in California on December 18, 1897 in Albany, California. One of radio's earliest sportscasters. Berger created The In-Laws on a local radio station in 1930. That program evolved into Shafter Parker And His Circus for the Don Lee West Coast Network. |
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BERGER, Stew:
KQLH, 1986-88; KWIZ, 1988-91; KHTX, 1992-94;
KFRG, 1995-96; KOLA, 1997. Since 1998, he's been with what is
now Total Traffic Network/LA, doing news at stations including KFI, and now
does the news on KRLA and KTIE. Stew worked as a dj for many years before joining AirWatch America to do news. Before coming to the Southland in the mid-1980s, Stew worked in British Columbia, Cheyenne and Denver. He's also done tv news and weather. Stew was born in Chicago on May 18, 1959, and he grew up in Canada. “My folks wanted to get back to the woods in the late 1960s, so we packed up and moved to a log cabin on a ranch in the sticks of British Columbia, where it got down to 40 degrees below zero for a few winters – that’s why I’m here in California.” As a teen in the early 1970s, Stew spent much of his time pulling in signals from all over the country. “What got me interested in pursuing a life behind the microphone was how ‘cool’ these jocks sounded, with great sounding voices and smooth patter, and the idea that they were a ‘friend’ to everybody listening.” |
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BERGMAN.
Peter. KPPC. Peter was an actor and writer who was
best known for being a part of the comedy quartet called the
Firesign Theater that played on KPPC. He died March 9, 2012 of
complications from leukemia, according to Jesse Walker, managing
editor of Reason.com. He was 72. “As I wrote in Reason a few years ago, the records produced by Bergman's group ‘told dense, non-linear stories, with scenes linked by the logic of dreams, puns, free association, late-night channel-surfing, and a psychedelic anti-authoritarianism that wasn't so different from the libertarian politics of The Prisoner or the Illuminatus! trilogy," wrote Walker. "At one point the Firesigns mulled the idea of optioning Illuminatus!, but they never followed through.’ I should have added that the albums were also extremely funny, yielding to repeated listenings in a way that the typical comedy LP does not. The group's members also dabbled in stage and film -- Bergman and fellow Firesign Phil Proctor wrote the play that became the 1979 movie Americathon, praised here by Reason's own Tim Cavanaugh -- and they had an innovative radio career, which I discussed in my 2001 book Rebels on the Air." Phil Austin and Dave Ossman were also part of the Firesign Theater in 1970. |
Berk,
Peter: KIKF, 1981-83; KFAC, 1983-86; KPWR, 1986-88; KZLA, 1988-91; KABC,
1991-97; XTRA/fm, 1997-98; KFSD / KCEO / KSPA, 1998-99. Peter is
president of Berk Marketing.
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BERK,
Steve: KGIL,
1969-71. Steve worked in the newsroom at KGIL
from 1969-71. He died on February
1, 2012 from complications of diabetes.
“Steve struggled with diabetes all
his life and spoke to others about
taking care of their condition,”
emailed Steve’s wife, Grace. “He
always wished there had been more
information available to him when
he received his diagnosis. His leg
amputation surgery the day before
he died left him in a lot of pain
and he was on a heavy pain
medication to keep it at a
minimum. Unfortunately, a rise in
his potassium levels along with
other health problems caused some
sort of an arrest that the
emergency crew were unable to
revive him from.” Influenced by the Body Worlds exhibit that was in Houston some years ago, he looked for a way to donate his body to science, and found a group that performs research and teaching that would cover the cost of cremation afterward. He felt in this way he could at least be part of something greater than himself without being a burden to his family. Shortly after his
birth in Scranton, his family moved to
Cleveland.
At the age of 6, the family
moved to Los Angeles, where young Stevie
became a "regular" at the local radio
broadcasting and television recording
stations when he was about 10. Local djs
adopted him as the unofficial station
mascot sending him to fetch records from
the shelves, and running errands. He
graduated from Hollywood High School in
1968, went on to attend LACC to earn his
AA.
He began his career as a dj and
news manager for a radio station in San
Luis Obispo.
He then went on to work for the
County of San Luis Obispo as an animal
control officer and then a sheriff for the
county. After a career
change to the asbestos abatement business,
the Berk family moved to Houston in 1989.
In 2000, Steve began his 11 year
career with Southwest Airlines as a
reservations agent. After retiring from
Southwest Airlines in early 2011, Steve
began volunteering with the Houston BARC
Foundation, an organization that helps
find homes for stray dogs and cats.
Steve struggled throughout his
adult life with Diabetes.
His personal experiences with his
own health made him adamant about raising
awareness and helping those with diabetes
learn how to care for themselves. |
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BERMAN, Averill: KGFJ
and KDAY. Averill was murdered
by sportscaster Stan Duke in 1971. He was a newsman in the late 1950s
to the early 1970s. He worked at KDAY and KGFJ. “I was at City News Service in 1969 when Averill was at KGFJ,” remembered Cam Currier. “Believe it or not, I had a drink with Averill the night before he was killed.” In 1971 Duke shot and killed Averill. Stan was black, his wife was black and Averill was white. It was a love triangle with racial overtones. “I knew he [Averill] had an affinity for African-American women,” said Cam. “When Stan came by the house, Berman was there," remembered Currier. "He told Averill to get out of his ex-wife’s house or he would come back and kill him. Stan went home, got a gun, came back, found Averill hiding in the closet and murdered him. Stan went to prison.” Averill was a major historian and taught U.S. History at LA City College. “He had a memory like a steel trap,” said Cam. “He would win auditions for tv commercials because he could memorize the script and have total eye contact with the camera. He wouldn’t have to look at the Prompter.” Cam remembered dropping by KGFJ to see Averill one day. Duke was a former sportscaster and one of the first blacks in local tv news. Until 1971. Stan was part of the highly successful KNXT/Channel 2 “Big News.” According to the Times’ obit, Duke pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but a Superior Court judge, who heard the case without a jury, ruled that Duke was legally sane when he shot Berman, and convicted him of second-degree murder. “What a great newsman Averill was. And what a great era is over,” lamented Cam. |
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BERMAN, Dr.
Jenn: KYSR, 2004-05. Dr. Jenn hosted an evening therapy show every night on
"STAR 98.7." She has a practice in Beverly Hills and hosted a new reality
celebrity couples therapy tv show in 2012. The couples show will consist of
celebrities and the production is from the producers of
Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew. For some of these couples, living
under constant scrutiny from the media and fans makes it
increasingly hard for them to stay together and VH1 wants to see why
they can't seem to go the distance, according to a production
statement. Under the guidance of Dr. Jenn, the couples will
participate in group and individual therapy, along with relationship
exercises out in the "real world" to see if they can rekindle the
love they used to have for one another -- or if it's simply time for
them to move on. The mother of twin girls is a child therapist, author, speaker and media personality. Dr. Jenn was frequently seen on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show and the Early Show. In addition, she writes a parenting column for Los Angeles Family Magazine and is on the Board of Advisors for Parents Magazine. She's written two books, The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy Confident Kids and Superbaby: 12 Ways to Give Your Child a Head Start in the First 3 Years. |
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BERNADETTE: KRTH AM/FM, 1980-90; KKBT, 1990; KJLH, 1991-94; KKHJ/KBUE,
1994-97. Born Irma Molina in the
Bernadette worked under Phil Hall during the KRTH call letter and format change staying with the stations during the RKO-Beasley-Liberman days. Bernadette was programming coordinator for KRTH AM&FM from 1986 to 1990 and was the first and only female on Smokin' Oldies/"K-Earth," when she hosted the "All Request and Dedication Show." She moved on to "the Beat" in 1990 to work as promotion coordinator with Liz Kiley and later to KJLH. After three years as the marketing director for Spanish KKHJ/KBUE/KWIZ, in early 1997 she joined KUPR-San Diego. She is a massage therapist in Gresham, Oregon. |
Bernal, Raul: KLAX, 2000-01. Raul works mornings at Spanish KLAX as "Dona Mela."
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BERNARD, Joe:
KFWB, 1965-66. (J.J.) Joe was general manager
during the
KFWB Top 40 days. During the FCC probe of payola in 1966, a number of KFWB djs appeared in lengthy closed-door hearings. Not only djs but like Reb Foster, Jimmy O'Neill and music director Don Anti, but Bernard testified. The hearings were going on while Westinghouse Broadcasting was awaiting sale of the Crowell-Collier owned station for $10,750,000. The sale approval figured heavily in a $230,000 damage suit brought by record promoter Albert Huskey in 1964. |
Bernardini, Tony: KROQ, 1987-90. Tony
was gm at WBCN-Boston since 1978 and from 1987 to 1990 he was
the gm of 'BCN and KROQ. The San Diego native would spend two
weeks a month at each station. In late 2003, Tony became vp,
Infinity/Boston, a consulting position.
Bernhart, Bruce: KNX, 1981-91. Bruce
broadcast the evening news at KNX. In 1991, Bruce was sentenced Friday to 90
days in jail for molesting a 13-year-old baby-sitter. Bernhart, 39, of Simi
Valley had pleaded no contest to one count of child molestation. Investigators
said that Bernhart blindfolded the girl on the pretext of playing a game, then
put her hand on his penis. He was arrested that evening during his broadcast
at the radio station, according to the LA Times. He is
an executive headhunter.
Bernstein, Bob: KMEN/KGGI, 1995-96. Unknown.
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BERNSTEIN, Sheryl:
KTWV, 1993-94. Sheryl has
a very active voiceover career. The comedian/actress was part of an 8-month experiment with two females hosting the morning drive show on “the Wave." Born and raised in Buffalo, Sheryl graduated from Buffalo State with a degree in art/education and a minor in theater. “I was planning to be a teacher.” In 1973 she started at a 1,000 watt daytimer in Niagara Falls, WJJL. In 1975 she joined WKBW-Buffalo as production director writing and producing commercials. “In the evenings I did stand-up comedy with six others in Buffalo, when someone who was visiting from L.A. suggested I think about working there.” She came to the Southland for a “look-see” and got accepted at the Comedy Store and secured an agent. While working as “Wonder Woman” at kids parties and going on voiceover auditions, she met her eventual KTWV partner, Keri Tombazian. “I loved doing the morning show. If we had been able to stay, I think we would have been really great. I sure learned a lot about working as a team. We did something unique, very real. My only regret is that there was no time to say good-bye to our audience.” |
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BERRY,
Chris: KNX 1982-86; KSPN, 2009-10. Chris left KNX and spent the next 10 years
at CBS Radio at the Washington News Bureau and WBBM-Chicago. From 1996 to 2002 he was vp/Radio for ABC News New York. He went on to president/gm of ABC-owned WMAL-Washington, DC. He was appointed general manager at KSPN in early 2009 and left in September 2010. Chris is now executive VP of News, Talk and Sports programming at iHeartMedia. He's also senior vp/gm for NBC News Radio and iHeart’s 24/7 News Network. |
Berry, Reed: KIEV, 1987-88; KRLA, 1998-99. "The Traffic Guy" hosted a traffic and general topics weekend talk show on KRLA until the summer of 1999. Reed currently serves as a contributing editor to the automotive website LACar.com.
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BERTOLUCCI, Robin:
KFI/KLAC/KXTA,
2002-23. Robin joined Clear Channel/LA AM stations
as director of programming in February 2002. She was freuently voted #1 Best Off-Air
LARP of the Year. Clear Channel is now iHeartMedia. Robin has been the face of KFI programming since 2002, when she arrived from Denver to oversee the 3 AM stations in the Clear Channel/LA cluster. One of her major accomplishments was doing something that no other program director had done in the past 20 years – she took an AM station to #1 in the Los Angeles metro Arbitron Diary ratings and the PPM. It was the first time an AM station was at the top of the heap since the mid-1980s when KABC rattled around in the Top 5. Before Radio & Records ended a decades-long run as the bible of reporting on the radio industry, Robin was presented with the highest programming honor at the R&R Talk Radio Seminar. “I think the only reason I got it was that I was the only pd there!” emailed Robin. “Ha ... kidding! Seriously, it was a tremendous honor to be recognized by my peers and I am truly grateful. I told the people there that I have an amazing team around me. Because they’re so good they make me look like a genius, the KFI news team, etc. etc. This award is really a testament to all of them!” said Robin. She grew up in Southern California and went to college at UC-Berkeley and graduated with a degree in rhetoric. Prior to KOA-Denver, she started her radio career at KGO-San Francisco doing a variety of assignments. |
Bie, Peter: KIQQ, 1985-88. Peter is a pastor in Summerland, near Santa Barbara.
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BIELER, Ed:
KWIZ, 1973; KABC, 1973-76; KIEV,
1976; KGOE, 1978-79; KGIL, 1986; KABC, 1989-90;
KIEV,
1994-96; KWNK, 1996. Ed was known as "Superfan" and
was last heard in Kansas City in the aughts. He did write for the Topanga Messenger
in the learly 2010s. A
number of sources say that Ed died in the mid-to-late 2010s. Ed was a cliche. He was a spouting bar owner when he was given a coveted drive time spot on the ABC O&O. Ed became a champion of the people but his hard-hitting opinions resulted in his firing at KABC in 1976. Larry Stewart of the LA Times reported: "George Green, the station's gm, fired Beiler because of too many threatened lawsuits." In 1974 he was sentenced to a year in prison for defrauding the federal government in 1969, when he was in the trucking business. He served 4-and-a-half months, then returned to his old job at KABC. After a brief stint at KIEV, he went to work for WFAA-Dallas. In an attempt to get back to the Southland, he bought part interest in the Thousand Oaks station KGOE, but the show never caught fire. In the early 1980s Ed was doing a general talk show at KSDO-San Diego. When he returned to Southern California in 1986, he commented on his old spot at KABC: "I think since I left the show at KABC, it has had the impact of a snow flake on the bosom of the Pacific." |
Bienne, Simone: KROQ, 1011-12. Simone, the British sex therapist radio and tv personality, was part of "Loveline" at KROQ with Dr. Drew Pinsky and Pyscho Mike Catherwood. She left when her contract was up in late 2012.
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BIG BOY:
KPWR,
1994-2015; KRRL, 2015-23. Born Kurt Alexander in 1970 in
Chicago, he moved to Culver City at age 2. He grew into a 400-pound,
6-foot-2 bodyguard for rap artists before hanging out at “Power
106.” After high school he formed a mobile dj business and a hip-hip
hot line, “Wudd-Up?” The morning team of the Baka Boyz got to know
Big Boy through his club gigs and recommended him to be a dj. In the
summer of 1995, Big Boy moved from evenings to afternoon drive and
in late 1997 to the coveted morning slots at KPWR. Big Boy worked morning drive at
"Power 106" until moving to iHeartMedia's KRRL, Real 92.3, in March
2015. The urban giant was inducted into the 2015 National Radio Hall of
Fame. In 2021, he received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. KPWR took advantage f Big's size in promoting his morning show with a series of very creative outdoor billboards. He eventually had stomach surgery and lost half his weight. He's married with two kids. His morning show, now on Real 92.3, is syndicated on Premiere Radio Network. With many industry awards, the National Association of Broadcasters has also recognized Big Boy’s exceptional talent with the Marconi Award, a very rare three times. Big Boy has made numerous cameos in movies such as Adam Sandler’s The Longest Yard, Charlie’s Angels 2, and co-starred in Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo. Big’s personal biography, An XL Life: Staying Big at Half the Size is available nationwide and speaks to the difficulties associated with his dramatic weight loss surgery. |
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BIGBY,
Tom: KFI/KOST, 1982. Tom, former pd at KFI/KOST, died
January 4, 2021, at the age of 76. The versatile and innovative programmer will be best remembered for his 15 years at WIP-Philadelphia. In 2011, he departed CBS after 23 years. "Known for his at times contentious relationship with talent, and his radio-ready voice, Bigby is the most well known, well respected, and most inconic pd in the history of WIP," according to a tribute at the WIP website. "His legacy will include many things, but from a WIP perspective, his belief that the Eagles were the biggest thing in town, and that the fans should be heard will be two of the most lasting for WIP. His “two minute rule” and 'once during the week, and once on the weekends rule' for callers will not be far behind." Howard Eskin: "I would say Tom Bigby was a 'character' but he did know things, a lot, on what it took to be a good sports talk station. I remember Tom first came to then 610WIP as a consultant shortly after we went full time sports. WIP needed direction at the beginning and being there from that first day August 29, 1986 I urged ownership to hire him shortly after our full-time start in 1988. However at times he was a monster. Didn’t know the guy with that Texas draw was going to be our Frankenstein. It was almost like he didn’t want the staff to like him.He just wanted it done his way. Even though he was gentle at times. Actually told me at least once when I tried to bring facts into the conversation, I don’t care about facts. I care about good talk radio." |
.
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BIGGS, Jeff:
KXTA/XTRA
Sports, 1997-2006; KMPC, 2007; KLAA, 2008-09;
KSPN, 2011-17; KNX, 2019-23. Jeff worked at
all-Sports 710/KSPN. He left in the fall of 2017. He's now doing traffic
reports for KNX Newsradio. In the spring of 2021 started co-hosting a
weekend sports show on Sportsmap Radio Network. Jeff hosted a midday sports show on “XTRA Sports 1150” with Ben Maller. A familiar voice in L.A. sports talk radio for more than a decade, and a big part of XTRA Sports from day one, he was also L.A.'s first ever Lakers radio beat reporter after covering and traveling with the team. Jeff was part of the Fox Sports Radio Network. ‘Biggsy’ began his career in the late 80s at KWNK, where he served as sports director, and play-by-play man for high school basketball and football. From there, Jeff landed at Sportsradio 710 KMPC in 1992. "I covered the Raiders, making L.A. radio history by interviewing the players after the game ‘live’ via cell-phone.” In 1993 and ’94 he worked as a beat reporter for the Angels, and hosted post-game Angel-talk. After KMPC, Jeff continued as a reporter, working as the L.A. radio correspondent for ESPN Radio, AP, UPI, and One On One Sports. In ’95 Jeff was a part of L.A.’s first ever FM Sportstalk, by doing sports updates at KMAX. And then in ’96, Biggsy was back working as the L.A. field reporter for XTRA 690, before starting up with 1150 in March of ’97. In addition to his duties as a reporter, Biggsy used to be the regular fill-in on the nationally syndicated Jim Rome Show, and has also done shows for One On One, and The Sportsfan Radio Network. |
Big Watusi: SEE Mark Mendoza
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BILL, Brother:
KACE, 1963-69; KUTE, 1973;
KGFJ, 1978; KEZY, 1978-79; KIIS, 1979-93;
KMLT, (Lite
92.7FM), 2000-01. "Brother Bill" worked at the
Riverside "Lite 92.7FM" outlet until early 2001. William "Brother
Bill" McKinney worked evenings for KIIS for well over a decade. Born in Shelby, Alabama, he started his broadcast career just after high school. "My aunt always thought I was the bad boy but I dreamed about radio." Bill started at WEEN in Alabama where he made a daily 45-minute drive to the station. He moved to the Inland Empire in the early 60s and did custodial work for an elementary school. During the 1970s he was a high school counselor and a police officer. While attending Valley College in San Bernardino he studied communication and eventually worked at KOLA, KFMW, and KMEN. Bill also spent time at KDES-Palm Springs. In the 1980s he co-hosted the March of Dimes telethon with Stephanie Edwards. He had a recurring role on the soap opera, Santa Barbara. When he left KIIS, Bill filed suit against the station, alleging that he lost his job as a result of racial discrimination, and sought $2 million. The station claimed McKinney wasn't "hip" enough when he was dismissed after 14 years on the radio station's graveyard shift. According to published reports, he attorney said, "Our view is that as soon as he began insisting on a daytime spot instead of the graveyard shift that's when they started to make up a reason to fire him." The attorney for Bill said white disc jockeys were promoted to better time periods while McKinney was not. |
Billy the Kid: KIKF, 1994-2002; KSPA, 2006-08. Billy worked at KSPA in the Inland Empire until 2008.
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BINGENHEIMER,
Rodney: KROQ, 1976-2017. "There was nothing about
him that wasn't 'on.' Rodney single-handedly cut a path through the
treacle of the '60s, allowing all we 'avants' to parade our sounds
of tomorrow, dressing in our clothes of derision." This from David
Bowie in July 1992 Details magazine. Rodney "on the Roq" Bingenheimer had been a longtime weekend jock until early summer of 2017. He was a fixture on the local rock scene who always seemed a step ahead of various trends from the English invasion to glitter to punk rock. He was born December 15 in San Jose and grew up in Mountain View. Rodney sat in on an album, performing a one-note piano solo with Joan Jett on I Wanna Be Your Dog. In 1966, he appeared on the Monkees' tv show as a regular guest and was Davy Jones's stand-in on the show. He hung around with Sonny & Cher and Sal Mineo dubbed him, "Mayor of Sunset Strip." According to a profile in Art Fein's tasty book, The L.A. Musical History Tour, he opened Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco club in 1972 (his previous club, the e Club was at 8171 Sunset) during the second "British Invasion" of the early 1970s. According to Fein, "It was the place to commingle with Queen, Bowie, Suzi Quatro, Joan Jett, Sweet, Led Zepplin and T. Rex." His movie credits include Up in Smoke, Rock 'n Roll High School with the Ramones, Back to the Beach with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello and Repo Man among many others. He was a syndicated columnist for the national publication Yeah, Yeah, Yeak and appears in Flipside Magazine. His single record I Hate the '90s featured artists from Hole to Sonic Youth. On KROQ he played music you can't hear anywhere else - local L.A. artists, punk, imports, and psychedelic '60s music. Stra |
Bingham, Bob: XTRA, 1960. Bob was managing editor at XTRA News. Unknown.
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BINGMAN,
Frank: KLAC. KGIL. Frank was the
robust-voiced announcer-narrator on the Straight Arrow
radio show that ran on Mutual from 1949 to 1951 to sell Nabisco Shredded Wheat
cereal. He was also the announcer on Swan Song. Frank became a anchor man for ABC-TV and did voiceovers for movie previews of 20th Century-Fox. Frank left Los Angeles when he retired and went back to live in the West Virginia area to be near his son. He died in August 1988 in Northern Virginia, and one month before his death, he addressed the membership of the Metro Washington OTR Club. Bingman revealed that in his 40+ years of broadcasting, Straight Arrow was his favorite series and that Howard Culver had been his best and closest friend. |
Bingo, Mike: KSRF, 1985. Unknown.
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BINKOWSKI,
Brooke: KNX, 2006-07; KPCC, 2007-12. Brooke is managing editor of Snopes.com.
Over the years, so many LARP have had to change careers from radio because of the ever-changing climate of jobs shrinking, and LARadio.com has chronicled the career trajectory for many of those who found themselves unemployed due to budget cutbacks and format changes. In 2017, the LA Times profiled the journey of Binkowski. Brooke was a freelance journalist who had worked with CNN, KPBS, Southern California Public radio, CBS Radio, as well as KNX. In the Times' bylined story by Gary Warth, he writes: "Binkowski said the last couple of years have seen a shift on the Internet from viral videos about busty women, puppies and aliens to fake news, propaganda and racist stories created by sites seeking a quick buck from the gullible public." Brooke sifts through 1,500 daily emails responding to a myriad of questions. She assigns a team of four staff reporters and two contract writers to look into the ones that are the subject of most inquiries. Some are easily solved and traced to hoax or humor sites. Others can take days or even weeks to track down." |
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BINN, Stacey:
KABC, 1986; KNX. Stacey worked for
Metro Traffic in Washington, DC. Her wit and unusual voice made listening to
traffic reports a pleasure. She died November 1, 2013 after a long battle
with the complications from cancer treatments. She was 61 when she
died in hospice care in Virginia. Stacey was born on June 12, 1952
and lived in Los Angeles until her move to the Washington, DC area
in 1989. All who knew Stacey remember her for her sense of humor and
quick wit and her devotion to her family and friends, according to a
published obituary. Binn was huge part of The Jack Diamond Morning
Show on WRQX-Washington, DC for about 1/2 of the show’s 24 year run.
“Her wit, wisdom and ‘odes’ always informed, educated and
entertained,” said Diamond. Binn disappeared from the Jack Diamond
Show years ago due to medical reasons, and never returned. Diamond
added, “Our friendship transcended a medium that is known for hit
and run friendships. I am so thankful our friendship lived on till
her passing." "Even though she left L.A. long ago, her smoky voice was easy to remember,” emailed David Bernhart of Burbank. “So sad.” Stacey went by her married name, Stacey Williams. This was her second marriage. Her first husband also had the last name Williams, consequently Stacey changed her last named from Stacey Binn to Stacey Williams twice. |
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BIONDI,
Dick:
KRLA,
1963 and 1965-67. Born in In 1961, Dick won the Gavin Top 40 Disc Jockey of the Year Award. Perry Allen wrote of Dick: “Some of us endured the music as we focused primarily on tripping over our own ego devices. Others held the music at arm’s length and attempted to make it into some kind of unemotional reference point. Dick Biondi merged with the music. And, by doing so, he solidly coalesced with the listener. No wall. They simply shared. He and his listeners were Siamese twins…joined at the never endings of integrity. This, when bullshit was radio’s most important product. He and a precious few rare others maintained a valid personal posture. “Through it, radio itself was protected. During the KRLA 30-year reunion, host Casey Kasem introduced him: “Dick was one of the most beloved personalities to ever open a mike on KRLA.” |
In 1966, Billboard listed Dick as
the most popular late evening dj. In 1967, he returned to
Birchum, Mr.: SEE Adam Carolla
|
BIRD, Bob: KRKD, 1962-70; KIIS; KHOF; KFSG. Bob spent nearly 20 years on-air and engineering stints at KRKD, KIIS-AM, KHOF, KFSG in Los Angeles, and at KSBW in Salinas. He died July 20, 2010, at the age of 77. “His moniker at KIIS-AM was ‘Bob Bird, the Music Man,’” wrote his son Brian Bird. “My dad also did extensive voiceover and commercial work during that time. He left radio in 1974 to finish his Masters Degree in theology at Azusa Pacific University after which he became a hospital chaplain working for nearly 20 years in that field at Whittier Hospital, Kaiser Hospital in Los Angeles and St. Joseph's Hospital in Orange County.” Bob’s son Brian has a media career in Hollywood and his grandson, Cameron, is a writer at Wired Magazine. |
Bird, Eric: KMNY, 1994-97; KSCA, 1996-97; KKLA, 1997-98; KIEV/KRLA, 1998-2001. Eric was apd at KRLA (formerly KIEV). Last heard, he was a paralegal in the Miami area.
