Sometime way back in 2002, I struck up an internet friendship with Hollywood TV and Voice Actor Beau Weaver. Beau is a fascinating person; an uber talented (and accomplished!) TV voice actor, a Ham Radio operator (more on that in a moment), and a great radio DJ back in the days when creativity on the mic, being spontaneous and funny with no liner cards and running a tight show mattered… all on the AM radio dial! Yep. Beau Weaver was and IS all that!
One of the really cool things about how Beau and I struck up that friendship all those years ago was that we share this love of amateur radio. Both of us found it fascinating that we both have vanity call signs that honor great radio stations. I chose K1FRC some 15 years ago or so, in homage to the Big 610, KFRC San Francisco. Beau, to my surprise, chose his call sign to honor the legendary 93 KHJ! Unlike me, who never got the chance to work for such huge part of radio history, Beau spent a few years at BOTH stations! His callsign? W6KHJ. To further his coolness, he had a ‘legal ID’ (there are no such things in Ham Radio) recorded and produced by the great Bobby Ocean! Not that he could use it on the Ham bands, but he has that recording to play if the occasion arises!
So, we got to sharing our radio memories, mine are short, his are long. And it was so nice of him to donate this short scope of Beauregard Rodreguez Weaver on 93/KHJ just for our archives.
Be sure to visit Beau’s Voice Talent website, www.spokenword.com. You WILL recognize the voice!
I never got a vanity call, sticking with my as issued call sign N2JTX from 1989. And my GROL serial number makes even less sense!
At first, Robert, I wasn’t going to. My original callsign (issued with my NOVICE license!) was KA1SWR. Note the significance of that call. But, being the Top 40 radio officionardo that I am, I just had to seek out if there was something… I even looked to see if W1LS was available. It wasn’t (in ’99). K1FRC was. And that was that!
That was a nice suffix to have received randomly and not bad on CW or phonetically either (kilo alpha one standing wave ratio – nice!). Had the vanity program been in place when I first got licensed I might have gone for a W2 prefix but by the time they opened the program to the advanced class, which I was at the time, I had already had my auto license plates changed, a small pile of QSL cards and was happy to keep it.
This whole aircheck was quite humorous, but I especially liked the part at the end where Beau said that the stork brought a new Allman brother last night and that the others had been dropping like flies. Cher was married to Gregg Allman at the time this ‘check was made (they were hitched from 73-78, if memory serves me correctly). One other thing, about four years later, KHJ would go country. In announcing the switch, the ad said “We all grew up to be cowboys.” Thanx a million for this ‘check.
I’ve heard airchecks of Beau Weaver before but this one makes me like him even more.
It’s unfortunate but understandable why he’s not in radio today. He wouldn’t be allowed to sound like he did on 93KHJ if he wanted to continue in the business.
At least we get to hear him back in the 70s. Thanks a lot for adding this check.
Beau is truly one of my all time favorites then as a jock and now as one of the best in VO. Fun stuff.