Courtesy of Matt @ BigAppleAirchecks is this classic episode of Rick Dees’ Morning Show on 93 KHJ. For those not familiar with Dees’ show, his was full of characters (played by Dees himself and his wife, who did the female characters) and zany phone calls. No wonder after his tenure at KHJ, he would go on to legendary status on KIIS-FM.
Notice, the date has changed on this… often, when there’s a question of the exact date of an aircheck, our listeners can determine (sometimes down to the MINUTE!) exactly when a program aired. Thanks to the guy known as ‘calradiopd’ for today’s clues.
This runs just about 21 minutes, scoped.
Gotta change the date. “Sometime 1978” is wrong, since Rick’s first show at KHJ was April, 1979. In the Gemco ad, he mentions “This weekend, Memorial Day”. So this is May, 1979.
Also, while the male character voices were done by Rick, the female voices were his wife, Julie McWhirter Dees.
Fixed. Thanks for the correction.
Mary Lyon tells us it’s Thursday, so the correct date for this aircheck is May 24, 1979.
Also, the description makes it sound like a slam-dunk that Dees went on to superstardom at KIIS-FM following KHJ. It was by no means a sure thing. KHJ was running on fumes by the time Rick got there and the ratings only got worse. He was simply too late.
KHJ went country 18 months after Dees arrived and he was out of work for nine months. Rick admits how he thought he might never work in L.A. again. Had it gone that way, he’d be known as a failure in that market.
KIIS-FM, by no means a powerhouse, trying to find traction after the all-disco format, hired Rick in July of 1981. It was two years before it was clear that Rick and KIIS-FM were winners. Enormous credit for that goes to a visionary GM, Wally Clark, who spent record sums on promotion.
This is amazing to listen to. Many of the sound effects Rick would use for years through the 80’s and 90’s are on this. Such as the boss “yesh”, the “hey, that’s great” crowd, and the wheezy laugh guy.