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BIRDFEATHER, Barbara: KMET, 1969-71; KPPC,
1971-73; KPFK, 1973-74. Barbara, best known as one of the early
female voices of Los Angeles “underground” radio, died April 26,
2009 following a long bout with
lung cancer. She was 69. Born in Mt. Kisco, New York, Birdfeather worked as a professional astrologer, and wrote The Birdfeather Astrological Space Book, published in 1969. She wrote regular astrology columns for Cosmopolitan and Rags. "Barbara was an extremely kind and understanding human and humane being,” recalls former KMET program director Richard Kimball, “and one hell of a good dj. Birdfeather preceded me on the air every night at KMET, before B. Mitchel Reed took over that slot. We always had a pleasant, on-air chat about the happenings of the day. Even though we were both adamantly opposed to the Vietnam war going on at the time, I never once heard her say anything negative about those responsible for that conflict. She simply made her point known by the music she chose to play.” |
Later, Barbara continued writing about music for various publications, and served as publicist for acts including Scottish blues rocker Alex Harvey. More recently, Birdfeather had worked as a floral designer. Following a stint as a music reviewer for the LA Times, since 1981 Barbara has been a floral designer.
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BIRRELL, Harry: KFWB, 1968; KNX, 1968-99. Harry, longtime veteran newsman and anchor at KFWB and KNX, died May 26, 2013 of complications from lung disease. He was 85. A native of
Steubenville, Ohio, Harry was born March 5, 1928. He started his
broadcasting career at WBVP in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania in 1949.
From there he moved to WEIR in Weirton, West Virginia. Then on to
WSTV in his home town, KLIF-Dallas, WNOE-New Orleans, KCBQ-San
Diego, WINW-Canton, Ohio and WGBB-Merrick, Long Island, New York. He joined KFWB, Group
W Westinghouse, before being called by CBS and KNXNewsradio in 1968.
He was hired as a news anchor and worked there for 25 years before
retiring in 1993. But not completely. For the next 5 1/2 years, from
his home studio, he continued to send in daily reports of Ventura
County news that were heard throughout the day on KNX. |
Then, in January 1999, he completely retired after
nearly 50 years in radio broadcasting. Harry has been honored by the Radio
and Television News Association of Southern California with nine Golden
Mikes for his excellence in broadcasting. He has also been honored
repeatedly by the Greater Los Angeles Press Club, the Valley Press Club, the
Associated Press and United Press International. Harry has also received the
National Headliners Club Award for his coverage of the assassination of
Senator Robert Kennedy and has been honored by the Broadcast Communications
Department of California State University, San Francisco.
His highest honor was the Dupont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism given to him by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. Harry has also been called upon countless times to do narrations for Panorama International Productions, TR Productions and other video and audio production companies. He also had a role in the Blake Edwards motion picture, That's Life, starring Jack Lemmon and Julie Andrews. He and his wife Emily were married for over 60 years.
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BISHEFF, Steve:
KSPN, 2007. The former newspaper sports columnist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and Orange County Register acted as an
"Insider" at KSPN. Steve has covered the Southern California sports scene for more than a half century. He is the author of seven books, including the critically-acclaimed John Wooden: An American Treasure and Always Compete, a profile of Pete Carroll's successful years at USC. Steve has been covering the Trojans since the 1960's, first as a student reporter and then in a newspaper career that resulted in him being inducted into the class of 2012 for the USC Athletics Hall of Fame |
Bishop, Bob: KCSN, KUSC. Last
heard, Bob was working at KHFM-Albuquerque.
Bishop, Denny: KPOL, 1978. Denny is one of
the voiceover talents at KNBC/Channel 4.
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(Peter Berk, Miguel Barazo, Clarence Barnes, Ed Brand, and Jerry Bishop)
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BISHOP, Jerry:
KLAC, 1965; KFI, 1969-74;
KKDJ, 1975; KIIS, 1975-79; KGIL, 1983-85.
Jerry
passed away on April 21,
2020, following several weeks of
hospitalization. He was thought to be in his early 80s.
Using the name Bill Bishop, Jerry worked at San Diego’s top-rated KCBQ in 1963 before coming to LA in 1965. He made a great second career as a voiceover guy, which included announcing the syndicated game show Cross-Wits, which enjoyed a five-year run beginning in 1975. He was also the voice of the Disney Channel from 1983–97. Jerry was best known for his announcing work on the long running syndicated Judge Judy show. After five and half years with KFI, the Cleveland-born jock commented to LA Times’ James Brown: “I’m not flashy on the air and people tell me that I’m self-deprecating. But I don’t believe that everything you say or do has to be fantastic.” In the early 1960s, Jerry worked afternoon drive at WDRC-Hartford. In between KLAC and KFI, he jocked at KFMB-San Diego. Jerry was named MOR disc jockey of the year in 1970. Times’ radio reporter Don Page said he is “whimsical, pleasant and with good taste.” PAt KIIS he teamed with Tom Murphy for the “Tom and Jerry Show.” In 1979, Jerry was the off-camera announcer on NBC/TV’s Dick Clark’s Live Wednesday. |
Bishop, Pat: KFI, 1934-71. Pat Bishop
passed away in the mid-1970s.
Bishop, Robert: KPPC, 1969. Last heard,
Robert was living in San Diego.
BJ: KEZY/KXMX,
1994-2000; KIIS, 2000-07. Bjorn "BJ" Dahl is the
Director of New
Media at CBS/LA.
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BJERRE,
Miriam: KPFK; KNX, 1973-77; KFWB, 1979-95.
Miriam passed away in early December 2021, following heart
surgery. She was 84. The former student body president of Beverly Hills High School, Miriam majored in Art History at Smith College. She went on to earn a Master's in journalism from UCLA. She was a volunteer at KPFK/fm and went on to be a reporter, writer and eventually news director. Bob Sims, news and program director at KNX, says that when the station hired Miriam as the market’s first female co-anchor in 1973 "we got a lot of complaints." Apparently there was the thinking that only deep voice man could deliver the news in an authoritarian way. In 1977, Miriam became a West Coast correspondent for CBS. She retired in 1998. She married restaurant owner Jon Persoff later in life. He died in 2010. |
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BJORKLUND, Jennifer:
KFWB, 2014. Jennifer is a veteran broadcast news
anchor and reporter with 27 years in the business, the last 15 of
them in Los Angeles television. She spent 12 years with KNBC/Channel
4, five of those years anchoring Today in LA, according to
her website. She co-hosted with Phil Hulett on a midday show at KFWB until a format flip to all-Sports. Jennifer started her career in radio at Cal Poly SLO’s radio station KCPR, where she was news director. Her first real broadcast news job was morning drive anchor for the Santa Maria ABC News radio station KUHL. From there she moved to Santa Barbara, taking over as the morning anchor when the station’s news anchor Linda Nunez departed to KNX. Jennifer later moved to tv, working at KEYT first as a writer/producer and weekend reporter, then as morning anchor, and finally as weekend anchor. She arrived in Los Angeles with an offer to cover breaking news in the helicopter for KTTV, flying in SkyFox during the station’s early morning newscast and Good Day LA. |
Blabon, Duffy: KBLA, 1966; KGBS, 1974. Duffy
was general manager at KBLA. Unknown.
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BLACK, Guy:
KJLH, 2007-23. Guy worked mornings at KJLH until he was replaced by
Steve
Harvey in late summer of 2009. He has a weekend show at the Stevie Wonder
station. Guy is a veteran urban music connoisseur, outstanding comedian and community activist. His recent ventures have included: mornings and md of Miami’s HOT 105, as well as pd in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, K-104. He headed operations and programming of Oscar Winner Jamie Foxx’s, Foxxhole Radio Network on Sirius XM Satellite. He is back at KJLH doing Saturday Mornings with “Radio Free Grown Folks Radio.” |
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BLACK, Tre: KKBT, 1995-96. The former KKBT personality died of a massive heart attack on March 7, 2010, at the age of 41. He was found dead in the shower by a friend. Tre was praised as an innovator. He was WaxMaster Torey and ruled the airwaves in underground hip-hop back in North Carolina. He went on to work at WJLB-Detroit. In the last year of his life he touched many people through SourceEnergyRadio.com with his team of passionate, loving teachers who supported him through his journey. |
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BLACKBURN,
Dan: KNX, 1972-76. Dan is a veteran broadcast and
print journalist with more than forty years of experience ranging
from covering presidents to predators. He also is the winner of
several journalism awards and a recognized, widely published outdoor
photographer. As a network correspondent for both NBC News and CNN, Dan covered almost every presidential campaign of the past 35 years as well as being assigned to the White House, Capitol Hill and the national science and environmental beats. And he was music correspondent for the NBC News Overnight program with Linda Ellerbee. He was the writer and reporter for CNN’s special series Sierra Under Siege and The Polar Bears of Canada. He has covered numerous Space Shuttle flights, the Viking robotic landings on Mars and the Voyager encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune including live daily reports from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena that set the standard for coverage of the Voyager Neptune encounter. He also served as contributing editor for the Outdoor Life Network, hosting documentaries and special reports on a series of topics. He was principle reporter/producer and host for the national television special Red Planet Rendezvous about NASA’s exploration of Mars. He also appeared as senior correspondent and analyst for national network coverage of the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. He is a widely consulted political analyst. Dan also is the founder and president of Image Associates, a widely praised Los Angeles-based strategic communications, consulting and video production firm with links to political, corporate and production associates in California, Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States. |
Blackburn, Michael: KBCA, 1976. Unknown.
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BLACKBURN,
Valerie: KFWB, 2007-15. Valerie was
Controller of the CBS/LA cluster and general manager at KFWB, for seven
years. She resigned from both positions in early 2014 to do some traveling and
reconnect with friends and family.
When she was asked
if there was more to the story, Valerie commented: “Nothing more
complicated than I’m just ready to take some time off. I’ve seen
you do it a few times over the years, now it’s my turn! Timing is
good right now to do some travelling and reconnect with family and
friends. I’ll wander back to radio at some point – I’ll always be
a radio gal.”
Valerie has spent seven years at the CBS/LA cluster. Before joining CBS,
Valerie spent seven years with Susquehanna Radio where she served as
market controller before being elevated to director of business
operations for the San Francisco market. Prior to that, Valerie held a
similar position for 11 years with Jacor Broadcasting in Denver. |
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BLACKWELL,
Mr.: KABC, 1972-74; KIEV, 1975-81. Mr.
Blackwell died October 19, 2008, at the age of 86. The outrageous fashion critic was born Richard Sylvan Selzer, but as Mr. Blackwell he was best known for his annual list of Top 10 Worst Dressed celebrities. He was a talk radio host at KABC from 1972-74 and KIEV from 1975-81. He died of complications from an intestinal infection. He abandoned an acting career in 1958 and switched to fashion design. Mr. Blackwell issued his first tongue-in-cheek list of Hollywood fashion disasters for 1960. His notoriety grew steadily over the years as he took Hollywood’s female celebrities to task for what he saw as their failure to dress in good taste. He told a reporter that most of the women he attacked on his Worst-Dressed List were people he genuinely admired for their talent, if not their dress sense. Mr. Blackwell was the one fashion critic that terrorized Hollywood. Cary Grant slept with him (or so the story goes), according to Entertainment Weekly. His celebrity landed him on tv shows such as Matlock and Matt Houston and he became a darling on the tv talkshow circuit. Mr. Blackwell recounted in his autobiography, From Rags to Bitches, that he had suffered a troubled, poverty-ridden childhood in which he was variously a truant, thief and prostitute. |
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BLACKWELL,
Richard: KMPC, 1975-76; KJLH,
1976-79; KACE, 1979-82 and 1984-85; KGFJ,
1989-94; KJLH, 2004-06. Richard started his music career in 1975 as a very popular Los Angeles club DJ under the name ‘Mr. Melody,’ the name given to him by Natalie Cole. Richard worked as a club DJ for over 25 years in LA and was the first disc jockey to work in both the club and on radio at the same time. Richard used the name ‘Mr. Melody’ during his career until 1989, deciding to drop it when he went to work at AM 1230 KGFJ. Richard hosted the Continental Broadcasting television program, LA's Great Personalities from 1983-2001. Later, Richard co-created and hosted the Internet live broadcast jazz program, Jazz On My Mind from 2010-13. He is currently the ceo of blackwell360entertainment.com, a major company that produces radio and television programs, manages and books performing artists and produces live events. The company is based in Bear, Delaware. Since 2012, Richard has been on air at FM 91.3 WVUD in Newark, Delware with his weekly “Night Moods” radio program, and in 2016 he began producing and co-hosting the monthly syndicated music show “Music Notes” with the legendary bassist Al Turner. |
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BLADE, Richard: KNAC; KROQ, 1982-2000; KYSR, 2003-07; KCBS, 2018. Richard is on Sirius Satellite Radio and worldwide on Worldspace's Retro Radio. He hosted "The Flash Back Lunch,” on JACK/fm. In 2022, he received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Sheppard in 1952, he started on BBC radio in the 1970s. Richard came to the United States in 1976 and his British accent became his trademark and virtually the essence of his livelihood. Some listeners insisted that he was from Australia. It was difficult to get a job in the beginning, so he ran a mobile disco company for a while, playing music for everything from Hollywood parties to bar mitzvahs. In the late 1970s he found radio work in Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo and finally arrived at KNAC. He picked his last name from the popular movie, Blade Runner. He offered his services to KROQ for free, which eventually led to his almost-two decades of work at “the ROQ.” Richard made several appearances on CBS’ Square Peg, and he was “Mr. Doughnut” in a Japanese tv commercial. He was half of the popular morning team of “Ramondo and the Blade” in1983 and later did mornings with the Poorman for a period. In the mid-1980s he was also the Monday dj at 321 Club in Santa Monica and a veejay on the cable tv show L.A. Music Guide, which was carried on 35 stations. He has produced six compilation CDs of AOR rock from the 1980s that he featured on his “Flashback Lunch” segment. “Radio is everything I’ve ever dreamed of. I was like every 12- or 13-year old kid who’s ever stood in front of a mirror with a hairbrush and dreamed of being a rock ‘n roller. I couldn’t sing so a disc jockey was the closest I would come.” For a time in the late 90s and early aughts, Richard moved to the Caribbean to teach scuba diving. L.A. declared June 9, 2023, "Richard Blade Day." |
Blair, Jack: XPRS, 1972. Unknown.
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BLAIR,
Rob: KACD, 1998. Rob achieved a Master’s in Divinity at Claremont School of
Theology. He launched "Blair On-Air Productions" doing voicework for various
stations. The emphasis of his Master's was an emphases on pastoral counseling, death and dying, collaboration and leadership, and social justice for the LGBTQI community. Before that he spent more than a quarter of a century on air in radio/television landing the night job/md position while still in high school at legendary WZPL in Indianapolis, then on air in L.A. radio and Palm Springs tv while still in college at Chapman University. "I enjoyed the community service aspect more than the job itself. From being named 'Humane-a-tarian of the Year' from the Humane Society (The Society’s Highest Award), to my work with the American Cancer Society, expanding the St. Jude radio-thon to both radio and tv, developing a fundraiser called 'Weather Kids' raising money for local schools, and speaking on the importance of suicide prevention: these all made me feel blessed." |
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BLAKE, Barbara:
KTWV, 1990 and
1997-2010.
Barbara was a major part of the Smooth Jazz landscape, first as an
air personality
and then as host of an international radio show. She died June 10,
2021, following a long illness. She was 80. "Barbara died
peacefully surrounded by her beloved friends, after a short
illness," Valerie Geller, her dear
friend. Talaya
Trigueros, Pat Prescott, Maggie
McKay, Deborah Howell, Chuki Lord,
Rosemary Jimenez, Belle Starr,
Turi Ryder, Jamie Young-Eke,
Carol Archer, are among the many mourning the loss of a
colleague and friend. For many years, Barbara hosted a Smooth Jazz Sunday brunch live on the air around Los Angeles. The show featured live performances by Smooth Jazz artists and was a huge hit, becoming an identifying staple to KTWV’s successful weekend programming. After she left the WAVE Barbara created a Smooth Jazz Sunday brunch website which then expanded into CitizenPlanet.com, a two-hour Smooth Jazz brunch show of international contemporary jazz, world fusion music and global cultural information. The show began its international syndication in France, Mauritius and Vietnam. In addition to KTWV, Barbara was a dj at stations in San Francisco, Honolulu, and Seattle. Her show on the Internet came out of an expanded Smooth Jazz Sunday brunch show from KTWV. "Her interviews and podcasts will be part of her legacy," emailed Geller. "Barbara also read the opening forward on the audio version for Audible, Beyond Powerful Radio, and was one of the first people to jump into podcasting and have some success at it early on." For a time Barbara hosted an NAC show for KYOT-Phoenix as well as working part-time at “the WAVE.” Between assignments at KTWV, Barbara was living in Seattle. For the past 16 years she had been living in Redondo Beach. |
Blake, David: KFI, 1989. David broadcasts morning drive news at WWL-New Orleans.
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BLANCHARD, Red: KABC, 1956; KXLA, 1956; KPOP, 1957-58; KFWB, 1959-60; KNX, 1960-65. Richard Bogardus “Red” Blanchard
passed away on June 16,
2011, at his home in Escondido. He was 91. Death was
attributed to complications in the recovery from recent cancer surgery. |
He recounted his early fame: “I had my greatest radio success in San Francisco. I worked at KCBS from 1951 to 1955 and was written up in Life Magazine, Time and other major publications. By 1955 it had run its course and I returned to Los Angeles.” He went to KPOP to do mornings and while he was there, Red recorded Cape Canaveral, Pts 1 & 2 on Pirate Records. A year later on the very day he was let go from KPOP, he was fired from the “graveyard shift on KFWB. In 1960 he became a staff announcer at KNX for five years. “I was fired due to illness. The boss got sick of me.”
Red had always been interested in the technical side of radio and was hired on as an engineer at KHJ/Channel 9, working there for 15 years until his retirement in 1980. Red missed “the contact with the public” from his radio days but enjoyed the way things were. Red’s wife died in 1986 at age 60 after a long illness.
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BLANCO, Irma:
KCMG, 1998-2001; KHHT, 2001-02;
KLAC,
2002-04; KBIG, 2004-12; KOLA, 2013-16. Irma
worked morning drive with Valentine at MY/fm (KBIG) 104.3 until late summer
2012. In the spring of 2013, Irma joined the morning show at KOLA in the
Inland Empire. She left in January 2018.
The native Los Angeleno returned to the Southland in late summer of 1998 to join the “Mega” morning team from side kicking to Chicago's Mancow. She bridged a change in morning teams from Danny Romero to John London to George Lopez. She worked at WZTA and WINZ in Miami, AirWatch traffic for KFI, KGGI-Riverside and KYLD-San Francisco. “In three years I’ve worked with three different morning men [and counting?!], three gms, two ownerships, two pds, two on frequency change and one format change. Whew!”
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BLASE,
Neale: KKDJ, 1972-73; KGBS,
1975-76; KDAY, 1977-78; KWST,
1979-80; KNX/fm, 1983. Born in St. Louis and
growing up in Sacramento, Neale started his radio career at the age
of 19. Before arriving in the Southland, Neale worked for some of
the Rock giants – KOMA-Oklahoma City, KGB-San Diego,
WIBG-Philadelphia and CKLW-Detroit. He met his former wife, Christine (Christine Brodie, former pd at KTWV), while working in Sacramento, and they worked together at KKDJ. In between radio and voiceover assignments, Neale was a studio locations driver at all the major movie studios. He also has designed and produced a collection/series of innovative promotional, merchandising and marketing products based on his love of radio and music. Neale has worked mostly morning drive. When he sold his home in L.A. in late 1986, he returned to Northern California and worked at KFOG-San Francisco. For many years, Neale was part of the morning team at KMGG-Santa Rose. He candidly admitted that the job only paid $7.50 an hour but it gave him an opportunity to recapture the “fire in his belly.” In early 1997 Neale joined KWNR-Las Vegas. “I instantly stumbled into the vast wasteland of liner-card mentality. I fired myself from station #40 for ‘felonious sense making’ and for security reasons. I’m living in seclusion in a radio rehab retreat in an un-marked location in Atascadero. In 2013, he published Radio on the Run: Hired 40 Times ... Fired 22, Rock 'n' Roll Memoir of 60's and 70's Renegade DJ. |
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BLASKE,
Art: KFWB, 1968-71; KHJ/fm,
1971-72; KLAC/KZLA, 1972-93. Art is doing voiceover
work. “I started in radio during a really fun era.” Art was one of the booming news voices that proclaimed we were about to hear “KHJ 20/20 News.” He was born and raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota and started working on a St. Cloud radio station while still in high school. In the beginning, Art alternated between jocking and news at KDWB and KTCR until he settled on news at WDGY-Minneapolis/St. Paul in 1963. “We had stolen the ‘20/20 News’ theme from the Drake/Chenault people. Someone in their organization thought they might just as well hire me to do it on the real thing and that’s how I got to KFRC-San Francisco.” Technology was limited in Art’s early news days. “We made up for the lack of actualities with dramatic writing and a dramatic delivery. At one station we had to write every story in the first person to give the sense that it was going on right now.” In 1993, Art joined the world of voiceover. “Most stations would never allow a news person to do commercials. I’m having a great time doing voice work.” |
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BLASSNIG, Ron: Ron was a beloved CBS Radio engineer who was responsible for KTWV, KRTH, and KLSX. He died of a kidney tumor on October 30, 2008. He was 62.
”Born and raised
in Seattle, Ron discovered in high school a strong interest
in broadcasting, listening to the big stations in Seattle
and sitting up at night tuning in the far away signals from
exotic locations like San Francisco’s Big 610 KFRC and KREM-Spokane,”
wrote his CBS Radio colleague Jim Blakely. “Ron
started hanging with the announcers and promo people working
at Seattle’s Top 40 radio stations collecting 45s and
getting his feet wet. Ron was hooked. Radio would become his
life.”
Ron worked as a
dj and engineer in the Seattle area before moving to KLOK-San Jose
and becoming the station’s chief engineer. He moonlighted at Ampex
as a lab technician and gained his legendary experience and skill in
tape machine technology. |
Blatt, Steve: KUSC, 2004-05. Steve did weekend work at the Classical music station.
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Blatter held the
position of Vice President, Programming for Big City Radio, where he
was responsible for formatting and branding all of the company's
radio properties (located in |
During his six-year tenure at Big City Radio,
Blatter conceptualized and implemented the programming strategy for the
Country formatted, Y-107 in
Blatter's success in formatting and branding new products in highly competitive marketplaces, as well as his extensive knowledge of traditional and new media, played an instrumental role in the rapid growth of Big City Radio.
Blatter began his career
in media in 1986 at WXRK/fm (Infinity-owned) in
In 1988 Blatter moved on
to become the Music Director at
After four years at WYNY, Blatter was tapped as director of programming for MJI Broadcasting. There he was responsible for the content and packaging of 12 nationally syndicated programs in a wide variety of radio formats. He also created, in conjunction with E! Entertainment Television, the radio industry's first daily entertainment and music news fax service. Additionally, Blatter produced live backstage coverage of the Grammy Awards, the Country Music Association Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards.
