Roxy Waters, KLTG Corpus Christi | December 23, 1997

Just two days before Christmas and all through the South, not a station played oldies… okay you get the picture. It’s the end of 1997, and K-Lite has morphed from a 60s based Oldies outlet to more of a 70s/80s hybrid. While he doesn’t say it, the morning guy’s name is Tom… but I’ve long since forgotten his last name, I just remember that he was on WTAR 790 Norfolk back in the 80s.

This clip starts out with a commercial for Marco’s Electronics… the voice on this is Lon Gonzalez, then you get two breaks of the morning show, then on to Roxy Waters. I seem to remember meeting her one time earlier that year before your webmaster left KLTG in February.

The Corpus Christi market at that time was about 40 percent Tejano or Mexican regional, one oldies station (this one), three country stations (KOUL, KFTX and KRYS AM/FM) and a few Rock stations (co owned KRAD 105.5 among them).

Enjoy this look at a good sounding if not image-confused Oldies/Classic Hits station!

Machine Gun Kelly, Oldies 93 KCBS-FM Los Angeles | Date unknown

Its always great to hear the gunner, and this is no exception… but why does your webmaster detect a hint of Dan Ingram sarcasm in Kelly’s delivery? Were it not for this exceptionally orchestrated set of KCBS-FM jingles and Southern California traffic reports, one could easily imagine being on the east coast and listening to 101.1 FM. Obviously this was a cloned station, CBS trying to imitate it’s NYC format in Los Angeles… and perhaps if not for KRTH being so well entrenched in the format, KCBS-FM could have done well.. but that’s a discussion for another time.

There is no date on this recording but we know that this is from a reasonably small window of time between July of 1991 when 93.1 got the KCBS-FM calls (switching from KODJ) and September 1993 when they dropped the Oldies format. Some of our listenters may remember the promotions and give us a better date estimate.

Bobby Ocean is the imaging voice.

Charlie Tuna on KRTH K-Earth 101 Los Angeles | February 11, 2008

This article on the OC Register really says it all:

There was good news and bad news at CBS Radio Thursday. The bad news: there were budget cuts and the elimination of jobs across the U.S., including Los Angeles. We’ll have more on that in a moment. The good news: Charlie Tuna is on board at oldies KRTH/101.1 FM to do weekends and also fill-in for the other personalities.

Tuna was the “Mystery DJ Voice” heard on K-Earth until he was identified and introduced to listeners on the Gary Bryan morning show.

Starting Feb. 9, he will be on K-Earth 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. His first fill-in assignment: replacing Joshua Escandon 1-4 p.m. weekdays for a week starting Feb. 11.

One really doesn’t have to know the storied history of the many legendary west coast stations Tuna has worked at to recognize his name – he’s been on television and even had a syndicated weekly top 40 countdown show in the 80s. Said Tuna about his new gig:

“I am so thrilled to be playing ‘The Greatest Hits on Earth’ on K-Earth 101!,” Tuna said in a press announcement. “This is music I played on Top 40 stations in Los Angeles for many years, and I love the station and its tremendous listeners. It’s an honor to be here.”

The fact that we have audio of that first afternoon show is a tribute to a fan who remembered to hit the record button and save it for us.

One audio aspect amazed me – after all those years of listening to Charlie Tuna on KHJ, you’d think his voice would DROP an octave or two with age, not rise…. nope, it was the incredible processing. And you all wondered why the voices sounded larger than life on the old AM top 40s… now you know.