Some people are just naturally good story
tellers. One that comes to my mind is Ralph Story, who through his news and
entertainment reporting for CBS and PBS, told a lot of stories about the history
of Los Angeles. Former CBS staff announcer Bern Bennett was another who could
make almost any topic interesting. And he was a master of jokes... you didn’t
care if you already heard him tell one a million times, he made them so
incredibly interesting.
Now you can add JJ Johnson to the list. The
veteran broadcaster with an amazing set of pipes -- heard on the original KDAY,
KACE and others locally along with legends like KFRC/San Francisco -- recently
released a Kindle book that covers his career in broadcasting.
Unlike other similar books, it isn’t what I
would call an autobiography, though in reality, that’s exactly what it is. But
it’s different than most. Reading it you feel like you’re sitting down next to
Johnson, relaxing with a beer (soft drink if you’re under 21, of course) and
hearing him tell stories.
Interesting stories about something I dearly
love: radio.
There is no plot. Just stories. Some of them
related, some not. Some I can relate to directly, such as when he describes a
“radio guy” as someone who turns up the volume to hear the special elements of a
station -- DJ talk, transitions, jingles -- then turn it down again when the
music plays. “To non radio people, this is odd,” he writes. Yes, my wife thinks
I’m odd.
He describes so well a programmer’s intuition --
something good programmers have -- in that they can tell what is happening at a
station just by listening to the on-air sound, even if they are nowhere near the
station itself. Describing his own programming days at KDAY, Johnson writes, “I
knew by listening, for instance, when one of my jocks was reading the newspaper
in the studio” rather than paying attention to details. “No one ever protested
when I would (call and) say, ‘put the paper down and pay attention, please.’
They knew I knew.”
He talks of the people he met and worked with,
musicians he met and befriended, and overall gives an amazingly detailed look at
the life of a radio DJ. Called, in fact, “Aircheck: Life in Music Radio,” it is
a fascinating look at radio in general, not just Johnson. It’s a fun read, and
its less than $5.
Johnny Mann
The creator of one of the most memorable tunes
in radio, Johnny Mann, passed away June 18 at the age of 85.
Mann and his Johnny Mann Singers were famous in
many circles, including radio and television. But I will always remember him for
the classic a cappella “93 K-H-J” jingle that became a staple of top-40 radio
stations nationwide, eventually morphing into the jingle still heard on KRTH
today, “K-Earth 1-0-1!”
New PD
Chris Ebbott has been named programmer of KRTH;
he will assume his new position July 16th. I’ll have more on Ebbott and his Los
Angeles connections next week. In the meantime, I find it interesting -- and a
potentially positive move -- that owner CBS decided to name Ebbott exclusively
to KRTH, and will name another person to program sister KTWV in the near future.
That should make both stations stronger; the last two PDs at KRTH also had to
program KTWV and it, well, just didn’t work out, at least for The
Wave.
No comments:
Post a Comment