Blatter has a B.S. in
Economics-Management from Ithaca College in Ithaca,
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BLATTNER,
Buddy: KMPC, 1962-68. Buddy was the radio voice
of the NBA's St. Louis Hawks in the 1950s and a longtime baseball
broadcaster including play-by-play for the Los Angeles/California Angels
from 1962-68. He died September 4, 2009, following a long illness. He was
89. Blattner also played parts of five seasons in the major leagues and was a world table tennis champion, according to an obit in a St. Louis publication where he had been living.. He founded the "Buddy Fund" in 1962, an organization that continues to supply athletic equipment to underprivileged children in the St. Louis area. Buddy was a table-tennis whiz in his youth and won the world men's doubles championship in 1936. He made his big-league debut as a Cardinals second baseman in 1942, although he had only 1 hit in 23 at-bats. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1943-45, and returned as the New York Giants regular second baseman in 1946, batting .255 with 11 homers. Blattner played parts of three more seasons for the Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies before retiring. For his career, he appeared in 272 games with a .247 batting average. Blattner turned to broadcasting, teaming with Dizzy Dean on St. Louis Browns' radio broadcasts and then announcing the Game of the Week on ABC television and later on CBS. He joined Harry Caray in the Cardinals' broadcast booth for the 1960 season. After six seasons with the Angels, he became the play-by-play announcer for the Kansas City Royals from 1969-75. |
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BLAZER, Phil:
KVFM, 60s; KIEV, late 70s; KGIL,
80s. Phil was the creator and host of
award-winning Jewish radio and television
programs – previously heard on KIEV (870AM) in
the late 1970s – and pro-Israel activist. He
died August 25, 2020 in Burbank. He was 76. He
was president of Blazer Communications and
publisher of the national newspaper Israel
Today. Blazer was born on February 12, 1944, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Wolfman Jack helped launch the broadcast career of Blazer, then 21, when the legendary dj gave him a chance to host a show about Jewish culture and music at KUXL in Minneapolis, according to the Jewish Journal. Blazer launched his Jewish multimedia group with his “Jewish Soul” radio program in 1965. In 1973, Blazer urged his radio listeners to cut up their Standard Oil credit cards to protest the oil giant’s anti-Israel stance. Thousands mailed him enough cards to stuff numerous trash bags, which Blazer deposited at the company’s headquarters. The stunt made The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. The television show “Jewish Life with Phil Blazer” debuted in 1977. In 2006, Blazer launched Jewish Life Television Network (JLTV), which now reaches nearly 50 million homes in North America. He produced more than 2,000 TV programs, making him one of the industry’s most prolific tv producers. Blazer Communications also produced the International Jewish Film Festival. |
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BLEU, "The True" Don: KHJ, 1978-80. Don worked mornings in San Francisco until early summer of 2015 when he retired. Host of the morning show at Star 101.3/fm in San Francisco, Don Bleu (real name Rick Kelleher) was one of the most popular personalities in Bay Area radio, but Twin Cities listeners remember him from KDWB in the glory days of Top 40 AM radio. A native of East Grand Forks, Minnesota, Bleu began his career in 1966 when his University of North Dakota classmate Shadoe Stevens encouraged him to give radio a try. He signed on at KILO in Grand Forks, and soon became the night-time disc jockey. After a term at KQWB Fargo, he moved to the Twin Cities and KDWB in 1968, where for the next ten years he was one of the top jocks in the region, even touring the state with his own group, True Don Bleu and the Upper Division Back to the '50s Rock and Roll Revue. His Minnesota success earned him a spot at KHJ. In 1980 he moved to San Francisco, where he became a star in the adult contemporary format, twice named National Adult Contemporary Air Personality of the Year by Radio & Records Magazine. He's also enjoyed success in television, having hosted The Gong Show for a season, as well as shows for the Discovery Channel and Home and Garden TV. |
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BLINOFF, Mark: KMPC,
1968-79. Mark died May 19, 2005. He was 70.
Mark started at KMPC in 1968 and was promoted to pd in 1972. After major changes to the format in early 1979 where he had to fire some high profile personalities, he said: “We’re not running a museum here. Radio is a living, breathing organism and we owe it to our listeners to try to reflect a contemporary lifestyle, to let them know what’s going on in the real world.” Mark joined Merv Griffin Radio as vp/gm and three years later bought KWIP-Salem, Oregon with Roger Carroll. “We sold the station in 1989 for a lot more than we paid for it.” Before joining KMPC, Mark was pd at KEX-Portland and assistant pd at KSFO-San Francisco. |
”In recent years, Mark taught fifth grade in the Alhambra School District. He loved working with children. It was hard for him to be ill, but harder to be away from his students. Mark loved helping young people. I know that first hand,” wrote Sharon Benoit. Mark suffered from a life threatening lung disease.
Block, Alex Ben: KNX, 1999. The former editor of The Hollywood Reporter was the showbiz reporter at KNX. He's now connected with an entertainment website and continues to write for THR.
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BLOCK, Susan: KIEV, 1985-87; KFOX, 1987-93; KLSX, 1998. Susan calls herself a sexologist. For years every weekend, Susan ran a singles connection show on a program called “Saturday Date Night” and later “March Night.” The L.A. Weekly sponsored her first show. She began guesting on tv programs plugging her book and suggesting how singles could meet someone of the opposite sex. The self-described “hostess of the most personal show on the airwaves” went to Germany to broadcast her dating formula overseas. The self-proclaimed “ethical hedonist” also hosted HBO’s Radio Sex TV. At KLSX she worked with Chuck Nasty. In 2005, she hosted a DVD called 'Squirt Salon,' featuring images of the elusive G-spot. She's written Advertising for Love, The 10 Commandments of Pleasure, Being a Woman and The Bonobo Way: The Evolution of Peace through Pleasure. |
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BLOOM, Andy:
KLSX, 1991-93. Andy
left his post as operations manager at WPHT-Philadelphia in late 2015. He is
president of Andy Bloom Communications, specializing in talent coaching and
development. In the spring of 2018, he spent two years with Entercom’s Minneapolis-St. Paul
cluster. After a long career as an accomplished radio programming, research and management executive, Andy turned his attention to serving as a political writer and talk media guest discussing the hot issues in 2020. Running his own media research and consulting firm, Andy Bloom Communications, is based out of Minneapolis. Since 2015, he has also developed a growing following as a writer of political and public policy articles for Newsmax Media. His latest research and analytical piece delves into the issues and complexities surrounding the mail-in ballot controversy. |
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BLOOM, Howard:
KLAC/KMET/KTWV, 1977-87.
Howard started out as a screener for Arbogast and Margolis at
KLAC. He worked part-time after his work at a liquor store.
Howard worked his way up through the sales ranks at Metromedia and was there for the end of the "Mighty Met." Howard died of a heart attack in November 1993. He had been working as gsm at Metro Traffic at the time of his death. |
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BLOOM, Lisa:
KABC, 2000-01. Lisa practices law
with her mother Gloria Allred and she worked at Court TV. Lisa received her undergraduate degree from UCLA and law degree from the Yale Law School. She practices in her mother's law firm, Allred Maroko & Goldberg. Lisa worked weekends at KABC. She was featured in a massive eight-page story in Los Angeles Magazine. The title of the piece was The Trials of Lisa Bloom. Some highlights from the Bryan Smith story: The legal pundit and civil rights attorney made a name of herself taking on powerful men on behalf of her female clients. Then she came out defending Harvey Weinstein last fall, and all hell broke loose. She anchored her own show on truTV, Lisa Bloom: Open Court (for eight years) and had parlayed appearances as a legal analyst on cable news and entertainment show into a career as the go-to pundit on CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew, KABC, and the Joy Behar Show. Her reputation ignited when it was learned that Lisa represented Harvey Weinstein. How could she, of all people? She didn’t just work with him. She defended him. Lisa received death threats and rape threats against her and her daughter. To make matters worse word surfaced that Bloom, in the course of her work with Weinstein, had struck a deal for his production company and the rapper Jay-Z to make a docuseries based on a book she had written about the Trayvon Martin case. “It was probably one of the worst times that I’ve ever seen for her, or at least that I’ve witnessed,” says Bloom’s daughter Sarah, an attorney who joined her mother’s shop. The central rule in most crisis management is not to make matters worse. In the Weinstein case, however, Bloom didn’t just breach that rule, she trampled it, tore it up, and turned it into confetti. Even she admits that she stumbled in those first fraught days. She is characteristically Type A about how she spends her off-hours, she’s summited Mount Kilimanjaro, backpacked both the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire and the Inca Trail in Peru, completed the New York City marathon, and visited more than 40 countries from Cambodia to Costa Rica. Law school wasn’t part of the plan early into Bloom’s days at UCLA. Like her daughter, Gloria Allred didn’t set out to become a lawyer at first. Bloom worked for her mother’s firm for nine years after graduating from Yale Law. There was an early marriage, though Bloom talks little of it. |
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BLORE, Chuck:
KFWB, 1958-63; KIIS. When radio
was all over the place in the 1950s, Chuck Blore carefully gathered
the biggest and most popular 45s into the cloak of organization,
assigning each favorite a number for most songs sold at retail each
week and then took the 40 biggest songs and played them over and
over adding a dash of exciting news with verbs that leaped out the
speakers. No one died on the freeway, "their bodies were splattered
over the fast lane of the 101." Contesting set the station apart
from the primary block programming of the others. He sprinkled magic
pixie dust, promoting the men who rode the turntables as the Seven
Swingin' Gentlemen. No cookie cutter jocks, each was unique. Each
was a real personality. Thus, Top 40 Radio was born in Los Angeles.
Prior to1958, Radio in LA was offered in black & white. Chuck added
color to the presentation. Chuck was certainly much more than the
inventor of Top 40 Radio, but that alone puts him at the pantheon of
geniuses. Chuck passed on July 15, 2021. He was 92. Radio is a lot
less colorful since Chuck left. But, oh do we admire his enormous
contribution. My mommy listened to KFW --- B. Born in Los Angeles, Chuck worked in Texas radio before returning to L.A. at age 26 to program "Color Radio/Channel 98," only his second programming job. KFWB (Color Radio) became one of the most successful personality-formatted stations in the history of Los Angeles Rock radio. Chuck says he added "showmanship - the dash, the flash" to KFWB. |
In an LA Times interview, he said: "Radio is
an entertainment medium and what we did was bring entertainment back
to the medium, but in a totally different way."
When he left
KFWB, he had a non-compete clause and was unable to work in radio
for 18 months, so he decided to give commercials a try. He built a
little office onto his garage and spent $13 for a file cabinet. Only
eight months into this venture, he entered his first competition
“the international broadcast awards” and won in every commercial
radio category.
Chuck has become a much bigger name in
advertising than he was in radio, but it was his enormous success in
radio that propelled him into advertising. In 1961, he won the
prestigious Gavin Award as The Radio Man of the Year for “Original
contributions elevating both the entertainment and communication
levels of radio...” Ten years later he was known as "The King of the
Radio Commercials."
In 1963 Chuck formed a business with his partner, the late Don
Richman, a former tv writer and also the co-founder and former
general manager of the NBA Seattle Supersonics. During the ‘70s, their
commercials captured close to 20% of all annual awards for radio advertising
excellence, the majority of those were for their “Reach Out And Touch
Someone” commercials. According to one advertising trade, a Chuck Blore
commercial is the one you don't turn off, because you think it is part of
the station's regular programming.
In a rather unique advertising twist, Blore/Richman started creating tv spots for radio stations in the late 70s. Their most successful campaign, tagged "The Remarkable Mouth" series, visually illustrated the sounds of the client station originating from an attractive model's mouth. It was an audio picture of a radio station's on-air day. Women appearing as "The Remarkable Mouth" included Bree Walker in 1979, and Kelly Harmon, sports legend Tom Harmon's daughter. Other memorable campaigns include "The Janitor Fantasy," with Richman playing a radio station's night janitor imitating the various djs on the station.
When KIIS radio was floundering in the 1970s, Chuck consulted and created a unique sound that melded music, words and commercials into one flowing output. Moving the station from nada to number six in L.A. in one book.
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BLOW, Kurtis:
KPWR, 1995-98. Kurtis was one of the first
superstars of rap. His 1980 megahit The Breaks introduced
to the world a new sound, which came to be called "rap." NPR's Guy Raz called him up in Burlington, Vermont, to get an update of what Kurtis has been doing. He's still making music, but his life has taken on a new direction. He is now a licensed minister. "It was a gradual transition," he says. "The music business is really a spiritual business whether we know it or not." While reading the Bible one day, Blow says, "I got so into it that I couldn't put it down, and I got to the last book in the Bible, Revelations, and it's sort of like a prophecy. And I said I'd better get my act together before all this stuff starts to happen." Blow moved to New York and started his own ministry called the Hip Hop Church. Now he spends his days preaching and teaching around the country, making music with his new group, Kurtis Blow & The Trinity. They have just released their sophomore album, called Father, Son, & The Holy Ghost. |
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BLUE,
Bobby: KNAC, 1972-76; KMET. Bobby is a veteran of AOR era as a dj at KNAC and KMET in the
1970s. He's now the national media director of New Life Ad Agency, which produces and places 30 minute block programming and placing time buys nationally. |
Blumberg,
Loren: KPWR, 1994-95; KACD, 1995-98; KSSE/KSSC/KSSD, 1998-2007. Loren was
sales manager at Hero Broadcasting.
Bo, Jason:
KDLD, 2003; KIIS, 2004-05. Jason worked swing at KIIS/fm.
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BODDEN,
Alonzo: KBLA, 2021. A regular panel member on NPR's
Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, Alonzo joined afternoon drive at
the new Progressive station, 1580/KBLA and left before the year was
out. Bodden has been making audiences around the country laugh for more than 20 years. In his upcoming stand-up special, Heavy Lightweight, which streams on Amazon Prime Video, he presents a range of topics from slavery, cell phones, and the #MeToo movement, to millennials, Kanye West and Taco Bell. As he says, "he likes to mix it up and hopes that audiences will join him for a laugh and a think, or two." Since then, he has starred in two comedy specials for Showtime: Historically Incorrect and Who's Paying Attention. He's also made appearances on ABC's Dr. Ken and Fresh Off the Boat, Dr. Phil, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Comedy Central's The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore and Californication. A car and motorcycle aficionado, Bodden hosted Speed Channel's 101 Cars You Must Drive and America's Worst Driver on the Travel Channel, and has joined Jay Leno for several off-road trips on his CNBC series Leno's Garage. He was also a field correspondent on Animal Nation with Anthony Anderson, and a contributor on the Science Channel's How to Build Everything. |
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BODINE,
Buster: KPWR, 1987-89. LARadio had Buster for a couple of
years at "Power 106," but he was a superstar at WNAP-Indianapolis.
Buster died Tuesday (April 11), at the age of 70. In recent years, Buster had an active voiceover career working from his
home studio for such clients as Guitar Center and Warner Bros. Records. In the
'80s he voiced a number of movie trailers. After Buster’s stint at “Power 106,” he joined Westwood One’s Oldies Channel and later “The 70s.” He was born and raised in Duncan, Oklahoma in 1953. He graduated from the Elkins Institute of Broadcasting in Dallas and then attended the University of Oklahoma for one year. Bodine left Indianapolis in the early 1980s for successive radio jobs in West Virginia and ur-decade career as a voice-over specialist in Los Angeles. “It is impossible to describe the mammoth presence this legend held at WNAP in the mid- to late ’70s,” said Mark Patrick, the former Indianapolis tv and radio sports broadcaster, on social media. “And following a much too brief radio career, he was an epic voiceover talent in L.A. You’ve likely heard a movie trailer or familiar national commercial with his commanding voice.” Bodine helped make WNAP a Classic Rock sensation when the music was first released. In the 2012 documentary film “Naptown Rock Radio Wars,” radio historian Don Worsham referred to WNAP as the nation’s first commercially successful FM-only rock station. |
Bodington, Dave: KFI, 1968-69; KIEV, 1977-78; XPRS, 1978-80. Dave works at Voice of America in Washington, DC, as a broadcast technician.
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BOERNER,
Rich: KLSX, 1997-2009. Rich was creative director and voiceover for CBS
Interactive. He was one of the voices at KLSX that was silenced when FM Talk
Radio station flipped to AMP RADIO. Rich moved to L.A. in 1996, his marriage was strained because of all the moving, then his mother was diagnosed with incurable ovarian cancer. Between the move from San Francisco and Los Angeles he was triangulating with trips to New York to get things in order. “Jay Clark and Bob Moore were so good to me. They told me to take whatever time I needed. I was an only child to a single mom, who died a few months later.” KLSX dropped ‘Real Radio’ while Rich was back in New York burying his mother. “Mel Karmazin apparently hated the name ‘Real Radio.’ While I was in New York I got this frantic call from Clark saying they needed to change the name of the radio station. I was thinking about burying my mom but they needed something right away. Out of desperation I said, ‘Why don’t we just call it, 97.1 The FM Talk Station because that’s what we are and we’ll figure it out over the course of the next year. Jay said, ‘Perfect’ and that’s how we became The FM Talk Station.” Rich had a great decade-plus run at KLSX. One of his highlights was when Howard Stern broadcast the Video Music Awards. “I interacted with the guests who were there to be interviewed by Howard. It was mind-boggling to meet so many stars all at once. The one star who came in with so much aura around him was Arnold Schwarzenegger. It shocked me the way he carried himself. It was like he had a force-field around him. He was very affable but he definitely had IT.” |
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(Peter Burton, Steve Bisheff, Jim Backus, and Rico Banana)
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BOHRMAN,
Stan: KLAC, 1967-68; KABC, 1969; KHJ;
KNX; KGIL, 1985; KFWB, 1990-94. Born November 9, 1930, Stan grew up in
Van Nuys. He studied at the Stanford University journalism school. He worked
at KFRC-San Francisco in the late 1950 and early 1960s. Stan
abandoned his disc jockey days to do news and was part of the Voice
of America in New York. He started in the Southland at KHJ and went
on to be a fixture on local tv newscasts as an investigative
reporter and anchor. He won Emmys for his newscasts in Los Angeles and San Francisco and accolades for his presentation of guests opposing the Vietnam War. He also won the duPont Award for investigative reporting in Philadelphia. In the 1960s, he co-hosted Temp II on KHJ/Channel 9 with Regis Philbin and Maria Cole, widow of Nat “King” Cole. The show featured celebrity guests and those opposing the War when dissent was not popular. He also did Talk radio on KGIL. Stan had a substantial role in China Syndrome playing a newsman opposite newswomen Jane Fonda. His son, David, produces specials for NBC/TV. He had a heart attack on October 13, 1994, and died at the Tarzana Medical Center at the age of 63. |
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BOIVIN, Paola:
KMPC, 1992-93. The Daily
News sportswriter co-hosted a sports talk show at KMPC. She is now
teaching at the Arizona State University Walter Cronkite School of
Journalism and Mass Communications. The school launched sports
journalism degree programs on the master’s and bachelor’s levels in
2015 and also runs summer sports journalism camps for high school
students.
Paola has been a sports columnist at The Arizona Republic
since 1995. She was also a reporter at the Los Angeles Daily
News and Camarillo Dally News. Paola graduated from
the University of Illinois at urbana-Champaign.
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Boland, Katie: KTZN 1997. Unknown.
Bolles, The Real Don: KSRF, 1990-92. Don is
a free-lance writer and appears frequently in the LA
Weekly.
Bollinger, Russ: KIKF, 1987.
Russ hosted Raiders Sports Talk.
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BOLTHOUSE,
Brent: KDLD,
2008. Brent was part of the five-year Indie 103.1 life. Bolthouse's diversified portfolio includes entrepreneur, event producer, DJ, and photographer. He has appeared on MTV's The Hills. Brent was born December 18, 1969. In 1987, Bolthouse moved to Los Angeles from Joshua Tree and began working as a club promoter. In late 2005, his Bolthouse Productions and Sam Nazarian’s SBE Entertainment Group announced a partnership to develop, promote, and operate night clubs, supper clubs. He has since expanded his interest to restaurants with the launch The Bungalow in Santa Monica, Long Beach, CA and San Diego. |
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BOMAN, Tommy:
KXTA,
1997-99; KFWB 2004-06.
Tom is the vp of the broadcast operations for Learfield’s sports ops
teams based in Missouri, overseeing the broadcast production of 49
college sports networks. He is in charge of broadcast talent and
station relationships. He primarily oversees talent relations for
the company’s 100+ university partners. He joined the company in 2006 as broadcast manager; promoted to VP in 2014. Before Learfield, he was in the Los Angeles market as a producer with the Dodgers Radio Network and FOX Sports Radio in LA. |
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BONADUCE, Danny:
KYSR,
1999-2005; KLSX, 2006-09. The former
member of the Partridge Family tv series until 1974, Danny
started mornings at "Star 98.7" with Jamie White on
September 15, 1999 and left July 1, 2005. Bonaduce made numerous tv guest appearances but, like many child stars, his career floundered and he got into drugs and other trouble. In 2005, Bonaduce starred in the reality series Breaking Bonaduce, which followed him as he struggled with drugs and alcohol, trying to save his marriage. Dante Daniel Bonaduce was born on August 13, 1959, in Broomhall, Pennsylvania. The child actor first appeared on television in commercials and on such shows as Bewitched and Mayberry R.F.D. He joined morning drive at KLSX on January 2, 2007 with Adam Carolla. The station is attempting to get some traction with the year-old morning show that replaced Howard Stern. At Adam’s personal website he made a point that “it's not going to be the Danny and Adam show. It will be the Adam Carolla show with Danny Bonaduce and Teresa Strasser.” Bonaduce took on several new projects. He wrote about his experiences in his 2001 autobiographyRandom Acts of Badness and served as one of the hosts of The Other Half, a talk show, with Dick Clark and Mario Lopez—another former child star. In 2002, Bonaduce took on Barry Williams, who played Greg on The Brady Bunch, in a televised boxing matc Danny went on to work morning drive at WYSP in Philadelphia until late summer of 2011. In November 2011, he joined morning drive at KZOK-Seattle. |
Bond, Lyle: KHJ, 50s. Lyle died on a San Diego golf course in the 1970s.
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BOND, Nancy. Nancy has been directing commuters through the maze of Southern California freeways for over two decades. “When I first began it was AirTraffic Communications. The company was owned by Steve Springer from San Diego. He had a traffic service there and wanted to expand into Orange County and the Inland Empire. Steve hired me in January of 1989.” Up to that point the only radio experience that Nancy had was doing news on the Saddleback College station, KSBR (88.5/fm). At the time that Air Traffic was launching, there was already LA Network, owned by Rhonda Kramer, and Metro Traffic, which was owned by a group based in Houston. Eventually AirTraffic became a subsidiary of Jacor Communications, then Jacor was taken over by Clear Channel Communications around 2000. Eventually Nancy and her young staff took over the news and traffic for a myriad of radio stations and radio companies. Her reports have been heard on KFI, KOST, KGGI and KBIG. But in the beginning, it was just Nancy and John Quinlan doing the drive time reports. Nancy didn’t get into the world of traffic reporting until she was 40. She and her husband were on the ground floor of the Microwave explosion in the 1970s, and for a decade owned ‘Bond’s Microwave Oven Centers’ all over the Southland They taught the senior citizens at Leisure World how to cook with the microwave oven. |
Nancy has twins. Her son, Clint, is the art director for Nickelodeon's SpongeBob. Her daughter Amy taught in the Czech Republic and returned to the states in 2007. She's now in retail sales at Yankee Candle in the Irvine Spectrum.
Bonds,
John: KMPC, 1988; KNX, 1989. John is the publisher of the Taste of Vegas
Restaurant Guide and works at KSFN-Las Vegas.
Bones: KNAC, 1991-92. Last heard, Bones was
working in Las Vegas.
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BONFIETTI, Jayne: KFI, 1998. The Cooking Babe died February 20, 2009, at the age 49. Jayne had a nationally syndicated daily one-minute radio recipe show called “The Qwik Cook” that was heard on KFI in the late ’90s. She described her show as “brainfood on the half shell, a spicy tidbit to go.” She grew up in suburban New England with a mom who could turn out dinner for a dozen defensive linemen from her brother’s college football team with an hour’s notice. Her mother is Czech and Russian and her father is Italian and Finnish. Raised Catholic and culinarily confused, Jayne headed West to date, join a sorority, and find her dining destiny. She attended restaurant school and became a restaurateur/caterer. The experience prompted her to organize a support group called Caterers In Recovery. Jayne lived in San Diego with her husband and four sons, ten chickens, four dogs, and two sheep. |
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BONGINO, Dan:
KABC, 2020-23. The Dan Bongino Show, featuring former
Secret Service Agent and NYPD officer and
New York Times
best-selling author, Dan started airing on KABC from 6 p.m.
- 7 p.m. in early 2020. Daniel John Bongino was born in the Queens on December 4, 1974. He is a syndicated conservative commentator, radio show host, author, former congressional candidate. He is a member of the Republican Party and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2012, 2014, and 2016. Bongino attended the City University of New York, where he earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in psychology, and Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a Master of Business Administration. |
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BONINO, MaryAnn:
KUSC, 1979-89. MaryAnn hosted the
weekly series, Sunday Music on Classical KUSC. She has
brought Classical music to life for audiences of all ages as a
concert producer, public speaker, as well as radio/tv host. As a past member of the KUSC family, Bonino produced and announced several weekly series’ from 1979 to 1989. Bonino is currently Professor-at-Large Emeritus at Mount St. Mary’s College, the Founding Artistic Director Emeritus of the Da Camera Society and creator of its Chamber Music in Historic Sites series. She is also the Curator of the Doheny Mansion, and recently published The Doheny Mansion: A Biography of a Home. A Woodrow Wilson and Fulbright Fellow, MaryAnn Bonino began her career as an historical musicologist. A member of the faculty of Mount Saint Mary's University in Los Angeles, Bonino's current title (Professor-at-large Emeritus) reflects her interdisciplinary interests. In1973, Dr. Bonino founded the Da Camera Society to present concerts in the historic Doheny Mansion on the MSMU downtown campus, and later served as the mansion's Curator. |
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BONILLA,
Tera: KMVN, 2007-09. Tera worked middays at Movin' 93.9/fm until a format
flip to Spanish in early 2009. She is the owner of The Red Hot Band. As a recording artist, Tera has headlined the House of Blues, The Conga Room @ LA Live, The Key Club, toured with Enrique Iglesias and shared the stage with artists such as Ricky Martin, Jennifer Paige, Meatloaf, and the late Barry White. During which time, she has performed for the Academy Award’s Governor’s Ball, the Emmy Awards dinner, all of the premieres of Pirates of the Caribbean, just to name a few. |
Bonk, Thomas: KMPC, 1992. Thomas
was the golf
writer for the Los Angeles Times and was seen
frequently on golf telecasts.
Boogerman: KROQ, 1994-95. Unknown.
Bookasta, Gary: KROQ, 1973-78. Last heard,
Gary was a lobbyist in Washington, DC.
