Los Angeles
QuickCheck: Russ O’Hara, KRLA Los Angeles | June 12, 1969
1969 was a good year for Top 40 radio in Los Angeles. KFWB was still around, albeit more like a Middle of the Road station, 93/KHJ was at the top of it’s game, and then there was KRLA. Never the powerhouse hit station that other AMs were, past or future, it was a warm and cozy station that played current music and featured warm personalities. You’d probably call it your parent’s music station. Russ O’Hara is filling in for Rob Foster (KFRC) here. Russ is a laid-back jock, one you’d perhaps find on a late 70s/early 80s Soft Rock FM station. Its a cozy aircheck, and shows that KRLA was certainly not going to try and beat KHJ at its own game.
Jim Davis, 93/KHJ Los Angeles | 1976
Forget about Boss Radio. KHJ had a LOT going for it in the mid-70s, if nothing else, the programming and voice brilliance of Charlie Van Dyke at the helm of an L.A. legend. It’s difficult to outline the politics of radio in Los Angeles in this era. The staple KHJ jocks that listeners were used to in the Boss Era (1966-1970) were elsewhere on the dial, and that meant that a whole different group of professionals had to perform brilliantly. RKO management had told programming pioneer Bill Drake to take a hike a few years before this, so, this high-personality lightning fast presentation with it’s unique RKO style was in place at 93/KHJ in 1976. Van Dyke did mornings (until later that year when Rick Dees arrived from WHBQ Memphis), Beau Weaver had his time slot, and then there was...
“The Boss is Back!” Dick Whittington’s 1st Show as 93 KHJ Returns | April 4, 1983
93 KHJ returns as an Oldies station after a two year run playing Country music! Dispite the on air promo which mimics KHJ’s original Boss Radio launch in 1965, the first Dick Whittington show is kind of awkward, probably due to the fact that Mr. Whittington is unfamiliar with KHJs control room – and he makes mention of it repeatedly on the air. We know virtually nothing about Dick Whittington’s career but generally, former listeners have fond memories of him. The formatics are in place, however, and one can easily understand where KHJ was going with this in 1983. The bright spots on this recording are the original KHJ Johnny Mann Jingles, and the news department (although the first newscast features AP Network news instead of the local news team). Despite the technical gl...
Rick Dees’ Final Show on KIIS-FM Los Angeles | February 10, 2004
How does a legend say goodbye to the second largest audience in America, not counting the then budding XM Satellite radio audience? How does this website even pay tribute to this particular morning, a day which many observers mark as one of the largest bloodlettings of all consolidation events since 1996? To be sure, one career’s demise is another’s beginning (we’re talking, of course, about Ryan Seacrest), but at least Clear Channel DID allow Dees one last show. Chris Salisbury contributes this audio, writing that he used to work for Clear Channel, at an affiliate in Lancaster, CA on the “morning that Dees took his exit”, and recorded the entire show on minidisk. Indeed, he did a great job of scoping the final product down for us, and we have a nearly perfect...
Tom Konard’s “Aircheck Factory” Presents: Gene Weed, 980 KFWB Los Angeles | November 23, 1958
Date of Recording: 11.23.1958 Station: 980 KFWB Los Angeles (Slogans: “Color Channel 98”, “All News 980”, “The Beast 980”, “Desi 980”, “Mera 980”) Format (at time of recording): Top 40 Featured Air Personality: Gene Weed b 1935 d 1999 (WQAM/KFWB/AFRTS/Dick Clark Productions) Contributor: Anonymous (per request) Airchexx Entry: 1,484 Sixty-five degrees in the land of the KFWB Fabulous Forty… Known as the “Weedy One” at KFWB, Gene Weed did radio in Dallas, Omaha and Miami (at WQAM) before arriving in Los Angeles. Weed was serving in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in L.A., and while still on duty, began working part time at KFWB. Eventually, he became the Assistant Program D...
Joshua Escandone, KOST 103.5 Los Angeles | January 16, 1999
Here’s another in a series of KOST airchecks contributed by Matt over at Big Apple Airchecks – this time featuring Joshua Escandone. As the 90s drew to a close, almost every market had a soft AC, playing very sleepy, mostly slow, albeit modern music with an occasional uptempo song. Most were top billing stations with real personalities who were allowed to do more than read liners, yet not go into an uptempo talkup over the music. Like the format or not, these stations usually were one of the top rated stations in their respective markets, within their demographics – much of it attributed to at-work listening. KOST owned it’s demo in Los Angeles. The morning show of Mark & Kim was one of the most respected in the market. The rest of the day wasn’t too shab...
