By the Summer of 1967, KFWB had been knocked down to 3rd place in the Los Angeles Top 40 race, due in part to KRLA’s initial rise to 1st place in 1964, when it overtook KFWB, and again in 1965 with the launching of “Boss Radio” 93/KHJ, which sent IT to first place in the first book. Also a factor was the crushing AFTRA strike which literally killed off the ratings for what had been the premier Top 40 station in 1958.

Its with this background that we present a great sounding, 1st generation recording of the late B. Mitchell Reed (died March 18, 1983). The show is lively and energetic… listening to this, I’m surprised that this station didn’t do better than KHJ. Its been said that one of the keys to KHJ’s success is that consultant Bill Drake managed to fit all the jock personality over a 10 second song intro, and got rid of all the other junk… anotherwords, kept the presentation TIGHT. In that regard, one could understand why KFWB was on the way out – too much chatter from Reed which wasn’t directly related to the music or topical (some of us still like that, though).

No matter which school of thought you’re from with regard to 60s radio formats, this aircheck is historic, at least for this site, as it’s only the second KFWB recording, and this is from a period in time which is less than a year away from the station’s flip to All-News, having been purchased by Westinghouse Broadcasting a short time earlier. Enjoy!

From our ‘annonymous’ donator’s collection from 2004