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BOOKBINDER,
Adam: KKGO/KSUR, 2017-23. Adam is co-host of the Go
Country KKGO morning show. Adam is originally from Southern New Jersey right outside of Philadelphia and made the move out west to Los Angeles in 2002. He got his start in radio while in college in New Jersey where he had his own show called “Anything Goes.” After an internship at a Philadelphia radio station, he got his first real job at Top 40 station WPST-Trenton, NJ/Philadelphia where he was morning show producer, guy on the street doing funny stunts (like getting shot with paintballs while live on the air) and eventually had his own on-air time slot and would fill in for other personalities, while also being the station’s promotion manager. Once to Los Angeles, Adam worked for then CBS Radio for 14 years at 94.7 The WAVE and K-Earth 101, first in promotions then moving into the world of digital and social media. He also worked part-time on air at KBBY in Ventura for five years. He came to Go Country 105 in 2017 and has never felt more at home where he is the digital director and has gotten back to his love of being on air. Adam has done our live remotes from Disneyland and most recently, all of the on-air for Stagecoach. Adam also works at Oldies K-SURF. |
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BOOKER,
Chris: KLSX/KAMP, 2009-20; KYSR 2021-23. Booker joined AMP Radio for middays from New York on June
1, 2009 and stayed until the spring of 2019 when the pandemic forced much
downsizing. He went on to work at WNYL-New York. He was at the
Thumb 20 Countdown host at Sirius XM. Chris returned to the
Southland to take on afternoons at KYSR (Alt 98-7) in early 2021. His multi year radio career includes shows at WXRK (K-Rock) and WHTZ (Z100) in New York, along with WIOQ (Q102)-Philadelphia and Sirius Satellite Radio. Chris has won “Best On-Air Personality” awards from Billboard Magazine and Radio & Records. He appeared on over 50 VH1 programs and series including the I Love the... and the Greatest Ever... series. Chris also handles the red carpet coverage of the Grammy Awards for CBS and CBS.com. He is a former MTV and MTV2 “VJ” who has hosted such shows such as First Listen with Britney Spears, 120 Minutes, and The Return of the Rock. Chris was also the New York Correspondent for Entertainment Tonight. He's made regular appearances with Howard Stern and guest hosting on LoveLine with Dr. Drew. Chris has also written features for Billboard Magazine. |
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BOOKER, Levi:
KUTE; KJLH, 1979-84 and 1986 and 1992-2015. Levi hosted a weekend show at KJLH.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Levi did morning drive at KJLH and moved up from md to pd in 1983. During this time he was made director of singles and 12-inch records for RadioVision. Levi hosted one of the first know reggae shows in the country while at KUTE. Levi was a broadcast major at Cal State ?? in the early 1970s. In 1975 he worked at the KPRS-Kansas city, the first black owned station, according to Levi. He then went to Houston and worked at KYOK, KTRH and KLOL. Los Angeles has remained home base however and "Levi Who Loves You" is loved. While New Yorkers had radio icon Frankie Crocker, Angelenos revered Levi. Before the hip hop generation knew about stuntin', Booker swayed the masses with the power behind his microphone. The larger than life personality fondly recalls the time he shut down Crenshaw Blvd. between Rodeo Rd. and Florence Ave, a span of over 10 city blocks. With a request to his listeners to "stop your cars, turn your radio up and let's party," traffic literally came to a stand still on the famous boulevard! |
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BOONE,
Pat: KPZE, 1988; KJQI, 1993-94. Pat appears at various entertainment events
and is heard on SiriusXM "50 Gold" channel. For most of his life,
Pat has prided himself on a “squeaky-clean” image. He once
considered changing the title of his 1955 cover hit Ain't That a
Shame to 'Isn’t That a Shame.' His singing career in the 1950 was second only to Elvis Presley’s in record sales. He stayed atop the music charts for an astounding 200 consecutive weeks. His recording of Love Letters in the Sand stayed on the pop charts for 34 weeks. In late 1993, Pat started on the KJQI when it was a Beautiful Music station doing a three-hour weekend show and left a year later. His 1996 album of hard-rock cover songs, Pat Boone: In a Metal Mood was received with curiosity. Pat was born in 1934. He married Shirley Foley, the daughter of country music star Red Foley. |
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BOORTZ, Neal:
KGIL, 2007-08. Neal's syndicated show began ins on KGIL (1260AM)
October 29, 2007 and ended in early 2008. Neal is retired from his daily syndicated radio talk show. In his final piece, Boortz said he looks forward to paying less attention to the news because he believes the country is headed for disaster due to young people knowing more about LGBTQ history than American history. He says, “I’m going to just enjoy my friends, family and my travels while the rest of you see if you can pull this country back from the brink.” |
Bordonaro, Bob: KKGO, 1982-86; KCTD, 1998-99; KMZT, 2000-01. Bob left his post as the gsm at Classical "K-Mozart" in the spring of 2001.
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BORGERS, Helen: KLON/KKJZ, 1981-2015. Helen spent 25 years at the all-Jazz station, KKJZ. She died November 12, 2017. Helen worked afternoon drive. Helen's love of jazz may have been instilled at birth as she was born in one of the hotbeds of the music, Kansas City. But, more likely, it was engendered by her older brother, Ken Borgers, whose playing of John Coltrane, Gerald Wilson, Charlie Byrd, and Buddy Rich - Helen's earliest memories of jazz - came through the walls of his bedroom into hers. Her father taught radio and television at USC, Ken graduated from USC with a degree in broadcasting, and her mother, too, had been in radio, back in the '40s in New York. She was a copy writer at WMCA and WOR, and worked with budding jazz journalists Leonard Feather and Barry Ulinov at the studios. So, jazz and radio were in Helen's blood. Helen's intention, however, was a life in the theatre. She majored in theatre at Cal State Long Beach, and her only radio work was doing weekly radio dramas on the student station, KSUL. |
But Ken became program director of KLON a few years before CSULB became the licensee. Ken recruited Helen to help out at the station, even giving her a weekly show featuring vocal music. When the move was made to the university, and Ken streamlined the format to 24-hour jazz and blues, Helen was part of the deal. She became the weekend jazz host, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to five. A year of that and she became the weekday afternoon drive host, eventually moving to the morning drive when Chuck Niles came from KKGO to do afternoons. After her second year as a host, Helen was also made music director, interacting with the record label promoters, building and maintaining the station's jazz library.
In addition to her drive-time and library duties, Helen began a weekly three-hour interview program called The Artist's Corner. Each week, a different guest artist would come to the studio, choose their favorite recordings from the KLON library or bring them from home and, between their selected tracks, discuss these recordings and their lives with Helen. The guests included local greats as well as out-of-town legends, including Horace Silver, Gerald Wilson, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Steve Allen, Ray Brown, Kenny Burrell, Eddie Harris, Tony Williams, all of the Marsalis family members, and many, many others. Lots of the young giants got early exposure on this program, including Joshua Redman, Nicholas Payton, Mark Whitfield, Brad Mehldau, Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick, Jr., to name only a few. For over ten years Helen hosted this show, building a reputation as the station's number one interviewer.
From 1991 to 1994, Helen was pd for a European jazz service called Eurojazz, which served the Netherlands via satellite from a special studio built in KLON's facilities. Along with designing and coordinating locally-produced jazz shows and European-produced shows, she would do her local drive-time show each day at KLON, and then go up the hall to broadcast to Europe. Eventually the service relocated to London, and Helen moved to England to set up the studios and reorganize the programming. After a year abroad, she returned to California and KLON, where she has been ever since.
In her capacity as a jazz broadcaster, Helen was invited to give pre-concert lectures at various performing arts centers, has served on panels in jazz conventions all over the world, and has lectured about the history of jazz in middle schools, high schools, and colleges. She has also written articles for international jazz publications. She regularly emcees concerts, festivals, and club dates throughout southern California.
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BORGERS, Ken:
KUSC, 1968-71; KLON, 1978-2000;
KCRW, 2005-09. Ken left as the afternoon voice on "All Things Considered" at
KCRW in the summer of 2009. The Long Beach native was host of Jazz from Southern California and served as station manager of KUSC before his career at KLON and KCRW. He is a daily contributor to the premier provider of web-based audio programming, the voice of the audio editions of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine, and many other subscription offerings since Audible's inception in 1999. Since late summer of 2015, Ken has been membership director at Jazz 88.3 KSDS in San Diego, where he also does occasional fill-in. |
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BOROS,
Michelle: KAMP, 2010-18. Michelle started middays at AMP RADIO on March 1,
2010. She left in the spring of 2018. Michelle now works mornings at 102.9 Now
in Dallas. She previously spent 7 1/2 years with XM Satellite Radio, programming the Top 40 "20on20" channel and doing afternoons. Michelle, as she was known on AMP radio, started her radio career in Dallas, doing nights and mornings at KDGE (THE EDGe). She began her radio career at KHKS, doing swing and working for the late Kidd Kraddick. |
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BORQUEZ,
Bob: KFSG, 1980-86. As executive producer for The Dave Ramsey Show,
Bob has been growing the brand. He worked at Christian radio KFSG FM 96.3 from 1980 until 1986. “I was a music announcer. We were a Christian AC [called MOR in the 70’s] and it was the most listened to Christian station of its day,” emailed Bob. “That was the station that was sold to a Hispanic radio company for a record amount, $250 million,” Bob continued. “In 1986, I went to work for Premiere Radio Network as Tim Kelly’s first employee and I worked for Premiere until 1995. Premiere moved me here to Nashville for a project and I stayed. I also do voiceover and audio design.” |
BOSS, Michael: XTRA, 1986. Michael played Oldies in afternoon drive.
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BOTULA, Mike:
KNOB, 1966-67; KFWB, 1968-71;
KRLA, 1971-72; KMPC, 1972-77. In the spring of 2001, California Governor
Gray Davis appointed Mike to the Department of Child Support Services as
Assistant Director of Information and Public Affairs in Sacramento. Since
then, Mike left state service to work as a media consultant in Sacramento. Now retired and living in Stockton, he has gone back to school, and tends his website mikebotula.com. |
Bowden, George: KSGV, 1963-65; KGGK, KNOB 1965-67. After a career in tv, George taught in the Los Angeles City College Radio-TV-Film Department from 1975 until his retirement in 1995.
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BOWEN,
Peter: CBS/LA DOS. Peter, former DOS at CBS/LA, is the new Director of Sales
for the Townsquare’s Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, IA local media cluster.
He has spent the majority of his radio career in Chicago, most recently as Director of Sports Sales for Entercom/Chicago. Before that he served as VP/Market Manager for Cumulus Media's Chicago group, preceded by a three-year stint as svp/director of sales for CBS Radio/Los Angeles. Prior to that, Bowen spent 16 years with CBS Radio/Chicago, serving as SVP/GM of WBBM (B96)/Director of Sales for CBS Radio Chicago and gsm at NewsRadio WBBM. |
Bower, Jayne: KFWB, 1990-93. Jayne is working at WWJ-Detroit. She and husband Jeff live in Ann Arbor, have two pre-teen boys. Jayne produces a "Labor Pains" feature.
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BOWERS,
Jason: KIIS, 2001; KDLD; KLYY;
KYSR, 2004-08. Jason worked swing at STAR 98.7. He is
active on many platforms as a media content creator, tv host and actor.
In addition to his work as an on-air performer, Jason was the head writer and producer of Countdown shows from Rick Dees, Billy Bush and Dial-Global. When asked his best sweeper in an AllAccess interview, Jason responded: "KROQ used to have their studios in Burbank, and their legal ID said they were overlooking Forrest Lawn Cemetery." At KLYY, Jason remembered a promotion idea that came out of office chairs breaking and not being repaired. "One day on air, the chair broke while I was doing a break. I gave it away on the air and I got an angry phone call from our business manager who was concerned with liability issues." |
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BOWKER, Bill:
KNAC, 1970; KYMS, 1972-74;
KWST, 1975-77; KROQ, 1978-79. Bill worked
at KRSH-Santa Rosa until his retirement in late 2021. The first time he heard Howlin' Wolf when Bill was about 11 years old, it scared him to death. "From then on I was hooked." He started in radio on August 15, 1969 (the first day of Woodstock), at KUDU in Ventura, an AM country station. "It was my first taste of Country music. We were playing Bob Wills, the Hanks ... Williams and Thompson, Merle Haggard, and more. Being a blues-loving person, I realized there was a whole lot of blues in this music. KUDU's sister station, KBBY, was an automated fm station where Bill and his colleagues talked the station manager into letting them do live "underground radio" from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. After his radio run in Los Angeles, in 1979, Bill moved north to Santa Rosa and he started at KVRE, where he stayed till 1988. They were Sonoma County's most popular station for many years. He was with KRSH for decades. "Pretty much my whole radio career, I've had creative control of my programs. I'm feeling rather fortunate!" |
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BOWMAN, Don: KBBQ, 1970. Don gained fame as a Country artist sing for RCA Victor records and starring in a number of country-oriented films. One of his RCA albums was Funny Folk Flops produced by Chet Atkins. The album liner notes noted: “He is a man who can make chills of fear go up and down the backbone of a composer.” Born August 26, 1937, in Lubbock, Don died June 5, 2013. He has been dubbed “The World’s Worst Guitar Picker.” He learned to sing in church and his early goal in life was “not to be run over by a truck.” In the 1960 he worked at KDEO-San Diego, KEWB-San Francisco, Minneapolis and WKDA-Nashville where Chet signed Don to the RCA label in 1964. He was in the same league as Homer & Jethro. Don was a jock in Los Angles when KBBQ was a Country station. |
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BOWMAN,
Lisa: KABC,
1983-87;
KMPC,
1987;
KLAC,
1990. In 1983, KABC conducted a much-publicized talent search for a
host to work with Bud Furillo and Tommy
Hawkins on “SportsTalk.” Lisa was runner-up; however, one
month later the winner, Merrie Rich, was fired and
Lisa was offered the job.
As the second-place
finisher, she won a trip to Lisa, now living in Arkansas, was a tv actress. She also got the afternoon drive “SportsTalk” job on KABC and later hosted the “Sports Nut” show on KLAC with Gabe Kaplan. She covered the Rams on KMPC. She did boxing commentary alongside Rich Marotta and Lisa co-hosted Stroh's Circle of Sports with actor Robert Conrad.
For a time she lived in
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BOWMAN, Paul:
KFOX, 1982-92.
In afternoon drive, “Sage Brushy,” an imaginary character who hovered over
imaginary freeway tangles, broadcast his bogus traffic reports. While at
KFOX, Paul hosted the Million Dollar Country Music Show. He
went on to own KHAR in Redding and KOWA-Las Vegas. Paul grew up in Lodi. His life revolved around Country music. He had a top ten west coast record, Sally Was A Good Ole Girl. He was inducted to the Country Music Hall Of Fame by the Country Music Organizations Of America in 1998. His television show won TV Show of the Year for 15 years. He also won Male Vocalist of the year two times, and Band of the Year five times. The Paul Bowman Band has appeared in every major city in 17 western states. His tv Show, Million Dollar Country, has been seen in more than 100 cities on the west coast, including Los Angeles where 187,000 people watched each night. In July 2017, Paul announced he'd been stricken with prostate cancer; however, was going to wage war on it and beat it. |
Boxer,
Jack: SEE Joe Terry
Boyd, Donnell: KKTT, 1979; KGFJ, 1980-81;
KLAC/KZLA; KABC. The well-like KFWB sales executive died in late 2001.
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BOYD, Ed:
KKDJ/KIIS, 1973-79. Ed became gm of KKDJ in the
spring of 1973. He passed away in the summer of 2022. Ed had been
living in Miami Beach. He was selling Medicare supplement and health insurance, as well as playing golf in semi-retirement. |
Boyd, Glen: XTRA, 1959. Unknown.
Boyle, John: KLSX,
1998-2009. John was co-host of the syndicated John & Jeff Show that was heard
on the third shift at KLSX until a format flip to AMP RADIO in early 2009.
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BOZEMAN,
Victor: KFAC, 1969-70. Victor Emmanuel Bozeman grew up in Kansas City. He
arrived in Southern California from WNYC-New York to pursue an acting
career. When he left KFAC he became an NBC/TV staff announcer with a lifetime contract. Victor appeared in several tv series including: Ironside and Get Smart. He died November 26, 1986 at the age of 57. |
Bozzi, Dick: KRTH, 1974. Dick is a former
program director at KRTH. Unknown.
Bracken, Denis: KNX, 1963-77. Denis
collapsed shortly after returning from Santa Anita racetrack
in the spring of 1977 where he had done the "color"
for the KNX radio broadcast of the Santa Anita Derby. For more than 10
years, Dennis played foil to Chef Mike Roy. Roy's daughter said, "rail-thin
Denny adored baloney, loathed cheese and hardly knew a Dutch oven from a
Dutch uncle." Denis died at his home in Orange on March 27, 1977, apparently
of a heart attack. He was 45.
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BRADBURY, B.R.:
KIQQ, 1974-75; KHJ, 1977;
KPOL/KZLA, 1977-79. B.R. Bradbury, best known as the
newsman with Robert W. Morgan, died of a massive heart attack
January 17, 2001. He had the heart attack while driving
home from a meeting. A motorist saw his car go off the road
into a ditch and called 911. The car had automatic door and
window locks, which wouldn't open from the outside so the
paramedics had to break in. They tried to revive him for over
an hour but to no avail, according to a family member. B.R. was born in Aberdeen, Washington, on September 4, 1942, and he spent several years at Grays Harbor College. His first job was at KHOK-Hoquiam, Washington. In 1965 B.R. moved to KOL-Seattle, then in 1970 to KFRC-San Francisco. It was at KFRC that he changed his on-air name from Bill Munson to his real name Bill Bradbury. (According to Frank Thompson, B.R. grabbed onto his first two initials at the last second when he began his first on-air newscast at KFRC. Apparently there was another Bill on the news staff.) |
In 1972 B.R. transferred to KHJ, where he was the newsman for Robert W. Morgan. He went with Robert to KIQQ ("K-100"). At the 1973 annual Billboard Radio Programming Forum, B.R. was voted best newsman. In 1980 B.R. returned to Seattle and worked at KJR. In 1985 he joined CKLG-Vancouver, B.C. as news director. He retired from radio in 1995 and opened his own insurance agency in Blaine, Washington. Lan Roberts, a longtime friend and colleague remembered B.R. "He was a true professional and one of the nicest people you would ever meet in radio or tv." B.R. was 58.
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BRADFORD,
Ronnie. KABC; KNX, 1968-2007.
Ronnie served for 39 years at KNX Newsradio where he was most
recently assistant news director. In 2001, he was one of four Los Angeles area journalists to receive top honors from the Society of Professional Journalists. Ronnie started as a news writer and two years later was promoted to senior news editor. By 1982, he was promoted to news producer and was given the responsibility for the day-to-day news planning and assignments. His promotions continued and in 2002 he was elevated to executive news producer, reporting to Ed Pyle, news director. Bradford attended the University of Southern California where he studied business administration and sociology before being drafted into the Army, where he served a tour of duty in Vietnam. |
Bradley: KROQ, 1997-98; KYSR,
1998-2006.
Bradley worked afternoons at "Star 98.7" until 2006. SEE Bradley
Wright
Bradley, Bill: KLAC, 1956-57; KDAY, 1958-60;
KLAC, 1960. Bill retired to Palm Springs and died July 4,
1997.
Bradley,
Tim: KCRW, 1978; KMGG, KIEV.
Tim is involved in the world of
voiceover and hosted "All Strings Considered" at KCSN.
Bradley, Wayne: KMGX, 1992-94. Wayne is working for Smooth
Jazz WGLX in Wilmington, North Carolina.
He's also executive director at Triovisions.
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BRADSHAW,
Terry: KXTA, 1999-2000. The former Pittsburgh Steeler QB
for 14 seasons, worked a noon talk show beginning August 23, 1999, at
"XTRA Sports 1150." He left following the Super
Bowl in 2000. During his football career he has four Super Bowl championship rings and was the #1 pick in the NFL draft. Bradshaw's goofiness and professionalism has taken him in so many directions. He's appeared in Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds, Failure to Launch with Kathy Bates, and the musical competition The Masked Singer. In a front-page cover story in Parade Magazine, Terry was asked about working with Burt Reynolds. "It was instant likability. Burt immediately brought me into his fold. I was always part of, 'We're going out tonight. I'm going over to Dinah Shore's, we're gonna have dinner there.' So I was part of his inner circle. It was cool. Such a good dude." Every Sunday, Terry is part of Fox NFL Sunday. |
Brady, Jim: KLAC, 1987-88. Jim, one of Toronto's great morning drive jocks from 1973 until 1987, was working morning drive at WRVF/WCFA-Toledo. He died June 5, 2014, following a four-year battle with cancer. He was thought to be in his late 60s.
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BRAGER, Stan:
KLON, 1997-2001. Stan hosted a
Sunday morning jazz show at KLON. KLON, 1997-98. A Sunday morning staple at
KLON, Stan’s passion for early jazz and swing music was featured.
He’s known for his special programs, which focus on the
contributions of outstanding artists such as Billie Holiday, Red
Norvo and Louis Armstrong. Stan exposed his son to the music he loved early and often. He also associated the music with his son's daily routine, such as taking a bath or getting ready for bed. There was music, no matter what they were doing. Later, Brager organized regular father-son trips to jazz festivals and performed a personal nightly rendition of the jazz standard When You're Smiling right before Larry's bedtime. "Today, music is a part of his life," Brager says of his son, "and although he likes more contemporary popular music, he takes it very seriously." |
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BRAILER,
Charlie: KFWB, 1969-93. Charlie, longtime anchor at all-News
station KFWB, died November 7, 2007. He had been part of the
station’s morning drive for many years until his retirement in
1993. He underwent successful heart transplant surgery in the early
2000s, but continued to battle other medical concerns. Charlie was born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, and was a journalism major at the University of Maryland. After graduation he served as a Voice of America producer for the Far East. Charlie went into the army and was stationed at Fort Huachuca in Tombstone, Arizona and was editor of the post newspaper. After the service, he joined Mutual Broadcasting as an engineer and eventually joined Westinghouse in their Washington, DC bureau. That assignment brought him to Southern California. “Broadcast news changed in 1963. When I got into broadcast journalism it was not entertainment and it was not to titillate. I was standing in Arlington cemetery watching a man dig a hole where they would bury John Kennedy. President Kennedy personified a mood of optimism. With his assassination I knew things would never be quite the same again. Americans became disillusioned.” Charlie and his wife retired to the Antelope Valley where he ran very successful pet-sitting service. “I feel fortunate to have been a reporter on some historic events over a four-decade period.” |
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(Billy the Kid, Reed Berry, and Sam Bellamy)
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BRAINARD,
Buzz: KZLA, 2000-05. Buzz was the former co-host with Peter
Tilden on Country KZLA. He's now
host of The Music Row Happy Hour on Sirius/XM. Buzz was on stage in Las Vegas about a half hour before the 2017 shooting on Sunday that took over 60 lives. “We were in the artist tent when it happened, then under a tour bus, then we ran to the Tropicana,” wrote Buzz. “We were staying at The Mandalay Bay on the 23rd floor (nine floors below the shooter) with the same view he had. Unreal and horrifying. Senseless.” |
Brainin,
Janet: KZLA/KPWR, 2000-07. Janet was made DOS of the two Emmis/LA stations
in early 2004.
Branch,
Heather: KNX, 2009-11. Heather broadcast weekend traffic at KNX.
Brand, Ed: KMPC, 1987; KLAC. Ed worked
the Adult Standards format at Westwood One from 1987-2013. He now is a
voiceover talent.
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BRAND, Madeleine: KPCC, 2010-14; KCRW, 2014-23. Madeleine began hosting a new daily news program at KPCC in the late summer of 2010. The Madeleine Brand Show included newsmaker and personality interviews, produced news reports, live updates from reporters on the street, regular contributors discussing a wide range of topics of interest, and stories about the way we live here in Southern California.
She
is
well known nationally as a public
radio host and reporter. Madeleine began
her radio career at KALX in
Berkeley, and more recently
co-hosted NPR’s
Day to Day,
which was produced at NPR West in
Culver City. As a reporter for NPR
she covered national and
international news, and produced
investigative and arts stories as
well.
In 2014, Madeleine launched
Press Play
at KCRW,
which according to her press release mixes
“Madeleine’s distinct perspective and thought-provoking guests. Press
Play will examine stories that truly matter to Southern California -
a cultural hub for many of the nation’s most creative industries and
cutting-edge ideas.”