Jimmy Rabbitt, KROQ AM/FM Pasadena CA | November, 1976
Date of Recording: 11.xx.1976 Exact Date Unknown Station: 106.7 FM / 1500 AM KROQ Pasadena, California, USA Format: Hit-Based AOR Featured Air Personality: Jimmy Rabbitt Contributor: Frank Davis Comments: This is a very unique aircheck in the sense that it probably illustrates what Freeform Progressive Rock radio really sounded like at it’s apex in the mid 1970s. Now, we’re not sure if this was a special show or if this was the actual day-to-day format of KROQ, but we do know a few facts. First, KROQ is an AM 1500/FM 106.1 simulcast. Second, Jimmy Rabbitt is a jock known better to Texans than those in Los Angeles (in fact, he’s in the Texas radio Hall of Fame). Here, Rabbitt is very long winded, playing songs of many different genres, then (in his second break), talks abo...
“Banana” Joe Montione Flashback Show, KIIS-AM/FM Los Angeles | Undated
Date of Recording: Unknown Station: 102.7 KIIS-FM Los Angeles, California, USA Format: CHR Featured Air Talent: “Banana” Joe Montione Contributor: Robyn Watts/East Coast Airchecks …”you could be there as we play Flashback Jeopardy!” Comments: Many of these “East Coast Airchecks” tapes came in undated, only labelled with the jock and station, thus we leave it up to our listeners to pinpoint when the aircheck was recorded. This is the Banana Joe Flashback Show on Kiss-FM. Lots of promos for Rick Dees in the Morning, plenty of callers and tons of 80s hits are heard in this ultra high-energy scope that we’re guessing was probably made sometime around 1992 or 1993. CHR radio’s approach to an oldies show sounded incredible, especially since t...
QuickCheck: Eric Chase, KIQQ “K100” Los Angeles | July 18, 1975
Date of Recording: 07.08.1975 Station: 100.3 KIQQ Los Angeles, California, USA Featured Air Personality: Eric Chase Comments: K100 was L.A.’s first serious contender in the top 40 wars, and this short glimpse into mid-70s KIQQ sounds great. Eric Chase was better known in San Francisco at KFRC, and his personality is the same here. He’s an enormously talented jock and this aircheck proves it. By the time of this aircheck, K100 was on the decline, its best talent, Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele and Humble Harve having recently (at the time of this recording) having quit. This station was the first programming project for Bill Drake after leaving RKO General.
The Real Don Steele, KRTH K-Earth 101 Los Angeles | Date unknown
Date of Recording: Early 1990s (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 101.1 KRTH Los Angeles, California, USA Featured Air Talent: The Real Don Steele (04.01.1936 – 08.05.1997) (KBUC, KEPR, KIMA, KXLY, KOIL, KISN, KEWB, KHJ, KIQQ, KTNQ, KRLA, KODJ, KCBS-FM, KRTH) Contributor: Robyn Watts Airchexx Entry: 657 (repost at 1,451) Comments: Thanks again to the massive Robyn Watts collection, the late Don Steele is featured in this 7+ minute scope of K-Earth 101 from sometime in the early 90s, we’re guessing around ’91 or ’92. Charlie Van Dyke’s pipes are lower than ever in the incredible imaging, and the jingles…. well, KRTH has used a variation of nearly the same jingle sing for well over 30 years now so what does that tell ya? Very few radio stations have had the sam...
Machine Gun Kelly, Oldies 93 KCBS-FM Los Angeles | Date unknown
Date of Recording: Unknown Station: 93.1 KCBS-FM Los Angeles, California Featured Air Talent: M.G. Kelly Airchexx Entry: 654 (Repost at 1,451) Comments: 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 th...
Dick Biondi, 1110 KRLA Los Angeles Reunion, Part 2 | October 31, 1981
Date of Recording: 10.31.1981 Station: 1110 KRLA Pasadena/Los Angeles, California, USA Featured Air Talent: Dick Biondi (WINR, WCBA-AM, KVOB, KSYL, WHOT, WKBW, WEBR, WLS (AM), KRLA, WCFL, WMAQ, WBZ, WSAI, WNMB, WBBM FM, WJMK, WLS-FM) Airchexx Entry: 1,038 (Repost at 1,450) (What does this mean (1)) KRLA Big Time is… a little after half past the hour! Comments: One of the early pioneers of Top 40 radio (think back to Biondi singing “On Top of a Pizza” back in ’61 on WLS Chicago), Here’s Dick Biondi, a former KRLA jock and one who always knows how to bring excitement to any on-air party! This is part two of the KRLA Reunion, or, as they put it, “KRLA’s look back to the 1960s…”. Now, KRLA doesn’t exactly sound like a barn burner. The...