The station release continued: “Among
the primary goals of the show is to explore Los Angeles as a major
player in the spheres of politics, entertainment, arts and culture,
technology, and science - both nationally and internationally. This
means looking at the world through the lens of Los Angeles, and turning
to guests uniquely tapped into the region’s culture. Press Play
will also take advantage of such KCRW talent as Frances Anderton, Kim
Masters, Matt Miller and Anne Litt, as well as those
who cover food, literature, politics, art, and entertainment.” |
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BRANDMEIER,
Jonathon: KLSX, 1998-2000; KCBS/fm, 2004-05;
KABC, 2015-17. Jonathon worked
middays at the FM talk station, KLSX, and left the station in the fall of
2000. He returned to the
Southland
for mornings at "Arrow 93" in the Spring of 2004 and in March 2005 the station
flipped to jockless JACK/fm. Jonathon was a big star in Chicago (Johnny B Radio Showgram). He described his show to Judith Michaelson of the LA Times: “It’s fun. It’s not political, it’s not vicious, it’s not arrogant, it’s just me having a good time. You could say it’s just me trying to amuse myself.” Jonathon started in radio at age 15 working weekends in Milwaukee. He was a comedian and band drummer out of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He eventually made national headlines while working in Phoenix and in 1983 began a long run in Chicago, mostly at WLUP. In early 2012, he joined mornings at WGN-Chicago. When Chicago's 87.7/fm flipped to Sports in early 2014, he did mornings until November 2014. For a time he was heard in the evenings on KABC. |
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BRANDON,
Leah: KYSR, 1995-2001; KIIS, 2001-04;
KFI, 2004-07. Leah is a free-lance voice
imager and works in the South. She co-hosted a podcast with John Ziegler that
was carried on a number of stations. After 14 years, Leah left Los Angeles Radio. She was one of the most passionate voices in recent years and she will be missed. For the past four years she has worked at KFI, mostly nights as the news anchor and co-host with John Ziegler. She was also the station female imaging voice. From 2001-04, Leah was the full-time overnight jock, fill-in sidekick to Rick Dees when Ellen K was absent and also the KIIS imaging voice. She worked evenings at KYSR for six years and again was the station imaging voice. Leah started out at KGGI-Riverside. “I was absolutely the worst part time announcer on the staff,” said Leah. “I was ‘throwing down the jams in the I.E.’ I can’t believe that they actually HIRED me, much KEPT me until I was nabbed by STAR 98.7. Thank you Carmy Ferreri wherever you are.” "I have been one of the most fortunate people that I know in this business. On the way out of town, I need to thank those who are responsible for all of the doors that were opened while I was here. First and foremost, Randy Lane, without whom, the rest of this letter could never have been written. Randy, the architect of the STAR format, was responsible for hiring me when no one else would. I had more fun on STAR 98.7 than any other radio station in my career." Angela Perelli (Ebbott), you not only made a shift for me upon my return from Denver, but you were a boss as well as a friend. I loved working for you. John Ivey from KIIS/fm hired me to voice their station and do overnights. He also stood beside me during some very dark days. Thank you for that. Rick Dees, thank you so much for asking me to be your fill-in co-host. Robin Bertolucci, thank you for believing in me when I didn't. Thank you for hiring me at KFI and for being instrumental in helping me get my new gig as well. And thank you for genuinely being happy for me. John Ziegler. Good Lord, the stories I could write about here. I just want to thank you for buying that horse for me and for inadvertently bringing my yearning to jump into the Talk Show Host position to the fore. Thank you for giving validation to my crazy viewpoint on all the important issues. Finally, Chris Little, news director for KFI. Thank you for basically putting up with all my CRAP and doing it with a great sense of humor." |
Brandt, Gary: KPOL, 1963-70; KIIS, 1970-72.
Gary is the director of marketing at WOR-New York.
Brandt, Michael: KROQ, 1983.
When Michael left KROQ, he became general sales manager for a number of
stations in San Francisco, including Live105/KITS, K101, and Susquehanna
Broadcasting Company. Since early 2014, he's been a realtor with Jonathan's
Landing Realty in Jupiter, Florida.
Branson, Bob:
KFI, 1969. Unknown.
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BRATTIN,
Corbett: KRTH/KHJ, 1986-89; KFI,
1989; KNX, 1989; KRTH, 1990-94;
KXEZ, 1994-96. Corbett is is semi-retired and
living in the Palm Springs area. Corbett was born in the village of Shepherd, Michigan in 1945. Following high school and four years in the Air Force, his entire enlistment as a dj and radio /tv anchor with the American Forces Radio & Television Service, (AFRTS), he completed his BA in Telecommunications at Michigan State University. Before landing in Los Angeles, Corbett had stops along the way at WOKY & WRIT-Milwaukee, WMAQ-Chicago; and as a sports update anchor for the 300 + coast to coast stations of the Sports Fan Radio Network (SFRN), Las Vegas. While in LA he provided coverage of such major stories as the O.J. Simpson trial, Menendez Bros. trial, Northridge Earthquake and the Rodney King beating. In 1992, he was the Associated Press Award Winner for 'Best Sports Segment' California - Nevada. In retirement, Corbett enjoys singing with the California Desert Chorale (CDC) and with a couple Barbershop quartets. He also loves performing on stage at various theatres in the Coachella Valley, where he is an award-winning actor. He has two daughters, one in Idaho and one in Arizona. Corbett is an animal rights/liberation activist, and an ethical vegan. He urges you...for the planet, for your health, and for the animals...GO VEGAN! |
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BRAVERMAN,
Erik: KFI; KABC, 1996-2008. Erik
left his post as the operations manager at KABC in late 2008. He is
now vp/marketing & broadcasting at Los Angeles Dodgers. In early
2022, Erik and his partner got married on the pitcher's mound at
Dodger Stadium. Braverman, a 16-year talk radio veteran, joined 790 KABC and KMPC (now KSPN Radio) in October 1996 as executive producer where he was immediately promoted to assistant program director then later, program director for KABC and KSPN Radio. He began his career at 17, in Houston, where he worked part-time at KILT-AM & FM before producing issue-oriented and sports talk shows full time. Additionally, he worked on-air as a traffic, news and sports reporter. After moving to Los Angeles, his career continued at KFI and KOSTfm as a talk-show producer and talent coordinator. In April 1994, Braverman joined Westwood One Radio Network as producer for the Tom Leykis show that grew in syndication to more than 200 stations nationwide. He was promoted to West Coast Director of Talk Programming where he oversaw the syndication effort of many west coast based produced talk shows. The on-air personalities he has worked with over the years include: Bill Handel; Tom Leykis; Rush Limbaugh; Dr. Laura; Mark & Kim; Phil Hendrie and the hosts on 790 KABC. “I have been fortunate enough to lead the programming at one of America’s heritage talk stations for several years,” Braverman said. |
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BRAZELL,
Carl: Carl Crane Carl Crane Brazell Jr. died November 27, 2020 of
Covid-19 after a life-long heart disease battle. Devoted family
members were omnipresent in Carl's final days in hospice at home in
Breaux Bridge, LA, his adopted hometown. Carl, a gentle giant among
broadcasting titans; a self-educated musician, chef, historian, &
business executive; radio trailblazer for six decades; a husband
Susan dubbed "The Big Guy;" was nearly 80 years old. He was born
December 5, 1940. Carl began as a news reporter, advancing rapidly to broadcasting's management stratosphere at Metromedia, with stints in the largest US cities as well as radio ventures in Russia and other former Soviet Union countries. In Dallas, as KRLD's general manager, he led the station's move to 24-hour news and spotlighted its partnership with the Dallas Cowboys. A Hall of Fame leader, hundreds of executives and on-air talents grew under his tutelage. A skilled storyteller, Carl's story on Earth has concluded. (from his obituary) |
Breckow, John: KPFK. In the early ‘70s, Breckow doggedly promoted shows in Santa Barbara, spun blues on KCSB, and ran a hip record store on Anapamu Street. After moving to L.A., Breckow had a show on KPFK for years. John went to work for Rhino Records.
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BREEZE,
Connie: KRTH, 2002-03. Connie was born and raised in Detroit, her father
worked at Ford Motor Company and her mother was a music teacher. "We had a huge theater organ in our living room and my mother always had a string of students coming and going through the house." She studied political science at Michigan and then went to Southern California and enrolled in broadcasting school. "In 1985 I got my first job in radio on Tucson Arizona. Since then, I have been on many stations playing all types of music." She was with The Oasis in Las Vegas until early 2020. |
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BRENEMAN, Betty:
KLAC; KFWB, 1954-58; KHJ,
1958-73. Betty is president of Breneman Radio Services and
produces The Breneman Review audio magazine. While still in high
school, Betty started working in the record library at KLAC. “Each
‘Big 5’ personality had a music programmer and I was trained on how
to put a show together.” She followed Peter Potter to KFWB and
worked with him on his tv show, Juke Box Jury. Betty was a
radio/tv major at UCLA and following graduation joined KHJ as music
librarian. She married Tom Breneman in 1960, moved
to Denver and returned to KHJ in 1961. In 1965 Bill Drake came to
consult KHJ. “Under his direction I compiled the ‘Cavalcade of Hits,’ which was the lead-in to the now legendary ‘Boss Radio’ format.” She was asked to stay on working with pd Ron Jacobs. As the first music director of “93/KHJ,” Betty wielded enormous power because if a record went on HJ, it went on everywhere. In 1967 she became the national music director for the KRKO Radio group and all Bill Drake-consulted stations. In 1990 she brought together the original “Boss Radio” team and produced the Silver Anniversary Reunion gala in Los Angles. “The event was the hottest ticket in town.” The souvenir book and CD produced for it have become collector’s items.” Betty is president of Breneman Radio Services and she produces The Breneman Review audio magazine. |
Breneman, Tom: KBLA, 1958. Tom was ceo of Breneman Radio Services. He died September 9, 2003, at the age of 70, after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Tom was a dj at KBLA in the late 1950s. Congressman Sonny Bono, initially a record promoter, sponsored a radio show on KBLA hosted by Tom. The show was broadcast live from various colleges around the city. He also hosted a live show from a local nightclub called “Bren’s Den.”
Tom
helped put KNEZ-Lompoc on the air and then launched KBLU-Yuma and later moved to
KTKT-Tucson and KTLN-Denver. In the 1960s Tom was pd at KACY-Oxnard and worked
at KCOP/Channel 13.
“I
was literally born into radio. My mom and dad met at KFWB in the 30s, she was a
singer and he was an announcer. “It was the biggest daytime radio show of the
time. My dad was in the initial group of entertainers to be selected for a Star
on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.”
Brennen, Tom: KRKD, 1958. Unknown.
Brenner, Carol: KWST, 1976; KZLA, 1977-79;
KMPC, 1979-80. Carol left radio to study for an M.B.A. at
Pepperdine University in order to prepare for the business
side of radio.
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BRENNER, Eric: KABC, 2013-14. Born in Long Island on May 2, 1970 in Bethpage, Long Island, New York, Eric graduated from San Francisco State University in 1993. He's now a tv and film actor. His credits include: Dusk Till Dawn, Snowfall, and Unusual Suspects. |
It seems a lot of people like to trash Dubai
any chance they get. The Internet is full of trolls whining on about slave
labor, oil-rich Arabs, draconian laws, and on and on. These types usually
fall into two categories: Those have never been to Dubai and are basing their
opinion on hearsay and YouTube videos, and those whom had a bad time here for
some reason. Rarely do you get to hear about the positive aspects of my desert
city, so I thought I would share.
First, a little defense. Some “journalists”
have done stories on Dubai over the years, and nearly every time one comes out
it’s laughable. The over-the-top caricatures range from a city full of
drunken British expats running slave labor camps, to an ultra-conservative
city-state that will jail you for holding hands with a member of the opposite
sex. Here’s the truth: Dubai has the same kind of problems that most
cities filled with millions of human beings have. Surprise.
Dubai is by far the most open and liberal
city in the GCC (the Gulf countries). Only the most extreme cases of
indecency will get a second look. Perhaps you heard of the couple jailed for
public sex on a beach. What did they expect? They were drunk and common sense
had obviously left them. A peck on the cheek or a quick kiss on the lips
has never once gotten me in trouble. I hold hands in public all the time,
no issue. Yesterday I saw a girl in the mall with jean shorts so tiny her butt
cheeks were hanging out the bottom. She wasn’t handcuffed and hauled away by
police. At worst she may get a brochure reminding her of the local customs...but
that’s about it. No, alcohol isn’t illegal, in fact it’s everywhere. The place is loaded with bars and nightclubs, and while you can’t buy booze at
the market, there are liquor stores where you can purchase just about anything
you want, so long as you have a license. And a license will cost you about
$27 per year. The other criticism often bandied about is how the city is full of “slave” labor. The people that make this claim really need to go back and read up on what slavery was (and is) exactly. Yes, there have been companies that have infringed on worker rights, and yes some companies still do. Some hold passports of their workers to ensure they don’t flee the country and fail to complete their contract. This isn’t right, and it’s illegal, and more should be done to ensure that these men have the free will to leave if they wish. But no one is holding whips to these guys’ backs, they aren’t on a chain gang, and no one is pointing a gun at them. They make low wages, yes, particularly compared to what someone from the West is used to. But you have to compare the $150 per month they make in Dubai to the $40 per month they would make in their homeland. A Pakistani taxi driver makes around $1000 per month before tips. That’s far more than he’d make at home. It’s no wonder many stay here for 30 years or more, sending money back to their families.
But what about radio? Is it like home? Well,
kind of. Virgin Radio Dubai is a pretty typical CHR with a bit of a European
dance vibe on occasion. We play your Taylor Swifts and Nicki Minajs alongside
Avicii and David Guetta. Hip-Hop/R&B/Rap is big here too. Thank God the
listeners are amazing. I love doing phone calls, and people of all ages call in.
I do topical stuff often, with a female slant on things. Relationship stuff is
as hot here as it is anywhere if not more so. No, we don’t talk directly
about sex, drugs, religion, or God, but I wouldn't do any of that at home. So it’s been an easy transition, and I’ve grown tremendously as a radio
presenter (to use the British terminology). The company I work for, Arabian Radio Network (a division of Arab Media Group) is really amazing, and I’m not just saying that because they pay my salary. They have always treated me very well. I get so much vacation time I cannot possibly take it all in good conscience. Bonuses are great, the health care is amazing, and if I had children their health care and education would be provided for. |
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BRESEE, Frank: The radio performer,
broadcast archivist and character actor wrote Radio's Golden Years. He died June 5,
2018, at the age of 88. In 1942, Bresee was Alvin on the radio show Major Hopalong also starring Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan. Bryan was perhaps better known as the original voice of Elmer Fudd. Arthur later became a second father to Frank. The two often collaborated on projects. Bresee was also Little Beaver on the Red Ryder radio show until 1946. As a little boy, he took his wagon, went behind radio stations and retrieved from the trash various radio broadcast transcription discs. He also collected radio scripts after attending many of the broadcasts. What began as a childhood pastime grew into an important private collections of radio memorabilia. In addition to the discs and scripts, Bresee’s tape archive of approximately 3,900 reels is held at the Thousand Oaks Library. In August of 1949, Bresee began hosting the “Golden Days of Radio” show with his large collection of transcription discs. He played early recordings from then-current radio shows while new shows were being broadcast. He wrote a book with artwork portraying every big radio show of its time. Bresee was one of the first people in Hollywood in the late 1950s to have a movie theater in his home. The theater had around 30 seats and a projector purchased from a local movie theater. Mel Torme, Elvis Presley and Natalie Wood were some of the celebrities who came over to watch films. Many autographed the wall inside the theater, then a chalk board. This theater became the home where tv shows would have their first run through. Monty Hall and Stefan Hatos ran Let’s Make A Deal for six months in Bresee’s theater before they sold it to the NBC network in 1963. Around this time, Bresee’s “Golden Days of Radio” was being featured on KGIL and KMPC. |
In 1966, his program started being offered in Germany over the Armed Forces Radio Network. It went on the full network in 1967, becoming one of the main features for the next 29 years. Bresee played highlights from shows and interviewed radio people. Some of his guest included Mae West, Bob Hope, Jack Benny and George Burns.
During KFI’s celebration of its 50th birthday, Bresee produced a 12-hour special hosted by many of the stars heard over KFI during the golden days of radio, from the 1920s – 1950s. Some of the hosts were Rudy Vallee, Jim Jordan (Fibber McGee from “Fibber McGee and Molly”), Edgar Bergen and Hal Parry (“The Great Gildersleeve”). Throughout his long career, Bresee received numerous awards, including the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters’ Diamond Circle Award, The Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio, Drama, Variety, and Comedy’s Byron Kane Award. He was a past president of Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters. (Frank is pictured with his wife, Bobbi)
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BRESHEARS, Carol:
KPFK; KFWB, 1978-81. The former
program director at KFWB and past president of the Radio and
Television News Association died June 27, 2021, following
complications from a stroke. Since 1989, Carol was the assignment manager/planning editor at KTTV/FOX 11 News. Prior to KFWB, she was news director at KEYT-Channel 3-Santa Barbara. "The Southern California news community has lost one of its most respected journalists," wrote FOX exec, Nancy Valenta. "Through her work at KTTV and with RTNA, Carol touched so many in newsrooms throughout Southern California and beyond. Journalism’s highest standards, exceptional storytelling, compassion and kindness are Carol’s legacy. Carol’s family is planning a memorial service and I will pass along details when they become available. KTTV/Fox 11 News Archive Manager and LARP Mitch Waldow added on social media: "Carol was my first news director in Los Angeles, at KPFK. That was 45 years ago, and I was fortunate to have worked with her at several radio and tv stations over the years. Her youngest daughter, Linda, worked with me at KCOP. The local broadcast community has lost one of its most ethical and respected leaders." |
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BRETT, Ken: KMPC, 1987-91. The former Dodger pitcher was one of the California Angels announcers in the late 1980s. He died November 18, 2003, at the age of 55, of brain cancer.
During his career he played for ten
teams. For over a quarter of a century, Ken held the record for a
pitcher hitting the most homers – 4 – in a single season. He did it
with the Phillies in 1973.
Born in Brooklyn on September 18, 1948, Ken
pitched in the 1974 All-Star game. Brett became the youngest pitcher
to take the mound in a World Series game in 1967 when he threw
1-plus innings of relief for the Boston Red Sox against the St.
Louis Cardinals. Brett was 19 years, 1 month old at the time. A part owner of the Spokane Indians minor league baseball team and the Spokane Chiefs minor league hockey club, Brett pitched 14 years in the majors and tied the modern major league record by playing for 10 different teams, finishing with the Kansas City Royals and his brother in 1981. The left-hander compiled an 83-85 record with a 3.93 ERA in 349 career games. |
Brewer, Jillayne: KGRB, 1977; KLIT, 1978-80. Goldielocks, as she was known, married Johnny Bruce of KDES-Palm Springs.
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BREWINGTON, Ron:
KLON, 1982-87; KGFJ,
1992-94; KJLH, 1992-97. Ron
is a
versatile performer. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he was
heard on KLON, KGFJ, and KJLH. Ron has been the bureau chief
of American Urban Radio Networks since 1983. He is an
entertainment guru whose reviews appear frequently in
advertisements for major motion pictures.
In 2015, Ron made the transition to tv and has hosted The Actor’s Choice with over 150 episodes. The program was a television entertainment talk show, which centered on actors and actresses, as well as directors, producers, publicists, stage managers and other theatrical performers. His show continues on the Internet: https://www.facebook.com/ron.brewington.98 at 11 a.m. every Monday. Now Ron imparts all his universal media in a new broadcasting class at Santa Monica College. Broadcasting Announcing and Production is a course offering training and practical experience in announcing for radio and television and for radio control room operation, combining voice, recordings, editing, and other elements in broadcasting performance and production. Ron was born and raised in New York’s Harlem area. He retired from the U.S. Navy in 1984, where he served for almost two decades as a journalist covering worldwide assignments. He worked at a number of stations in Corpus Christi and Seattle before settling in Long Beach in the early 1980s. He was instrumental in leading a worldwide campaign on behalf of the late Marvin Gaye for a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ron is a stringer for UPI radio and has written for Crisis magazine and Black Diaspora. |
Brick, J.T.: KLAC, 2009-15. J.T. worked evenings at Fox Sports Radio, which is carried on KLAC. He left Fox Sports in early 2018. He's now with SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports.
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BRIDDELL,
Michelle: KTWV,
2020-23. Michelle works weekends at KTWV (the WAVE).
Michelle was born in Redondo Beach but has lived in too many places to count, she eventually made her way back home to Los Angeles. She started her radio career on KLAC, the Fabulous 570, and then moved to the Internet to be a morning co-host and then on to a solo show with Brad Martini. Michelle started her career as an actress and has traveled the world in theatre productions such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Misanthrope and Stop Kiss. She continues to do the occasional acting job. Coming back to Los Angeles, she has done voiceover work and voiced the characters for games such as Planet of the Apes. And speaking of that, she travels all over for 20th Century Fox doing appearances as Dr. Zira, with a great cast of others. Michelle has proudly worked with the USO since 1994. She has traveled overseas to entertain our troops in various countries such as Bosnia, Macedonia, and Croatia. She says It’s a very humbling and rewarding experience and she will happily work with the USO forever. Music has always been her passion along with animal rights and travel. Put her on a flight or a train with good music, friends, a bottle of wine and a dog in her lap and she’s happy! (from her website) |
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BRIDGES, Gene: KLAC, 1989-93. Gene went to work for St. Judes Children's Hospital. |
Bridgman, Brian: KDAY 2009. The former music director at KIIS during the early 90s, joined KDAY as operations director.
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BRIEM, Ray: KGIL, 1953-54; KLAC, 1960-67; KABC, 1967-94; KIEV/KRLA, 1995-2002; KPLS, 2002. Ray Briem died December 11, 2012, at the age of 82, of cancer. He was best known as the all-night host of talk radio’s millions of night owls for several decades.
Born in 1930, Ray
began his radio career as a 15-year-old in his hometown of
In 1958 he was part of radio and tv at
KING-Seattle, where he hosted a |
He was hired at KABC on July 4, 1967. He initially got a percentage of the advertising during his all-night shift, but that perk was eliminated during a recession. For eight years he show was carried nationally on the ABC network.
In an
OC Register interview with Gary Lycan, Ray
said he was most proud of his 10-year association with
commentator Vladimir Posner from the former
Asked if he
would miss the all-night vigil, Ray said: “After 27 years on the
graveyard shift, my body says staying up all night ain’t the
right thing to do. Your biological clock, your circadian rhythms
are always upset.” In late 1995 Ray started an afternoon drive
talk show on
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BRIGGS,
Chelsea: KAMP, 2018-20. Chelsea joined the new morning
team at AMP RADIO in early 2018 and left in the spring of 2020 due
to major personnel changes at Entercom due to the coronavirus
pandemic. She earned a bachelor's degree in
Arts, Broadcasting and Cinematic Arts in 2008 from Central Michigan
University. Following some assignments with MTV, Chelsea joined
Hollywire TV as an entertainment host/writer/ producer. She hosted a
daily pop-culture infused show. "Words cannot describe how excited and honored I am to join the Entercom family as part of the 97.1 AMP Radio Los Angeles morning show,” said Briggs. “I look forward to creating an incredible morning show that brings a new, fun and genuine energy to the SoCal community every morning.” Most recently she has been a Billboard News correspondent. Chelsea has also appeared as a guest host and expert on a number of different networks including: MTV Networks, HLN, VH1, Yahoo! TV, Clevver TV and Ovation TV. |
Briggs, Eddie: KBBQ, 1968. Unknown.
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BRIGGS,
Lynn: KJLH, 1989-91; KACE,
1991-92. The Nevada Radio Hall of Fame veteran has worked at some
huge stations including: WRKS and WQHT-New York, WJLB/WMXD/WHYT in
Detroit, KOAI-Dallas, KOAS/KDWN-Las Vegas, and KSBL-Santa Barbara.
She has been an on-air talent, as well as a program director. |
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BRILL, Bob: KNX, 1987 and 2006-23. Bob became a UPI correspondent and later West Coast bureau chief for UPI Radio Network based in LA. He owned KC Kings Sportscards in Ventura and works swing at KNX. “I started in radio in 1972. I left L.A. to take my first real job in Prescott, Arizona at KNOT. While there I also wrote a twice weekly column on sports for the local paper.” From Prescott, Bob made the nomadic journey to eventually get back home. He worked in Palm Springs, Oklahoma twice, KELP-El Paso, New Mexico for 9 days, and KVFM in LA was his first L.A. gig. He went on to work at KJLH and KGFJ. He did some news and sports for KNX and news on sister stations KHTZ and KNX/fm. “I worked for the LA Times in a project that eventually failed. Finally ended up as a National correspondent joining Mutual/CBS. I became West Coast bureau chief for the UPI Radio Network,” said Bob. Brill continued: “I was beaten up in the LA riots at Florence & Normadie while filing a report and ended up in the hospital. I was one of the many who received an LA Press Club Award for riot coverage, although I only covered for the one day due to the injury.” A fan of collectibles, Bob wrote the first ever sports collectibles column for the UPI wire. “I had been dealing trading cards part time for years and I am very heavily involved today.” He left UPI to free lance and started his own publication TBR: The Brill Report, which was the first hard news publication in the memorabilia industry. I broke several stories, including one picked up by the New York Times on exposing the dark side of NFL Properties which remains a big story today.” |
“I sold TBR and took a position with a trading card manufacturer in 1995 and ‘due to my integrity’ I was let go after less than a year,” Brill continued. “Honestly, that was the reason as told to me by one of the other manufacturers after I left. He had inquired as to why I was fired. I love that. anyway, I became a consultant with smaller trading card companies and eventually moved to Ventura where I opened a sports card and memorabilia store: KC Kings Sportscards [the K stands for Koufax and the C for Clemente].”
“I patterned the Website after the wire service, as we take no industry advertising and promote a free and independent press. I've broken several stories already although I don't have an archive system yet. My son and I are working on a book on China. I’m also writing a screenplay.
Bill was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated: Sylmar High School.
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BRILL, Charlie:
KFI, 1975-76. Charlie was the
Captain on USA Network's Silk Stockings. Charlie teamed with his
wife, Mitzie McCall on KFI. He was a frequent guest on tv’s
Tattletales. The pair has been seen in several tv sitcoms. Born in 1938, Charlie is what is known as a "Natural Entertainer.” At just 11 years old, Brooklyn-born Brill bagged a day at grammar school, boarded a subway train, and bounded to Broadway to audition for Peter Pan. He got the role of John - all before his 13th birthday. Charlie has managed to be successful in virtually every entertainment medium. In the theater, he went on to star in a myriad of productions and won the Drama-Logue Award for his performance as "Billy Einhorn" in The House of Blues Leaves. In 1992, he won again for Last of the Red Hot Lovers. His feature film credits include Dead Men Don’t Die, Shark, and Midnight Madness, among others. On television, Charlie's popularity grew as well. He has appeared on a score of series from Candid Camera to Married....With Children. |
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BRINK,
Scotty: KHJ, 1965-66 and 1968-70. Scotty lives in Oklahoma City and was voicetracking for an Oldies station in
Chicago. Born Donald L. Brink in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Scotty started radio at age 16 when he was a high school senior in Williamsport. At 19 he was on the legendary WIBG-Philadelphia from 1961 to 1965. When he got to KHJ, the station already had a “Don” so he became Scotty for much of his career. He left “Boss Radio” the first time when he was drafted into the army and saw Vietnam. After his tour of duty, Bill Drake put him on WOR/fm-New York as JJ Jordan. Why JJ Jordan? “Because Drake liked the name.” After his second tour with KHJ, in 1970 he went to the “Voice of Labor,” WCFL-Chicago and later that year went cross town to WLS. In 1971, Scotty joined KJR-Seattle and his love affair with the Northwest was born. “I’m an outdoor freak." He was pd at WRKO-Boston in 1972, and then returned to Seattle in 1974 for two years. In 1976, Scotty was pd of KUPD-Phoenix. While in New York on WNBC in 1978, Scotty did the morning show with comedian Richard Belzer. In 1980 he was made pd of KHOW-Denver. A year later he worked morning drive Talk at WCAU-Philadelphia. His first wife was from Nashville so his career includes WLAC, WSIX, WGFX and ownership of a recording studio for seven years beginning in 1983. “Radio was only a side interest in Nashville. I really wanted to be near my daughter.” Once she left for college, Scotty sold his recording studio. In 1989 he went to KSDO-San Diego as pd. For two years Scotty was om of KOAI (“Oasis”)-Dallas. In 1994, he had “nature withdrawals” and left KOAI for KXRX-Seattle, which became Young County KYCW. In 1991 he was the pd of KGON-Seattle. Following an ownership change at KYCW, Scotty started his own business providing custom voice tracks. In the fall of 1997, Scotty joined mornings at KXGL-San Diego. When his one-year commitment to KXGL ended, Scotty has been the vp of operations and programming for New Northwest Broadcasters. |
Brinker, Bob: KABC, 2010-13. Bob's syndicated financial show was heard on KABC's weekends. His three-decade syndicated show came to an end in the fall of 2018.
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BRINKLEY, Amanda:
KNX; KYSR, 1997. She
was working as Renee Brinkley at KNBR-San Francisco until the late 2000s. "I grew up in St. Louis and moved to L.A. when I was 17 with my mom. I had my senior year of high school in Torrance, then went to Long Beach State." She stumbled into radio when one semester all her classes were full. "I happened to walk by the journalism department, asked them if they had ANYTHING I could take. They did and here I am. I’m very happy I picked a crowded school." While in school she worked at KLON and graduated in 1993 as broadcast graduate of the year. Amanda traveled during 1994 and then to KNX as a writer. "I started doing traffic for shadow Broadcast Services and that's how I got hooked up with KYSR and Ryan Seacrest. I figured out it's a lot more fun to laugh and joke and talk to people for a living that write and report on tragedy and trauma." She worked with the True Don Bleu at K101 doing "bits," man on the street interviews, etc |
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BRITTON, Boyd R.:
KKDJ, KIIS, KTNQ;
KWST;
KHTZ; KNWZ; KROQ, 1987-2015. Boyd, as
Doc on the Roq, was the
news director at KROQ and worked morning drive with Kevin & Bean
until
February 2015 when the station dropped news. In 2010, he was ordained to the sacred Order of Deacons at the Anglican Church of Our Savior in West LA. “Boyd has worked hard and done well on his exams. We ought to be very proud of him. And we will all need to give the respect that is due his office about to be assumed by addressing him as Mr. Britton or Deacon,” said Reverend Donald Ashman of the Ordination ceremony. “A deacon is the first or lowest grade of ordained ministers in the Anglican Church. And by ‘lowest’ I don’t mean the least important. Deacons have a unique office and important responsibilities. Yes, sometimes deacons are men who are in transition to the priesthood; sort of a year’s probationary period. But there are also men called to the permanent diaconate and in either case, the deacon has a full and complete ministry within the Church.” |
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BRODEUR, Gene:
KMPC, 1971-80; KUTE/KGFJ,
1982-84.
Gene spent the decade of the seventies as
alternate White House correspondent for Golden West Broadcasters
(710/KMPC) during the Nixon years. Gene passed away on January 13,
2019, from the effects of Lewy Body Dementia. He was 80 years old.
Gene spent his final days on his farm surrounded by the family he
loved and the animals he enjoyed.
Gene grew up in New Jersey and studied English at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He started his broadcast career as a journalist in San Francisco in 1967, tracking the student protest movement from Berkeley to Santa Barbara. “The late Hugh Brundage hired me in February of ’71, where I was doing news and programming in Santa Barbara,” Gene said when interviewed for Los Angeles Radio People. “I was hired as a field reporter and anchor. At the end of corporate downsizing accelerated in the late seventies, I was caught up in a newsroom cutback in 1979.” Gene landed at KCET as field reporter/producer for 28 Tonight, anchored by Clete Roberts. After the funding ran out, Gene joined “KUTE 102” as news director. During this same period, he started doing field reporting and anchor work for the NBC Network based in Burbank. |
| From 1984 to 1986 Gene
was the radio bureau chief in Paris for NBC News. In 1986 Westwood
One bought NBC radio and Gene said, “That was enough for me.”
His wife Jerolyn and Gene visited his old radio friend KMPC buddy Scott Shurian who was living near Bozeman, Montana. A local station offered Gene a job and the family has been there ever since. “Jerolyn paints water colors of the domestic animals on our small farm, which lies about 18 miles north of Bozeman [Belgrade],” said Gene. He produced a bi-monthly series on political and social issues for Montana Public Television.” He also produced educational videos and rites for a Bozeman-based newspaper. “We are proof that there is life after the city.” Eugene Thomas Brodeur began his adventure with life on September 14, 1938, in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Guided by an early physical challenge, he learned the rewards of persistence and commitment, which helped when he discovered horses. As a stable boy, he attended events at Madison Square Garden where he was able to meet great riders and horses of that era. Growing up at a local stable, Gene became a skilled horseman, he loved horses and that never changed. After college and being influenced by the Beat Poets, Gene headed for California and was hired as a radio dj. This led to a career spanning 50 years in broadcast journalism. Some of the highlights of those years include interviews with James Brown, Muhammed Ali, Desmond Tutu, Katharine Hepburn, and Fred Astaire to drop a few names. The 1965 Watts riots spurred him to the inner city to teach journalism to high school students in Watts. (Bozeman Daily Chronicle obit contributed to this tribute) |
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BRODIAN,
Laura: KUSC, 1987-88; KFAC, 1989; KKGO/KKJZ, 1990-97;
KGIL, 1997-98; KMZT,
2002-07; KCSN, 2008-09; KUSC, 2010;
KMZT, 2022-23. Laura worked at Classical K-Mozart until early fall of 2007.
She worked afternoons at KCSN until station automated in late September
2009. Laura is an arts reporter covering the Inland Empire. She returned to
K-Mozart in the summer of 2022. She shared an embarrassing moment from her time in radio. She played Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette. "I told my audience that piece of Classical music was used as theme music for Alfred Hitchcock Presents. On the back sell I mentioned that Hitchcock's tv show was on the air from 1955-62, coincidentally the same years that Frank Kelly Freas was painting covers for MAD Magazine. Reading the performers off the CD, I said: ‘The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra was conducted by [here I almost lost it on the air] – Alfred Newman. [two second pause] – Not Alfred E, of course.’ |
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BRODIE, Christine:
KMET, 1984-87; KTWV,
1987-2002. In 1988 she was appointed program director. She resigned from the
"Smooth Jazz" station in the Fall of 2002. In early 2007, Chris joined the
Smooth Jazz Network at Broadcast Architecture as Vice President of Affiliate
Relatons. Chris, a fifth generation Californian, was born, raised and went to school in Sacramento. She worked in Sacramento radio with Michael Sheehy [longtime production director at KTWV, “the WAVE”]. Chris went on to become md at KKDJ. In 1978 Chris was a vp of Goodphone Communications, which published an AOR-targeted trade publication. That trade included a section called “Triple Z Jazz” – almost a decade before the launch of “the WAVE.” It was a precursor to what is how NAC. Chris was part of the embryonic days of R&R with Bob Wilson. She became the third pd of KTWV, following Frank Cody’s departure in 1988. Chris has always been known as a “bold” programmer who is willing to take risks. When the morning ratings were languishing, she installed a two-woman team to bolster the numbers. The experiment was unsuccessful, but the fact that she tried got her high marks. In 2001, she installed smooth jazz artist Dave Koz into the morning show and the morning numbers got back on track. During her tenure at KTWV, the station attained near-record-breaking ratings and revenue successes, helping the Los Angeles station reach the national top 15 in revenue numerous times. Brodie has been awarded Program Director of the Year honors by Radio & Records twice, in 1998 and 2000; and was honored by the Gavin Report with the Steve Feinstein Innovation Award in 1997. |
Broeske, John: KABC, 1988. John is pd at
KMJ-Fresno.
Brookler, Rob: KIQQ, 1982-85.
Rob is president of Planetwide Publishing. He also hosts the website,
meditations2go.com.
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BROOKS, Barbara: KNX, 2016-20. Barbara has been a longtime traffic reporter for various stations, including KNBC/Channel 4. She worked the evening shift at KNX until the spring of 2020 when she left as Entercom made major personnel changes during the coronavirus pandemic. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she was on the ground floor of Metro Traffic, the first independent company to deliver traffic and later news to radio stations. In the late 1970s, Barbara was working for a newspaper in Lubbock. She was in Lubbock because she had majored in journalism at Texas Tech University, where she also was a dj and newsperson on the campus radio station. “I just happened to get into radio. I was in the student union and there was a table selling tee-shirt transfers. I was talking with the guy selling the transfers and he commented that I didn’t have a Texas accent and that I should talk with the program director at the college station. I did and he put me on. I really wasn’t looking for anything in radio because I planned on writing for newspapers. That was my idea at the time.”
Barbara needed an FCC 3rd
Class License. She studied for it but on her first attempt at
taking the test, she didn’t pass the Element 9 section, which
was very technical. But Barbara persisted and passed the test on
the second try. Not long after passing the exam her general
manager at the college station put up a notice on the stations’
bulletin board that the Easy Listening station in Lubbock was
looking for a female announcer. She called, got the job, but
didn’t actually have her 3rd Class license in her
hands yet. “I had to drive to Dallas to get the physical piece
of paper in order for it to be placed on the wall of the control
room before I could start.” “Turned out it wasn’t much on air
work because the men were doing the imaging. It was an automated station
with the old Schafer Reel-to-Reel playback machines that were
programmed by numbers. I was allowed to do the news once an hour. This
was 1976 and I felt like the token female.”
Barbara originally moved to Texas
in 1970 when her father accepted a job with an independent production
company in Dallas. He was a film editor and director in Hollywood in the
50s and 60s where he did 60 travelogues for Jack Douglas and a tv series
called I Search for Adventure. “Competition from film school
graduates forced my dad to look elsewhere and he found work in Dallas
and we moved there when I was 12. You could buy a house for next to
nothing and there wasn’t the same kind of competition for jobs,” said
Barbara. |
When Barbara was working in Lubbock, her father had a massive hemorrhage on his spinal cord and he was paralyzed from the chest down. “I moved to Dallas to help take care of him. Shortly after moving to Dallas I needed a job and saw an ad in the newspaper: ‘Traffic Reporter Wanted.’”
Metro had already established itself in Baltimore and Washington DC. Dallas was the third market. The sexual revolution had yet to hit Dallas and Barbara was confronted with sexism. “In those days they wouldn’t let a woman do drive time. Nobody wanted a female voice so I did middays.”
The Dallas Metro office consisted of two rooms – an outer office and a broadcast room, which was an office with a control board. Barbara recalled: “There were no such things as computers back then so we listened to the scanners, called the highway patrol and wrote down the information on a piece of paper.”
While working for Metro she was offered a position with a tv production company in Baltimore as a coordinator. “The job was not what I expected. I didn’t meet anybody and saw the same four people every day. I think they had more expectation of what I knew about video. I was basically a radio/newspaper girl.”
She ended up at Metro in Washington DC and after some broken promises from management; Barbara left and returned to Dallas to work at all-News KRLD. After her father died, Barbara’s mother wanted to go back to Southern California. They did – her mother didn’t stay in the Southland, but Barbara decided to stay.
In 1985 Barbara joined LA Network, a traffic company owned and run by Rhonda Kramer (now KFWB drive time traffic) and her then-husband Kenny Green. She stayed at LA Network for a couple of years before returning to Metro Traffic for the third time, where she was also director of operations for a time. In 1993 she moved over to the competing traffic service, AirWatch, and dispensed traffic and news for 14 years, primarily for KFI and KBIG. For several years Barbara flew with Mike Nolan.
On the day of 9-11, she was doing news for Charlie Tuna at KBIG. “I have a CD of that morning but I’ve never listened to it. I should some time.”
Did she like the airborne reporting? “I hated the Santa Ana winds,” as Barbara remembered being buffeted during the strong winds. “I loved some of the views and the sunrises were beautiful. There were certain parts of the job I loved but other parts scared me.”
On one airborne flight the plane lost an alternator over the Diamond Bar/Walnut area. There were no flaps and no radio. “We did an emergency landing at the Fullerton Airport. I got out of the hangar, saw Commander Chuck Street and told him I needed a hug.”
With a career as a traffic
reporter, Barbara reflected on her first introduction to traffic
reporting, ironically at a young age. "At a costume party my parents met
Capt. Max Schumacher and his wife," remembered Barbara about the
traffic reporting pilot from the 50s and 60s who worked for Gene
Autry's 710/KMPC. "At the end of the evening, Capt. Max invited my
dad to fly with him the next afternoon. He was finishing up a film, ran
into some problems and had to cancel so Capt. Max said to come to the
airport the following day and to bring his wife. My mother was very
excited and told several friends she would be going. The following
afternoon, my father had a premonition that he shouldn't go so he called
and said he was still busy with work and canceled. Capt. Max was glad
because he had a couple at the airport that was there on the wrong day
so he said he would take them up that day and my parents the following
day. That was the day he had a mid-air collision over Dodger stadium
with a police helicopter. Evening news reports said there was an
unidentified couple on-board, thankfully it wasn't my parents."
Barbara thought it was a little strange that she ended up as a traffic
reporter after that introduction. "I was on the ground for many years
but, when I first decided to become an airborne reporter I had a
difficult time trying to tell my mother about my decision because of her
history. I explained to her that I would be in an airplane and not a
helicopter. After I was grounded, she was sad I lost my job but I think
secretly thrilled that both my feet would once again be on the ground."
Barbara lives in a historic home in the Inland Empire (she was quick to point out that it was in the 951 and not the 909 area code) that was built in 1924. “I really like it. When I bought it five years ago I was able to get it for what I was paying in rent.”
 |
BROOKS, Foster:
KHJ, 1962. Foster died
December 21, 2001, of apparent heart trouble. He was 89. Foster had been a big MOR jock in Buffalo before arriving at KHJ. His comedy career skyrocketed after radio. Foster was not a drunk, but he played one on tv. With silver hair and a beard, Foster was a master at appearing as someone who had had too many cocktails and was trying not to show it. He was the lovable lush. He is famous for leaving Johnny Carson speechless on national tv. His numerous appearances on the Dean Martin's tv Comedy Roasts solidified his place in comedy history. His was the most realistic drunk routine in history, next to W.C. Fields. Foster was born on May 11, 1912 in Louisville. He performed as a child singer on local radio and moved as a young man to New York State where he worked as a newscaster and dj. When he got to L.A., it was a decade of struggle. Aside from being a dj at KHJ, he worked delivering phone books and Christmas mail, and he managed a North Hollywood apartment building in exchange for free rent. During the same period, he worked as a security guard for the LA Dodgers. His big break came in 1969 with an appearance on the Tonight Show. He also appeared for a season on Mork & Mindy and was a panelist on the game show, Match Game. |
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BROOKS, John: KFWB, 1979-2009; KNX, 2009-13. After receiving six Golden Mike awards and reporting one breaking news story after another, John hung up his microphone in the spring of 2013. He's been a longtime resident of Ojai.
Brooks first started in radio while a student at Allegheny College
in Pennsylvania, before moving to Southern California in 1970.
“I was actually in school
learning television production when radio chose me. One of my
instructors was KVEN-Ventura’s Ned Rogers. He told
me of a job opening and since it paid about as little as the job I
had with the Ojai School district, I took it,” recalled Brooks.
He credits KVEN news director
Rick Wallace
for giving him needed training and
instruction before Wallace left Ventura for KABC and KPOL.
Brooks then moved up to
Wallace’s position at KVEN.
“After I won a bunch of Golden
Mikes,
Don Schrack,
the news director at KFWB asked me to join his team of wild and
crazy men and women.” It’s evident to his listeners that Brooks has a style all his own. “I always hoped to be a bit irreverent and crazy like Hunter Thompson, yet true to the facts and accurate as Walter Cronkite and CBS News. There should always be an element of entertainment in news when it is appropriate because people are choosing to listen to your station, but you can’t cross the line into fantasy.” |
“There’s a hidden joke somewhere in Brooks’ stories that you figure out about five seconds after his reports,” claimed Pete Demetriou, who shared his high praise for his longtime colleague at both KFWB and KNX. “The man is solid and is one of the most prepared journalists ever. He’ll take everything thrown at him, yet sound so smooth on the air as if he’d spent 15 minutes rehearsing his report.”
Though it was
hard to name one particular story that stands out, Brooks appreciates the
opportunity to have covered NASA and the Space Program. “I was fortunate to
cover many Space Shuttle flights and most of the science missions at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. I will never forget the third Space Shuttle mission,
the 1982 landing of Columbia at White Sands in New Mexico, when rain at
Edwards Air Force Base forced a change in plans. Had to rush there and it’s
a very different place.” And like many veterans, Brooks
remembers a few close calls as part of his job. “At KVEN I had to use the flat bottom
of my Volkswagen rabbit mobile unit as a boat across the raging Santa Rosa
creek. I
have had to jump under a fire blanket as a fire storm crested the ridge
during the Old Fire in 2003 and once a mobile unit was singed in another
brush fire.”
The business
has evolved quite dramatically since Brooks started at KFWB in 1979. “Technically we have a whole new array
of devices always with us, such as computers and smart phones to both
research and send in reports, the ability to cover breaking news has never
been better.” Yet Brooks still prefers some of the
way things were once done. “The irony is that we have so little
time to do the kind of quality stories we used to do with a pair of
alligator clips and a pay phone. In days gone by I would spend days
researching and interviewing for investigative reports, now we must do it
faster.”
Brooks offered his advice to current and future broadcasters: “I have worked with so many great people and the fellowship of the news wheel lasts a long time. Be honest and try to tell stories filled with humanity, wonder, and excitement.”
(Written by Alan Oda) |
BROOKS, Monica:
KPWR, 1987-89; KCMG,
1998-99. Monica worked mornings at WMZQ-Washington, DC. She went on to WASH
as Lori Brooks. On her farewell broadcast from the Loo & Lori morning show,
she said she was making the decision to move to Pennsylvania to help
care for her ailing parents. The activist for homeless animals in Frederick, Maryland. "My father underwent major surgery and had several complications. BUT...I couldn't leave without thanking you for listening all these years and giving me such pride in my radio home, WASH/fm," she told her audience. |
Brooks, Oscar: KPPC, 1981-82; KMPC, 1983-88; KMNY, 1988-89. Oscar works with the Department of Justice as an adjudications officer.
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BROOME, Dave:
XTRA. “I’m like a freak show,” said Dave , executive producer of
The Biggest Loser, one of the biggest reality shows of
all-time. “I’m very creative and very driven at the same time.”
Broome got his tv producing experience as a LARP, making frequent
reference to his time at Clear Channel as host of “The Third
String,” a sports show that was simulcast on XTRA Sports 690 and
1150 for almost five years. “Mike Thompson was the program director and a real good guy,” declared Broome. “He gave me a shot and I was very thankful for the opportunity. My concept for the radio show was the birth of Best Damn Sports Show. There were plenty of experts from ex-coaches and ex-athletes, but who was talking to the common guy?" Two of his co-hosts during this period were Arnie Spanier and Vic “the Brick” Jacobs. Broome’s concept was the visualization of placing a microphone in the middle of a sports bar. While drinking and watching a wall full of different tv sporting events, “You hear all their buddies arguing back and forth about sports. That, to me, is the most compelling. I could get an expert opinion everywhere but nowhere could I hear the common guy, the kind you hear in a sports bar. That was how the ‘Third String’ was born.” Dave was at XTRA at right time. Dave said he started a television division that was underneath the radio division. “Roy Laughlin believed in it and gave me the opportunity. Under someone else it would have been tough. For many years I was able to cut my teeth on producing television shows under the Clear Channel radio side. They have me all the freedom and I got involved in the Radio Music Awards and produced that show for NBC. I was able to turn these properties into television properties. |
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BROWN,
Amanda:
KSPN,
2015-23.
In late 2019,
Amanda was promoted to program director at KSPN. A 17-year veteran
of ESPN, she served for the past four years as apd at the local
sports outlet, focused mostly on spearheading play-by-play
programming and managing team relationships. She left in the spring
of 2023 following a company-wide downsizing. “Prior to that, Amanda spent many years producing sports talk shows in increasingly important roles – three years at our ESPN station in Dallas, more than five years in Bristol producing Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt, and then nine years with us here at ESPNLA producing Max & Marcellus and then Mason & Ireland,” KSPN Scott McCarthy said in an internal memo. Born in Orange in 1979, she graduated from Cal State Fullerton. During an internship at 95.9 The Fish while in college, Amanda knew she wanted a career in radio. Her highlight working at KSPN thus far? "Building Mason & Ireland to be the #1 sports show in LA. Also, working with the team here at the station. We have some of the greatest people working here," emailed Amanda. |
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BROWN, B. Bailey: KDAY, 1970-72. B. Bailey died suddenly at his San Antonio home October 24, 2003. He was 57. As a boy in the 1950s, Brown regularly listened to the wise-cracking disc jockeys on the radio and soon developed a love for broadcasting. Brown began his career at the age of 14 at KBER in San Antonio in 1961, where he worked for no pay in exchange for being taught the broadcasting trade. By the time he was 15, KBER had given him his own show. He graduated from John Marshall High School in 1964. He went to work for KONO radio that same year where a popular part of his broadcasts allowed callers to phone in and feed people to the 'Yum Yum Tree.' Brown moved to the West Coast in 1970 where he did broadcasts for KDAY and KCBQ in San Diego. But Brown missed Texas and in 1973 returned for a brief stint at KONO before moving to country station KKYX. Brown worked at KKYX both in broadcasting and in sales until 1988. In 1988, he decided to try his hand at advertising and left KKYX for a local advertising agency. Later, he and a partner started their own advertising agency, but it didn't pan out. He moved to Martin Marketing in 1996 where he worked for five years. However, his first love was radio, and in 2001 he returned to broadcasting at KONO where he also served as the station's webmaster until his death. Brown was also an accomplished steel guitar player and for years he played at local nights spots with a country band called Country Clover. |
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BROWN, Bill: KMPC, 1961-65; KHJ, 1965-74; KRTH, 1974. Bill died March 25, 2016, at the age of 76, after battling Alzheimer’s Disease. Born on August 17, 1939, Bill was the youngest newsman at KMPC before being at the launch of “Boss Radio” KHJ. He got started in radio in his hometown of Paris, Illinois while a junior in high school. Bill went to Indiana State and worked for two Terre Haute stations. In 1960, Bill followed his brother who was in aerospace to Southern California, attendeding the Don Martin Broadcasting School. The school had a placement service, and Bill was hired as an apprentice to work the Angeles baseball games. “The biggest thrill of my life is when I flipped the switch for my first newscast at KMPC. My adrenaline pumped for the next three years.” Bill and his wife purchased a station in Lexington and eventually returned to Paris, Illinois, where he managed a station for years. Bill designed a custom weather service on the Internet. His L.A. career included working for KABC television. Among his most memorable news experiences was covering the Charles Manson trial, where he actually got a personal interview with Manson. |
Brown, Bobby: KGFJ, 1985. Bobby is working
for the ABC network.
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BROWN Burt: KZLA, 1985-97. Burt is a Mississippi native who worked weekends at the Los Angeles Country station. He is a media designer, producer and owner of Starforce International. |
Brown, Charlie: KFWB, 1961. Chuck
Blore jocked as Charlie Brown.
Brown, Charlie: KGFJ, 1972; KIQQ, 1975.
Unknown.
Brown, Don: KHJ. Don has passed away.
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BROWN, Douglas: KCSN, KBBQ, KROQ; KHJ; KRTH; KMGG; KKHR; KRLA; KNX/fm. From 1972 to 1991, Douglas was a production director/engineer for a number of Southland stations. When Doug was young he had three radio heroes - Dave Hull, Johnny Hayes and Jimmy Rabbitt. “These guys made me CARE about radio and made me want to be part of it all. In the sixties, radio was the tribal drum and it resonated with me. Little did I know that years later I'd get to work with all three as production director at KROQ AM/FM and KRLA.” “First came Rabbitt,” emailed Brown. “In 1972, he was jocking at Country KBBQ in Burbank, which was soon to become KROQ-AM. I was doing weekend engineering and Mutual news production & switching. What I quickly realized was Rabbitt was exactly the same off the air as on. Cool, mellow and INTO the music. He was the real deal and a singer/songwriter as well. We talked about progressive Country of the time while turning me on to Jerry Jeff Walker and the Austin scene." Johnny Hayes was next on Brown’s list. “I came to KRLA in Pasadena as production director in late '81. From the moment we met, Johnny was a total gentleman. He was always the sharp dresser, always prepared, humble and a classic storyteller. We hit it off and did some fine productions together.” Last came Dave Hull 'The Hullabalooer.' "On my first day at KRLA, Dave comes thru the control room door and says, ‘You must be the new guy.’ My retort was ‘You must be the ooold guy.’ We had fun and laughs every day after that.” |
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BROWN,
James: KMPC, 2002; KMPC, 2002-06. The quarterback for the NFL Sunday Sports show started
in morning drive at all-Sports KMPC/1540 The Ticket for the Sporting News
Network in the spring of 2002, which ended in 2006. James is best known for
quarterbacking the FOX NFL Sunday team. He joined Fox Sports in 1994 to serve with veteran studio analyst and Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw as co-host of Fox NFL Sunday. Howie Long and Cris Collinsworth came later. In 1999 he won his second consecutive Sports Emmy Award as Best Studio host for his 1999 Fox NFL Sunday work. Also, in 1995, he was the recipient of the prestigious Sportscaster of the Year Award from the Quarterback Club of Washington for "his outstanding contribution to the world of sports." James joined CBS Sports in 1984 as a college basketball analyst and co-hosted the NCAA basketball championship from 1984-94. Prior to joining CBS, he worked as a sports anchor in Washington, DC. He served as both a play-by-play announcer and analyst for the NBA's Washington Bullets local tv broadcasts (1978-83) and co-hosted two weekly Washington-area sports programs. Brown also hosted a midday program on all-sports radio WTEM in Washington, DC. He was an outstanding basketball player at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Md., who went on to have a standout collegiate career. Brown achieved All-Ivy League honors in his last three seasons at Harvard University and captained the team in his senior year. He graduated from Harvard in 1973 with a degree in American Government and was then drafted in the fourth round by the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. In 1998, Brown had the distinguished honor of being inducted into Harvard's Sports Hall of Fame. James was born February 25, 1951, in Washington, DC. |
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BROWN, Jim:
KPOL, 1962-64. Jim
was an
entertainment feature reporter for the Today Show on
NBC. He died December 3, 2017. He was 85. He was known to many as "Our Man in Hollywood" on the Today Show. A native of Hollywood, he worked in radio for many years before turning to television on KNXT, KNBC, and finally the Today Show. To his family, he imparted a love for thrift stores, superior navigation skills, the ability to appreciate Big Band music, a desire to drive the back roads, and a talent to quote classic films at the drop of a hat, according to his obituary in the LA Times. He also passed on a strong Christian faith and was truly an example of a man who lived out what he believed. |
Brown, Laura: KFI, 1989-92; KROQ, 1990; KABC, 1993. Laura is living in Newport Beach.
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BROWN, Les:
KFWB, 2011-12. Les began his motivational talk show at KFWB on 1.3.11. He
replaced part of Dr. Laura's old slot. He left the News/Talk station in
April 2012. “You were chosen one out of 400 million sperm. You have
something in you. There’s some gifts, some writings, some scripts in
you that nobody else can write. If you don’t do that, we will all be
deprived,” said Les when auditioning for Dr. Laura slot. From his website: “Les is a top motivational speaker, speech coach, best-selling author, loving father and grandfather, whose passion is empowering youth and helping them have a larger vision for their lives. His straight-from-the-heart, high-energy, passionate message motivates and engages all audiences to step into their greatness, providing them with the motivation to take the next step toward living their dream. Les' charisma, warmth and sense of humor have impacted many lives." |
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BROWN, Stan:
KBLA, 1966; KBBQ, 1967; KGIL, 1967-76;
KBCA, 1976. Stan "the Animal" Brown has passed
away. "My father, Stan 'The Animal' Brown announced sports for KGIL in the 1960s and 1970s - sadly he died of cancer at the age of 45 in 1984. I have such great memories of that station and all the great folks that my dad worked with. It seemed like one big family. With KGIL my dad worked closely with the Dodgers, the Rams, the Lakers and was able to interview so many iconic athletes of days gone by...Muhammad Ali, Jack Nichlaus, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and all the wonderful Dodgers...Cey, Garvey. Lopes, Mota and Drysdale. Stan Brown loved KGIL. He loved LA - where he was born and raised and he always LOVED his Dodgers." |
Brown, Steve: KRLA, 1972-74. Steve founded American Video Service in Irvine. He passed away in 2018.
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BROWN,
Thomas: KGIL, 1970-85; KJOI, 1989;
KNX, 1973-98. Born Thomas Brown IV in 1938 in
Evanston, Illinois, he attended the University of Washington and
graduated from the University of Illinois in 1960 with a degree in
journalism. After the Army, Tom worked at KCMO and WDAF-Kansas City,
WHN and WNEW-New York and KNBR-San Francisco. At KGIL, he hosted the
Thomas Brown Affair. Upon his arrive The LA Times radio columnist Don Page said of Tom: "He's the biggest new star in the big town. He's witty and has his own style." Tom Brown, a popular radio personality in San Francisco in the 1970s and early '80s, died in Los Angeles on January 10 after a brief illness. He was 67. |
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BROWNE, Dr. Joy: KGIL, 2007. The longtime syndicated psychologist started on KGIL on October 29, 2007, and she was heard briefly during the short-lived Talk format. She died August 27, 2016, at the age of 71. In 2021, Browne was posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. Browne was born in New Orleans and graduated from Rice University. A graduate of Northeastern University in Boston with M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology. In the late 1970s she was heard on WITS-Boston with a program called Up Close and Personal. She was known for her "one-year rule", which stated that people who have lost a spouse or partner due to break-up, death, or divorce should wait at a minimum one-year before resuming romantic relationships.Dr. Browne hosted a tv show on the Discovery Health cable channel in 2005 which was a live one-hour simulcast of her weekday show on WOR. She previously hosted a King World-Eyemark weekday syndicated tv advice talk show in 1999 for one year. She has written numerous books on life and dating. |
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BROWNING,
Bill: KRLA,
1971-72; KFI, 1974-75; KIIS, 1975-77; KOST,
1981-82. Bill was born in |
“Two months after arriving in 1971 my first documentary was aired,
‘Souvenir, Soldier.’ It won the Golden Mike award in the Best Documentary
category for 1971 also picking up an AP award and the Broadcast Media Award
from
In 1973 when KRLA went to an automated format I joined KFI where I won
another documentary Golden Mike.” Before Bill left the Southland radio he
worked at KIIS, both AM and FM and KOST as their first morning news anchor.
In between he anchored the tv news in
Bill passed away April 10, 2003, while retired in Kansas City. He was 72.
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BROWNING, Chuck:
KHJ, 1970; KGBS, 1972; KFI,
1980. Chuck died March 3, 1988. "Chuck was an old war-horse," wrote Rob Sherwood, a Bay Area programmer. "He fought the battles in New York City in the Good Guys days, did some of his best Chucker work at KFRC in the early 70's. His work was legendary and he needed a job. It is rather sad, when I think how insulated I was. I knew the name, but not the legend. I just happened to look out the window when the cab from the airport pulled to the curb on Montgomery and a bald guy in a brown sports jacket stepped onto the sidewalk. Barney Fife was coming to work for me?" Sherwood continued: "In my office moments later, I looked at him and found it difficult to believe THIS was The Chucker. The voice was golden but the face, full of wrinkles. showed every drink, snort, sniff, and swallow. Here was a dj from the old school. Chuck was a hard living radio-rebel with the talent and balls to back it up. He had lived and played hard and looked it. The enthusiasm was still there. It was like he was saddled and ready to get in the gate. He could hear the bugle and it was time for a race. Through the years, I worked with disappointments and inspirations. How I wish that every one I worked with not only had the ability but also the love for the 'job'. How I wish I had had the same. Chuck didn't last long after I left. I often wonder if I could have corralled him and given and got for a while." |
Browning, Reed: KABC, 1960-61. Unknown.
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BRUBAKER, Josh: KNOU
(was KAMP),
2021. In the spring of 2021, Josh joined Top 40 KAMP for afternoons
from Detroit (WDRQ and WDVD). Even KNOU became KNX/fm and simulcast
with the sister all-Newser, Josh continues at WDVD. In the summer of 2021, Josh was part of a realighnment in programming as he took on voicetracking in a number of Audacity markets. Strong on social media, Josh has close to a million likes on TikTok. Before arriving in Detroit, he worked at WQQO-Toledo and WLEW- Bad Axe, Michigan. In the summer of 2015, Josh interned at the Specs Howard School of Media Arts. |
Bruce,
Jonny: KLFM,
1965; KFXM,
1967-70; KYMS,
1968; KWOW,
1970; KREL, 1971; KKAR,
1974-75; KROQ,
1976-77. Jonny spent 20 years at KDES-Palm Springs. He's now program
director at KZPO-Visalia.
Bruce, Larry: KMET, 1974-75 and 1986. Larry
is gm of Nova 969-Sydney, Radio Australia.
 |
BRUCE, Tammy:
KFI,
1995-98; KABC, 2003-09. Tammy worked swing and fill-in at KABC until the
summer of 2009. She now hosts an Internet show on TalkStreamLive.com. Tammy is an Independent Conservative, a radio talk show host, New York Times bestselling author, blogger, Fox News Political Contributor and columnist at The Washington Times. A lifelong Democrat (until 2008 when she registered as unaffiliated), Ms. Bruce worked on a number of Democratic campaigns in 1990s, including the 1992 Boxer and Feinstein senate races and the Clinton for President campaign. President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and the liberal and feminist establishment continued support of him was one of many tipping points in Ms. Bruce’s embracing of libertarian and conservative ideals. She has been profiled, and her editorials and commentaries on significant social issues have been published nationally and internationally, in a wide variety of magazines, newspapers including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, and The Advocate among others. In addition to her media work, Ms. Bruce speaks to a variety of groups nationwide, including college, business and civic organizations with her speech, “Contrary to Popular Belief: How Conservative Ideas Empower Women, Gays and Blacks.” Ms. Bruce’s first book was The New Thought Police in October 2001. Drawn into feminist activism in the late 1980’s, Ms. Bruce focused on women in the workplace, violence against women and ending international subjugation of women. Just two years after joining the National Organization for Women, with a brand of feminism that places her somewhere between Donna Reed and Thelma and Louise, Ms. Bruce was elected president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW at the age of 27. (content from her website) |
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BRUNDAGE,
Hugh: KDAY, 1957-58; KMPC,
1965-72.
Hugh is probably one of the least remembered personalities on Old
Time Radio. He was a California native, born in 1909, who spent his
entire broadcasting career in Los Angeles.
He died in 1972, at the age
of 63. After graduating from the University of
Southern California in 1931, he tried to embark on a career in
business, first dealing with the Signal Petroleum Company of Long
Beach. At the time that oil company was toying around with the idea
for a radio program based upon the Tarzan series of books by Edgar
Rice Burroughs. Burroughs happened to be in the corporate office
when Hugh was applying for the job. The personnel manager said that
positions that he was qualified for were already filled, in fact,
they were actually laying off some of the junior executives and
asking the senior ones to retire early. |
But Burroughs heard
Hugh speak. "You know, son, you have a good speaking voice. How would you
like a job in radio? We'll be working in L.A. starting in a couple of days.
You don't even need to audition. I'll use the paperwork here to get you onto
the station." So Burroughs gave Hugh the information of where to go.
The radio station was KHJ. It was located next door to
a Cadillac dealership owned by Don Lee, who was the Cadillac dealer for the
entire West Coast. Hugh wore his best suit. It was the man he was going to
interview at the Signal office in Long Beach who let him into the studio.
"Now, just so you know, Hugh," said Burroughts, "let me
explain how radio works. I am the sponsor. I am actually in charge of the
program. My company, Signal Petroleum, owns the Tarzan program. It's only 15
minutes and it will be playing only in states where they have Signal service
stations. As far as oil companies go, we're pretty small. They own the radio
program so they can get more customers. KNX and Don Lee, along with CBS,
only give us a place to put the show on. And, if someone goofs, they punish
us. So we have to do a good show."
Hugh was scared when he read the script. They let him
go over it alone for about 45 minutes. Then they went on.
There would be many more programs for
Hugh, although he would rarely use his name while announcing. He did so well
for Tarzan at KHJ; they hired him for work at KNX, and KFI/KECA (the two NBC
stations were both owned by Earle C. Anthony). Occasionally, he would give
his name, but that was so rare.
His voice became the voice of Oscar as he was the
announcer for the Academy Awards, no matter where they were held, and no
matter if they were a banquet or a formal awards ceremony.
In 1957, he became the sole newsperson at radio station
KDAY in Santa Monica. In 1965, Gene Autry had purchased radio station KMPC
and TV station KTLA. He chose Hugh to be both stations' news director. He
was heard on KMPC during weekday afternoons and seen on KTLA at night.
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BRUNDIGE, Bill:
KEZY. Chattanooga-born Bill Brundige, a
member of the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame and a
fixture on Southland radio and television stations for over three decades
died in April 2004. He was 89. Born William Wenrich "Bill" Brundige on
February 2, 1915, he was in broadcasting for 40 years before retiring in
1975. Bill was the solid, no-frills sports broadcaster. He was the “color
man” for Chick Hearn in the very first simulcast after the Lakers
moved from Minneapolis. He started his broadcasting career in 1937 at
WAVE-Louisville. During World War II, Bill was the West Coast sports
director for Armed Forces Radio Services broadcasting to the Pacific
Theater. He was discharged in 1946 and moved to Washington, DC, to broadcast
for Mutual Broadcasting System. While in DC, he worked with Ted Husing on
the “College Game of the Week” for Mutual.
In the late 1940s,
Bill broadcast sports for Yale, Princeton, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit
Lions, and the Chicago Cubs. In 1952 the Cubs sent him to Southern
California to work at KHJ/Channel 9 to cover their Pacific Coast League
affiliate, the Los Angeles Angels. In the same year he joined Bob Kelley on
the LA Rams broadcast team until 1960. He covered sports for all the local
tv stations. |
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BRUNO, Jon:
KBIG, 1998-2000; KPLS,
2001-03; KRTH, 2008-13. Jon broadcast news on several
stations in the Southland, including K-EARTH from Metro Traffic. He
did traffic on KNX for about four years. When Don Imus was on KLAC,
Jon did the morning news. In addition to his news duties, Jon is active in the commercial and voiceover market. “I spent two years as the Crest man hawking Multicare toothpaste on camera. Yeah, they saw my mug. Now I'm on a Sutter Home wine spot as, you guessed it, a newsman.” Jon has been been seen or heard as the newscaster on West Wing, Judging Amy and Apollo 13. He was born May 26, 1954, in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Jon attended the Boston University School for the Arts and started doing voiceovers in college. After college he went to New York to pursue acting. Jon worked at “Sunny 99.1” in Houston for five years. |
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BRUNO, Tony: KXTA, 2000-04; KMPC, 2005-07; KLAC, 2008-12. Tony joined evenings at KLAC in the fall of 2008 and left in early 2009 when KLAC and Fox Sports Radio merged. He returned for evenings during the summer of 2009. He left his Philadelphia sports station in June 2014. After a time hosting a podcast, he joined SiriusXM in the spring of 2020. He's now with SB Nation Radio Network. Tony joined
the ESPN Sports Radio in November 1991 as a co-anchor of its
Saturday and Sunday night broadcasts which originated from studios
in Tony
previously served as sports anchor and reporter at RKO Radio Network
in |
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BRYAN, Gary: KRTH, 2002-23. Gary started mornings at K-Earth on June 10, 2002. He is also the syndicated host with Dick Clark on Rewind. Gary arrived in the
Southland from an impressive three-decades track record of on-air and
programming successes in the Northwest (KJR/fm and KUBE) and New York (Z-100 and
WPLJ) before arriving in L.A. to work mornings at KRTH. Gary participated in the
“Legends of Radio” panel at the 1998 convention of the NAB in Seattle. In the
1970s, Gary worked as a jock in Cleveland, Chicago and San Francisco. His first
programming stint came in 1978 at KNBQ-Tacoma. In 1983 he became
pd at KISW-Seattle, where Gary hired Robin Erickson, America’s first female AOR
morning host. He also programmed KKRZ-Portland. In 1988, Dan Mason, ceo
of First Media (former ceo of CBS Radio) and Michael O’Shea, gm at KUBE,
hired Gary to be pd at the Seattle station. Within a year the station became
top-rated. In the early 1990s he headed to New York to work as morning man and pd at WPLJ. He went on to CHR “Z100”-New York. During this time he made extensive live appearances, including Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and Central Park. He also hosted New Year’s Eve from Times Square on the FOX Television Network, and was featured frequently on MTV and Entertainment Tonight. In the mid-1990s, Gary worked mornings at KFRC-San Francisco. |
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(BJ, Tony B,
and Janet Brainin)
Born in New Orleans on August 30, 1908, Bryant grew up in Chicago and took trumpet lessons to little success. His first job in entertainment was dancing in the Whitman Sisters Show in 1926. He worked in various vaudeville productions for the next several years, and in 1934 he appeared in the show Chocolate Revue with Bessie Smith. In 1933, he put together his first big band, which at times included Teddy Wilson, Cozy Cole, Johnny Russell, Benny Carter, Ben Webster, Eddie Durham, Ram Ramirez, and Taft Jordan. They recorded six times between 1935 and 1938; Bryant sings on 18 of the 26 sides recorded. Once his ensemble disbanded, Bryant worked in acting and disc jockeying.
He recorded r&b in 1945 and led another big band between 1946 and 1948. During September and October 1949, he hosted Uptown Jubilee, a short-lived all-black variety show on CBS/TV. He moved to California later in the 1950s and died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on February 9, 1964, at the age of 56.
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BRYHANA:
KDAY, 2018; KPWR, 2019-23.
Bryhana works middays at KPWR. Originally from Chicago, Bryhana moved to California after graduating from the University of Missouri to pursue her career in Radio and TV. Bryhana has since landed numerous theatrical jobs as well as commercials. Bryhana’s radio career kick-started in San Diego and later transitioned to LA permanently as a part-time host for a local station. As Power 106’s midday host, Bryhana is all about channeling great energy, sharing laughs and great music with listeners. (from KPWR website) |
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BRZEZINSKI,
Mika: KABC, 2009-10. The co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe started a
two-hour syndicated show carried in L.A. by KABC. Mika has written four
nonfiction books, including her latet, Grow Your Value, which explores the
costs of a career. Every morning she hosts her own female-focused segment of
Morning Joe. "We're having fun shaking things up," she said. Mika epitomized a partnership of highly flirtatious office-spouse badinage, squabbling and then making up. In some ways, they were an odd couple. When Morning Joe debuted, both co-hosts were married: Scarborough to his second wife, whom he divorced in 2013, and Brzezinski to her former husband of 23 years. But long before they were an item. Their chemistry—the way they bickered, and eye-rolled, and flirted in the I-can’t-stand-you-but-I-love-you way that elementary schoolers do—fueled speculation about their relationship off camera for years, a kind of reality show within a talk show. |
Bubba, the Love Monkey: KQLZ, 1989. Various personalities were Bubba during the early days of "Pirate Radio."
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BUCHANAN,
Buck: KRLA, 1985-86; KRTH,
1989-93. Buck died August 6, 2005. He started his radio career in
1965 working in Hawaii, Pennsylvania and East Virginia. He died of
advanced colon cancer that had metastasized and spread to every
vital organ.
He was the son of actor Edgar
Buchanan, who gained fame on the Petticoat Junction tv
series. Buck worked with "Emperor Bob" Hudson as a team in early
1980 in Hawaii. They teamed briefly in 1985 on KRLA in morning
drive. He went on to work at K-EARTH for almost five years. Buck shared a Valentine's story. "It seems that nighttime jocks always have those callers that slip through the producer and we end up talking to them through a break. I had that caller that was always able to get through the phone company jungle and greet me with a simple ‘Hello Buck.’ Her name was Annie. “When I first joined K-EARTH, AM-930 it was pretty much voicetracked, other than morning drive with Al Conners and the Smokin' Oldies Juke Box at night. It was simply a live request show, highly produced and well done. You know how you felt a little uncomfortable having a phone call dripping with sexual innuendo, thinking that your wife and kids might just be listening right then. I told my producer Nancy Smith to tell Annie that we could only allow one request per listener per week. Annie didn't seem to have a problem with that, but every night Nancy would tell me that Annie was on hold, waiting to speak to me. I started feeling guilty and would pick up the phone, just to restate our policy on the night show. She informed me that she knew, but if I were to play Angel Baby, Baby I'm Yours, or To Know Him is to Love Him it was really a dedication from Annie to Buck. “I told her that I was a happily married, as she knew, so I thanked her for listening. I thought that was the end of the story. The next night I had her back on the phone requesting Be My Baby. When I took over afternoons live, I thought that that would be the last I heard from Annie, but it had just begun. |
My then producer Edith Machado walked into jock office with a UPS package for me. I looked at the package, smelled the perfume and knew it was trouble. Annie had sent me a tanker style jacket. It was the type of jacket that guys in car clubs would wear. It had my name embroidered on the front, along with the AM-930 Smokin' Oldies Jukebox on the back. It was a wonderful jacket. I knew I couldn't return it as it had my name on it.
That night when I went home to the wife and kids, my wife asked me where I got the jacket. I felt like a chapter of ‘Fatal Attraction’ was happening in my life. My wife just laughed and said that maybe I would meet my ‘secret flame’ at one of the AM-930 events. “Annie kept up her calls and just wouldn't be dissuaded. “My next personal appearance was at the Eagle Rock Plaza. Al Conners and I were going to be giving an automobile away. There we were, Al and Buck warming up the crowd. I had my wife with me. I looked down into the crowd to find her. There she was, talking to a middle age woman and smiling. I didn't think much about it. When we had given away the car and were down in the crowd, my wife introduced me to the woman she had been talking to. ‘Buck, I wanted to introduce you to a big fan. This is Annie.’ “I didn't know what to do. Annie just smiled and shook my hand. The strange part of the story is that I never talked with Annie again. I still wonder what it was that my wife told Annie.”
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BUCHMANN,
Bob: KLOS, 2009-11. Bob was appointed pd at KLOS in early 2009.
He left KLOS on 10.26.11 when Cumulus took over Citadel/LA. Bob became
morning man at
KGB-San Diego in early summer of 2012. He arrived in the Southland from an almost decade-long run at WAXQ-New York in early 2009. During Bob’s time at WAXQ, the station’s Adult 25-54 rank rose from #14 to #1. He also served as vp of programming of Cox Rock WBAB-Long Island, New York for two decades. When Bob joined WBAB/Long Island in 1979 as vp of programming, the station was the fourth-ranked rock station in the market. By 1982, WBAB evolved into the Long Island leader, and had never been beaten by any other rock station. |
Buck
Head: KYSR, 2001-02. Buck
Wise arrived at KYSR from Las Vegas in the
spring of 2001 and left in early 2002. He left WVMW (98.7 AMP) in Detroit in
early 2013.
Buckley, Richard: KGIL. Richard is president
of Buckley Broadcasting and the company owns WOR-New York and
other stations. He is based in Hartford.
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BUDNIK, Buddy:
KDAY, 1969; KRLA, 1972-73.
Ron ‘Buddy’ Budnik worked at KRLA after school (Pasadena High School
and City College) beginning in the late 1950’s. Buddy remembers it
was a time when Jack Kent Cooke was still coming in
to work every morning before the promotion fiasco with that caused
havoc with the FCC for a few years. “As a kid, I lived in Sierra
Madre and Wink Martindale lived close to me,”
remembered Buddy. “So, one day I knocked on his front door and asked
him if I could come to the station, and asked who I should see to
get some news copy off the AP and UPI wires, as we needed some for a
class at school. It was Bill MacMillan who first
welcomed me at KRLA, along with Dick Moreland, who
became one of my best friends until his passing in the late
80’s. MacMillan was the news director, and Jim Steck
and Richard Beebe were doing news. Upstairs,
Sie Holiday, and a few months later Bill
Keffury, worked in traffic and did on-air work as well as
local commercial production. Keffury also did weekends. In the big office off the left of the front door was the music director, Mary Kelly.” Buddy became the station go-fer, working on station promotions, giveaways, answered phones and everything else no one else wanted to do. Bob Eubanks and Buddy became friends and urged the gm, John Barrett, to hire Buddy. "Eubanks was the all-night guy,” said Buddy. “Wink was doing 6 to 9 a.m., Roy Elwell was doing midmornings, Moreland at noon to 3 p.m. Jimmy O'Neill was a monster personality doing afternoons. Then it was Sam Riddle and Roger Christian, as I recall, along with Perry Allen. |
This was the period well before Casey Kasem, Emperor Bob Hudson, Reb Foster, Dave Hull, Dick Biondi, Ted Quillin, and the rest, and years before Shadoe Stevens, China Smith, Dick Sainte, Lee Sims, Russ O’Hara, Charlie Tuna, Gary Mack, Sonny Melendez, William F. and so many others. “In 1960, KRLA was new, but the facility was old,” continued Buddy.
“At that time there was an old switchboard telephone system in front lobby, and in the lobby was a white naugahyde sofa in the lobby [adjacent to the stairs] that Eubanks would sometimes ‘crash’ on. I would get to the station before school at the same time Wink showed up, just before 6 a.m. Eubanks and I would generally have breakfast mornings in the Huntington Sheraton Hotel commissary after his shift, since KRLA was located on the grounds of the hotel.
Rudy Marini was the engineer at night, and the Chief Engineer was a guy named Frank, a big burly cowboy type who’d been with the station when it was still KXLA with a Country format only a year or two before. Following Frank in engineering, there was a nice guy named Jack Reeder, and then there was Phil Little, one of my classmates from PCC, who ultimately became chief engineer.”
In 1959, KRLA was the new kid on the Top 40 block following the launch of Color Radio KFWB Channel 98 a year and a half earlier. “We were still on the warp edge of the Doo-Wop days with the Platters, the Five Satins, the Coasters, the Fleetwoods, the Skyliners, the Crests, along with Paul Anka and the Everly Brothers,” recalled Budnik. “It was that transitional period of music that ran from the Doo-Wop groups and girl singers like Connie Francis and Brenda Lee to Chubby Checker’s Twist, to Preston Epps’ Bongo Rock, to Duane Eddy and Bobby Rydell to Roy Orbison and Frankie Avalon. And does anyone remember Skip and Flip?”
Competition was fierce between KFWB and KRLA. And the battle began. “Having become good friends with Eubanks and everyone else at the station, it came a time that I wanted to go on the air,” recalled Budnik. “What kid wouldn’t want to be a disc jockey, right? So Eubanks, Steck and Keffury suggested that I go to their old farm team radio station, KACY in Oxnard. Moreland, Eubanks and Keffury had gone to Don Martin’s School of Broadcasting, and all had worked at KACY. Eubanks always said to me ‘keep it light, keep it bright, and shut up!’ So, I’d go up into the production booth and practice ‘my time and temp technique.’
Finally, my confidence sufficiently sequestered, and having heard there was a weekend opening at KACY, I went up to Oxnard do an air check for them in their production booth. Long and short, I got the weekend gig at KACY.” While still in school, Buddy worked at KRLA doing odd jobs during the week and drove to Oxnard to work weekends and relief at KACY. By 1962, the KACY weekends finally transcended into a full-time shift. “I remember doing ‘rip and reads’ off the AP and UPI noting that Vietnam body counts and fire fights were getting absurd,” said Budnik. “A few was turning into hundreds. It was scary. So, wouldn’t you know, it was about a year or so when I got the word that I was coming up on the list, and had to act quickly. I was doing what I could to avoid the draft, and was lucky enough to avoid a free ‘round-trip vacation’ to beautiful downtown Saigon and the exotic Vietnamese countryside villages by stumbling into a Reserve PsyOps Broadcasting Unit down at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro.”
The unit was filled with assorted radio, tv and entertainment people. Buddy did his basic training at Fort Ord and six months of active duty in the “ivy covered garrison” headquarters at Ft. Lewis, Washington. “It was a period that Rick Scarry and I both reminisce about to this day,” added Budnik. “When I came back for a short while, Quillin, Hudson, and Biondi were there, and then I left again,” Buddy continued. “KRLA started getting a little weird when the station lost its license and became an FCC whipping boy, and there was some slick suited guy named Larry Webb who came in to run things. He’d been brought in by the ‘board’ or the Washington FCC guys and things started changing after that. I can't remember the exact years, but I do remember the people. They include my dear friend from PCC, Penny Biondi, who’d married Dick’s brother, and who worked in traffic, Reb Foster and Dick Moreland who remained dear friends over the years, along with Hudson, Beebe, Charlie O'Donnell, and so many more.” “Those were wonderful years, and I remember things like the all the promo men coming in with stacks of vinyl and all those artists who came to the station, including a young couple named Caesar and Cleo wearing these outrageous clothes and long hair. Their song was I Got You Babe. So many faces and so many great friends were made for life back then. And, to this day, you should know, Eubanks still drowns his eggs in ketchup. The big question is: What ever happened to Arlen Sanders?”
Buell, Bruce: KFAC; KUSC; KPOL. Bruce passed away April 23, 1996, of emphysema. He was 77. The veteran announcer specialized in Classical music for more than four decades. He originated the program Crossroads of Music. He was married for 30 years to another radio personality, Ruth Buell, better known as "Uncle Ruthie" of the KPFK children's show.
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BUGENSKE,
David: KKGO, 2014-19; KFRG, 2019-23. David came to Southern
California from Florida in 2009 for an extended 6-month vacation and
never left. He has had a blessed career in radio which began in
Orlando, where he worked hard for an on-air position and held it for
6 years. He has also been a production director and assistant
program director for various different genres in radio. After David arrived in Southern California, he was hired to be the production director for The Dennis Miller Show. Although he enjoyed the comedy and News/Talk format, he missed music radio. As a fan of Go Country 105, he knew he wanted to work there. He got that chance in 2014 and he fell in love with being a part of the Go Country 105 family more and more every day. David has incredible parents who were high school sweethearts and spent 34 years serving our great country. He also has a brother who served as special forces in the Air Force and a beautiful little sister who works with autistic children. (From the KKGO website) In the early fall of 2019, David moved to mornings at KFRG-Inland Empire. He left K-Frog in the spring of 2023. |
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BUHLER, Rich: KBBI, 1964-69; KFWB, 1968-72; KNX, 1972-74; KFWB, 1974-76; KBRT, 1980-90; KBRT, 2008-12. Rich, part of the embryonic days of the all-News format at KFWB in 1968 and most recently known as "The Dean of Christian Talk Radio," died May 7, 2012, following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 65. Rich got started on the air at the age of 17 for a local fm station and after graduating from college was “salivating,” as he described it when interviewed for Los Angeles Radio People, with the opportunity to get into broadcast news. He was there when KFWB launched all-news, in various capacities. “I had a powerful spiritual renewal in the mid-1970s that changed my direction to a career in ministry,” he said. And although Rich continued working in media as a free-lancer and consultant, he became an ordained minister and served on the staffs of several churches, including being the senior pastor of a church in Long Beach for seven years. |
In 1980 he was asked to help put together a competitive news department for Christian formatted KBRT (740AM) when they had people like Johnny Magnus and Clark Race spinning Christian records. When the station changed format a year later, Rich proposed doing a commercially aggressive, drive-time talk show and brought “Talk from the Heart” on the air. It is credited with having introduced a new era in Christian Talk radio. Later, the program was “Table Talk” and was heard on KGER and KKLA.
In 1995 Rich stepped down from hosting 15 years of live, daily talk radio and concentrated on his own production company in Orange, Branches Communications. He became a nationally known speaker and author with several best-selling books (No strings Attached and Pain and Pretending, both dealt with emotional injury) and he won numerous awards including an honorary doctorate from
He was a member of Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters in Hollywood.
He was also a recognized researcher and writer about myths and urban legends. His articles appeared in newspapers and magazines internationally and he was the creator of TruthOrFiction.com, a popular web site that researches Internet stories, hoaxes, and rumors. Rich appeared on all of the major networks including CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, CBC, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC, MTV, and had been interviewed by numerous newspapers and magazines.
His personal interests included aviation (he was a licensed commercial pilot of more than 30 years), computers, photography, travel, fly-fishing, electronics, and cooking.
Rich leaves behind a combined family of ten children and 12 grandchildren.
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BULL, Frank: The former LA Rams public address announcer did it all. In addition to stadium announcer, he was a dj, play-by-play broadcaster and salesman. He retired to Palm Desert and passed away on June 16, 1975. In the 1950s, Frank made his mark as a pioneer sports broadcaster in Southern California long before Bob Kelly, Tom Harmon, and Vin Scully arrived in Los Angeles. As a dj, Bull was best known for his nightly one-hour America Dances record program. With disc jockey Gene Norman, they presented the annual Dixieland Jubilee concerts during the 1940s and ’50s at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. By 1959, he was mostly known to sports fans as the longtime “Voice of the Rams” home games on the Coliseum public address system. That same year, LA Times sportswriter Jeane Hoffman wrote that Frank qualified as the “Dean of Sportscasters” in the Southland. He was 62 years old at the time. Frank was born in 1897 in Wichita and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1911. He attended Los Angeles High School and Los Angeles City College, where he played baseball for both schools. He later held several jobs, including vice president of a bank. In 1926, a friend asked him to take part in a program on a San Diego radio station. As president of the Beverly Hills Kiwanis, he became an expert in making speeches. He liked doing the radio program so much, he went back to San Diego to take part in San Diego radio. In 1927, he was so interested in radio that he went into broadcasting for good. He became general manager of KNRC-Santa Monica (now KABC-790) in January of 1928 at age 31. Bull entered the field of sportscasting somewhat by chance. He had sold an advertiser a series of Loyola College (now Loyola-Marymount University) football game broadcasts on KNRC (now KABC-790-AM) in September of 1928. He then discovered there was no announcer to handle the play-by-play of the games. The sponsor was angry and was about to cancel the deal. But Bull, who was a big football fan, decided he would go on the air himself to describe the game to the fans who were listening. The sponsor was happy and did not cancel the contract. (written by Jim Hilliker) |
Bunch, Don: KNAC, 1967-70. Unknown.
Bunker, Ed: KFI, 1967-73. The former
KFI general manager died November 28, 1999, following a long
illness. Ed was sales manager at KNXT/Channel 2 and went on
to serve as vp of station relations, sales and vp of CBS,
Inc. in Washington, DC. Ed had been living in Ponte Vedra
Beach, Florida. He was 84.
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BUNN,
Graham: KKGO, 2014-18. Graham joined mornings at Country KKGO
in the fall of 2014 with Debra Mark. He left in the
summer of 2018 to join the USA Network music series, Real
Country. The series, featuring Shania Twain, Jake Owen and
Travis Tritt judging emerging country acts, will have guest
appearances by Trace Atkins, Wynonna Judd and Big & Rick as
celebrity guest. He's now with Country Shine on Spotify. If you follow the trials and tribulations of The Bachelorette, Bachelor Pad, and Bachelor in Paradise, Graham has been an intricate part of the drama. Born and raised in North Carolina, he was a basketball stand-out in high school and played for Appalachian State University, and then played professionally overseas in Europe until an injury forced him to return home. In late 2007, he and two college friends launched 46NYC – an apparel company that designs, manufactures and markets its own line of clothing to raise money and awareness for causes that impact our global community. |
Burdette, Bob: KBOB/KGRB. As owner and
manager of these two stations, he worked for years in the
1970s and 1980s to convince the listeners that KMPC was not
the only Big Band format in town.It was New Year's Eve 1994/1995, and the
last remaining Big Band station in Los Angeles was in danger of being sold
right out from under its owner, according to former manager Steve Ray. "Back
in 1960, former KTLA-TV sound engineer Bob Burdette put KGRB on the air at
900 AM, and now he was incapacitated due to a stroke.
Burdette, Gloria: KBOB/KGRB. Gloria was pd
at the Big Band stations.
Burke,
Billy: KIIS, 1996-99; KBIG, 1999-2000; KZLA, 2000-03; KFSH, 2004-06. Billy
worked morning drive at KFSH, "the FISH," until the summer of 2006. He's
teaching and coaching MMA and
kick
boxing.
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BURKEY,
Cindi: KCRW, 1994-2005; KGIL, 2008. Cindi was the afternoon news voice on KCRW's
"All Things Considered" until late spring 2005. She's now with Metro
Traffic. In 2008, Cindi was a guest-lecturer for Mike Sakellarides's radio class at Fullerton College and shared some thoughts: She talked about the eclectic mix of interests in those taking radio classes. “One guy told us a story about meeting a radio celebrity whom he admired, until the person, [won’t name] upon hearing of his interest in radio, told him: ‘you don’t have the face, the look, you should forget it.’ Nice. Thankfully, this student didn't forget it. I liked what he wrote for his weekend report, which Fullerton College’s station airs, to give information about what events are going on in California on any given weekend. ‘ "Another guy was a pilot and was able to time his 60 second report to the millisecond,” Cindi continued. “There was a young man with a very atypical but seductive voice, but the problem is he speaks very quickly, either out of nervousness or habit. Mike is working with him to slow him down, and, while I was there, showed him how best to breathe, had him stand up, adjusted his posture, and pointed out that the previous guest speaker had also said he had a nice voice.” |
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BURNETT, Larry: KFWB, 1998; KLAC, 1999-2008. Larry hosted the "Laker Zone" pre-game show at KLAC. He broadcast the WNBA Sparks games for Time Warner Cable until the 2017 season. A graduate of the University of Tulsa with a degree in Communications, Larry was voted Best Sports Anchor Team three times by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters’ Association. Larry is semi-retired and living in Reno. |
Burnham, Bonnie: SEE
Jennifer Burns
Burns,
Dave: KMLT, 2004-06. Dave was operations manager at KMLT ("JILL/fm").
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BURNS, Don:
KVFM, 1963; KNJO, 1964; KRLA,
1970-72; KROQ, 1973; KRLA, 1974-75;
KIIS, 1975; KIQQ,
1976-77; KOST, 1978-80; KUTE, 1986-88;
KTWV, 1988-2002 and 2003-10. The signature voice
of the WAVE with his afternoon drive, "No Stress Express. Don left afternoon drive at "the
Wave" on April 18, 2002 and returned May 12, 2003. He left the last
time in late spring 2010. Born in Santa Monica, Don spent most of his radio career in Southern California. He was on Armed Forces Radio and Television from 1964- to 1968. While stationed in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968, he hosted Good Morning, Vietnam in Saigon. The former Venice, California resident worked on KKUA-Honolulu and KOL and KJR in Seattle before joining KRLA in 1970. Don worked at KROQ, and then went back to KRLA from 1974-75. He did morning drive for a portion of Pasadena tour. Don left afternoon drive at KTWV following a salary dispute in the Spring of 2002, only to return one year later. In 1980 he was being groomed by Charlie O’Donnell to be his replacement as booth announcer at KCOP/Channel 13, but Don eventually returned to radio with a two-year stop at KOST and KUTE. He then joined the WAVE in 1988. Some of those who voted for Don Burns in voting for him as Best LARP wrote: “He’s got great pipes and relaxing to listen to” ... “Cool wit, charm, and the ability to knock you off your feet by listening to him speak. He’s evolved from a Top 40 jock to a smooth presenter. I want to grow up to be like Don ...The Sultan of smooth is hip and comforting on the ride home.” In 1965, Rick Scarry and Burns roomed together in a castle surrounded by a moat in Hourst, Germany, just outside of Frankfurt. He had been voice-tracking (recording) his segments from a studio in his La Quinta home for months, but current management wanted him to go live and local in afternoon drive. “I had an extended conversation with Don, and we expressed our mutual respect for one another. It was very heartfelt,” program director Jhani Kaye said. |
Burns,
Jennifer: Jennifer worked for Total Traffic using the name Bonnie Burnham.
Burrell,
Larry: KBIG, 1959. Larry worked out of the KBIG Hollywood office as the
station's news reporter. He went on to tv announcing. He appeared in One
Step Beyond, They Saved Hitler's Brain and Batman. He passed
away of lung cancer in the early 1990s.
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BURSON,
Jim: KFWB, 1972-2000. Jim spent almost three
decades with the all-News station, KFWB. He covered major stories,
from quakes to fires to flooding as well as the 1992 Los Angeles
riot. Jim grew up in East Liverpool, Ohio, and started in radio in 1954 during his senior years of high school. After graduating from Youngstown University with a degree in public relations, he joined KYW-Philadelphia in 1965. At KFWB he has been a news anchor, sports anchor, reporter, editor, writer and news director. “Thirty years ago when we started the all-News radio format, the pace was hectic but exciting. I can’t imagine anyone enjoying a lifetime of work as much as I have,” said Jim. He retired in February 2000 to Lincoln, California. |
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BURT,
Scott: KNX, 2017-23. Since 2017, Scott has been an
airborne/studio traffic and news reporter for all-News KNX. Educated at Pierce College, Scott started as a production assistant for KTLA/Channel 5, working in the traffic and weather department. In 1997, he joined Metro Networks as a production supervisor and led producer. From 2002-17 Scott was an airborne reporter for Total Traffic at KNX KRTH, KFWB and KOLA in the Inland Empire. |
Burton, Alan: KLOS, 1972; KFI. Alan worked
with Marshall Phillips doing news and talk at KLOS. He also worked for KKCY
"The City" in San Francisco from 1985-88. In between radio gigs he drove a
cab and taught radio students in a program called "Youth
News: Youth in the Air," according to his daughter. Alan retired to
Seattle and spent his last few years bushing, singing songs and working with
a pirate puppet called called One-Each. He died of a heart attack in 2003.
Burton, Michael: KROQ, 1990-95. Michael
"the maintenance man" left the Kevin & Bean
morning show in the fall of 1995 and filed a
wrongful-termination suit charging the station with racial
and religious discrimination. The suit was settled in late
1996 with both parties prohibited from revealing financial
details.
Burton,
Peter: KRBV/KSWD, 2008-17. Peter was appointed vp/gm of the new Bonneville station
(100.3/fm The Sound) in the spring of 2008.
He left in mid-November when Entercom sold the station to Educatonal Media
Foundation and the station flipped to Christian K-LOVE. He's now VP/Market
Manager of Beasley Las Vegas.
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Bush, Birdie: KRLA, 1978; KIIS, 1979-86.
Birdie is working on a number of production projects and involved with real
estate in the Santa Clarita Valley.
Buskett, Larry: KLAC, 1961-62. Last heard
Larry was working in Hawaii.
Butler,
Jerry: KHJ, 1970-73; KIQQ, 1973-75; KGIL, 1975-76. Born in Cleveland, Jerry
arrived at KHJ on October 15, 1970, from WRKO-Boston. Jerry was one of the
original jocks at
Drake/Chenault
KIQQ. He left KGIL in 1976 and committed suicide a few months later.
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BUTLER,
John: KHJ, 1978-80. Since early 2007, John has been the national program director, News/Talk, Salem
Communications, based in Dallas. With a radio career spanning four decades, Butler began as news reporter and anchor in Sacramento and Los Angeles. He served as correspondent and anchor for ABC Radio News in New York and news director at KFBK in Sacramento. During the 1990s, Butler was program director for KMBZ and KCMO in Kansas City. Later, he moved to Washington D.C. where he was program director at WMAL, and more recently, vice president of broadcast media for Z Comm. John was part of the KHJ news department. Born on April 24, 1954 in Woodland, California, he grew up there. He started at KXLU in 1974 while at Loyola Marymount College where he earned a B.A. in communications. In 1980 he graduated from Loyola Law School. “I was hooked on radio ever since I got a Heathkit short-wave set as a kid. I loved listening to KGO and KNBR in San Francisco and in Sacramento: KCRA, KXOA, KFBK and KROY.” |
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BUTTA, PJ: KKBT, 1993-2006; KHHT, 2008-09; KDAY, 2012-23. PJ is teaching at Mt. Sac College and hosting his worldwide syndication show for Radio Express. He also djs in the hot spots in LA. PJ started working at KDAY in the summer of 2012 and started doing mornings at the beginning of 2013. He's now the afternoon driver. PJ began his radio career at now defunct LA urban station, KKBT (The Beat), working his way up from promotions intern to dj, where he did overnights and evenings for 10 years. After KKBT, PJ worked on-air at rhythmic AC station KHHT (Hot 92.3). "I said the day I come back to radio is the day Arsenio Hall comes back to late-night tv,” said PJ. “Well, I really didn’t expect either to happen. But it has and I’m excited to be back and working at KDAY. To be able to stay in LA, do afternoons, and play the music I grew up with and still love is a no brainer!" |
Butterworth, Gary: KWNK, 1983; KIQQ, 1987; KLIT, 1990. Gary gallantly served as the morning man when KWNK first went on the air in 1983 (The "K-Wink" Morning Zoo). He now works at KION/TV-Monterey.
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BUTTITTA, Joe: KGIL, 1975-80 and 1984-87; XTRA, 1995. Joe was the teaching golf pro at Westlake Golf Course and he was a free-lancer on UPN/Channel 13. Joe died July 25, 2021. He was 79. He had been active in Southern California sports and media for more than 25 years, and is a man who wears a variety of hats in his many community-based activities. After nearly a decade as sports director at KGIL, he entered television as the director of sports at KTLA/Channel 5, where he was the nightly sports anchor and called the play-by-play for the California Angels major league baseball team, as well as UCLA football and basketball. While at KTLA he won an Emmy and a Golden Mike for his work, along with awards from the AP and UPI. He has also reported sports on Channels 9, 11 and 13. While at Channel 11 he covered the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. |
Buttitta is a graduate of a Notre Dame High School/Cal State Northridge graduate. He had been a Class-A member of the PGA for many years and has written golf for Executive Golfer Magazine, Golf World Magazine, and Natural Golfer Magazine. For 23 years his by-line appeared in the L.A. Daily News as its golf columnist. During the summer of 1995 he served as the host of “Talkin’ Golf”, a live call-in show on XTRA-Sports 690, which was produced by the Southern California PGA.
“Teaching Natural Golf has revitalized my teaching career,” says Buttitta, who has been teaching the Moe Norman-inspired swing. He estimates that 90-95 percent of his students are Natural Golfers. “The Natural Golf method is easier to explain and understand, therefore easier to teach to everyday players who just love to play this game. It’s the most logical way I know to hit a golf ball off the ground with a stick. Teaching is fun again!!”
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BUTTRAM, Pat: KNX, 1961-65; KGBS, 1966; KMPC, 1989-93. Pat was sidekick to Gene Autry for almost five decades. Born Maxwell E. Buttram in Alabama on June 19, 1915, he was the son of a circuit-riding minister and studied theology at Birmingham Southern College. He rode at Melody Ranch with Autry, portrayed a shrewd landowner on tv's Green Acres (on CBS 1965-71) and was an omnipresent master of ceremonies for many Los Angeles organizations. Pat died January 8, 1994, of kidney failure. He was 79. Buttram went to Hollywood in the 1940s and became a "sidekick" to Roy Rogers. However, since Rogers already had two regulars, Buttram was soon dropped. He was then picked by Gene Autry, recently returned from his World War II service in the Army Air Force, to work with him. Buttram would co-star with Gene Autry in more than 40 films, and in over 100 episodes of Autry's television show. Buttram was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and also by a star on the "Alabama Stars of Fame" in Birmingham. |
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BUTTS,
Mike: KIQQ, 1972-73. Mike was the original morning
man at the launch of KIQQ (K-100/fm). Originally a Motor City baby, he got his start in the mailroom at KLIF-Dallas, while he grew up in nearby Denton (Phyllis George was a classmate). In the 1970s, Mike worked in Detroit at WWWW and WKNR. His next stop was KDWB, which, according to Mike was rated #1 out of four CHR stations in the Twin Cities. He spent four years in Salt Lake City, as the first morning man that helped put KKAT ("The Cat") on the air. Mike broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the Most Handshakes - 16,615 to be exact, in seven hours. The event raised $17,000 for the Utah United Way. Mike is driven to perfection. During a five-year stay in Austin, he married his pd, Lisa Tonacci, live on his radio show. Mike is now an ordained minister, who made his big debut marrying couples at the McDonald's drive-thru window, while taking his show on the road Valentine's Day morning for WPRO/fm-Providence. His relateable commitment to the community shows. He appeared as a guest on the Maury show after helping two young girls who had been wronged by the IRS. He has found thousands of homes for homeless animals and the Human Society gave him the Man of the Year Award. He's authored the book, Air Personality Plus, an excellent comedy tool he has made available to fellow broadcasters worldwide. Billboard magazine has twice named Mike Air Personality of the Year. In 1999, he made a successful transition to Talk radio, working mornings at "The Buzz" in Providence. He is now out of radio and Mike worked in the mayor’s office in Providence. He's now retired and living in New England. |
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BYNUM, Roland: KGFJ, 1967-74, pd and 1984-85; KJLH 1998-2023. KJLH’s Roland Bynum published his first book, God Shots, in the summer of 2020. Make no mistake about the contents of the book. It is not your typical radio book, but a book written and experienced by an LA radio personality. “Life is a journey but it's nothing without God,” is the sub-headline in God Shots. Born in Detroit in 1941, Roland is a retired school teacher. He got his radio start at the Motor City's WCHB, then WABX-Montgomery, Alabama. Roland arrived in Los Angeles to replace the Magnificent Montague at KGFJ. By 1970, "the Soulfinger," as he was known, was the assistant pd and pd a year later. He also did a show on Armed Forces Radio Network. Fifty years later he has a story to tell. “I had this quiet and personal conversation with God. As I closed my eyes, not knowing how to pray, I just said, ‘God, please let me find a family that is my own because living with the Reed’s is horrible.’ Also, I want to live a long life. I paused and then made one more appeal, ‘I would like to have a big family of my own,’” Roland wrote. “I have thirteen children. Be careful what you wish for.” “I got up, and looked up. I could feel God’s eyes were on me. Right there and then I began the journey.” Voted Billboard Magazine’s Black program director of the year in 1974, Roland also worked at KAGB. He’s been at KJLH since March 1998. “I became a high school teacher in 2001,” revealed Bynum. “I started teaching in 1995-97 and then opened my own telemarketing business in 1998.” A couple of years later he decided to go back to the teaching profession, just two days before September 11th. “Broadcasting gave me a wealth of experiences to bring to the world of education. I earned two master's degrees in education and counseling from Point Loma University during my tenure as a teacher.” |
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BYRD,
Aaron: KCRW, 2007-23. Aaron hosts A Global Exploration of Sounds on
KCRW. Having visited 17 countries (so far) and spending at least three hours a day listening to new music, it's safe to say music and travel are his biggest passions in life. His attraction to the unknown and thirst for discovery has fueled an eclectic and expansive taste in music, from the underground hip hop scene the LA native explored as a teenager to his love of Guaguanco from Cuba. Aaron was an Engineering major at UCLA. “I see music as an extension of human emotion and the songs I am drawn to most have a subtle sense of euphoria. Something that is not overwhelmingly bold, but undeniably powerful.” Since his start at KCRW in 2007, Byrd has appeared on the front page of the New York Times and in both the LA Times and LA Weekly. |
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BYRON:
KFI, 1980-85; KBIG, 1985-87. Born
Byron Paul in New York City in 1946, his family moved to Long Island
shortly after his birth. Byron's father, a tv and movie director,
moved his family to L.A. in 1961 to be close to the work. His father
managed Dick Van Dyke and directed many episodes of Have Gun,
Will Travel and Gunsmoke. |
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