If your radio seems a
little happier this week, perhaps it is celebrating... this is the week -- 50
years ago -- that KHJ (930 AM) set the radio world on fire with a top-40 format
called Boss Radio.
I could write this story
every year. And I probably do.
KHJ was a has-been station
for many years, offering up five different formats in five years. That is not to
say that the station was always unsuccessful.
As the West Coast affiliate
for Mutual Broadcasting, KHJ in its early years actually had much success, and
many network shows originated from the studios of KHJ. But the 1950s and early
‘60s were not kind to Radio 93. The big money came from sister television
station KHJ-TV Channel 9. KHJ Radio was a bad joke.
When consultants Bill Drake
and Gene Chanault were brought in to change KHJ, they hired Ron Jacobs as
programmer; Jacobs had previously competed against Drake in Fresno. In early
April, 1965, the staff around the station figured these new managers were simply
the latest of the format of the day ... and would be gone soon enough.
Even the LA Times had
doubts. In “The Radio Beat,” columnist Don Page wrote:
“Requiem for a lightweight.
It’s too depressing to to recount the long unhappy life of radio KHJ. By now
most of you know that 40 years of programming will hear the referee say ’10” on
Monday. Mercifully it will be a clean knockout. Whether KHJ moves into the
hallowed rating circle is unimportant. It remains that quality, purposeful
programming has lost at KHJ.”
This was published on May
2, 1965, during the “Sneak Preview” KHJ launched to counter competitor KFWB (980
AM) trying to steal KHJ’s thunder. The format change was supposed to happen May
5, but a newsman from KHJ thought he was going to be fired and jumped ship,
taking some of the secrets with him.
Suddenly KFWB was calling
themselves Boss Radio, playing Boss Hits and 20/20 News. Jacobs decided to
transition earlier, and The Real Don Steele launched the sneak preview at 3 PM
on April 27th. To show the quick thinking inside the KHJ building, a promo was
voiced by Drake in which he put KFWB on the defensive, stating “some stations
may try to copy KHJ’s boss sound and we cordially invite them to try.” He
invited listeners to sample KFWB and KRLA as example of pre-Boss Radio, then
return to KHJ - ”originators of Boss Radio.”
The format was simple: no
long jingles, no DJ chatter, and a strict commercial limit. Build excitement
with promotions on a clean, uncluttered sound and make the station larger than
life.
That commercial limit
actually accomplished two things: It allowed KHJ to always be back to music
faster than the competition, and it allowed the commercials time to be sold for
a higher amount since it would be more valuable to advertisers.
Jacobs was the man to put
all of these ideas into action. He was and still is a radio programming genius.
Even in his advanced years, I am convinced he could take a station today and
decimate the competition, especially since so many stations today have the same
problem as the leaders of yesterday: they are burned out, boring, and
predicable.
I caught up with Jacobs by
telephone; he returned to his longtime home of Hawaii years ago. Some of the
more interesting facts I discovered:
• There really was very
little time from the conception of the ideas of Boss Radio to its ultimate
launch. Jacobs wasn’t even hired until early April. That’s less than a month to
develop a format that changed radio forever.
• Those rumors you may have
heard regarding Jacobs calling the jock on duty over a special telephone line to
ream them over perceived mistakes? Totally true. But it may have not been
anything they actually did. “I would drive around town and listen to jazz on the
radio,” he told me. “Then I’d call and yell ‘What was that?’ The DJ would say
‘you mean ...’ I’d say ‘yeah that. Don’t do that again.’ Then I’d return to
listening to jazz. That worked as well as monitoring the station.”
• After he left KHJ in late
1969 to start Watermark and American Top-40, he never listened to KHJ
again.
I’ll have more from that
interview another time. Back to Don Page:
“One thing you’ve got to
say for RKO-General (the owners). By eliminating personalities such as Michael
Jackson, Joe Dolan, Red McIlvaine, Paul Compton, Army Archerd, Steve Allen (plus
good music and news) and replacing them with rock ‘n’ roll, it showed class. All
third.”
I wonder if KHJ ever grew
on Page. In less than six months, the station was number one in Los Angeles.
Stations around the country emulated it, some successfully, others not. KFWB
changed to a news format three years later, and KRLA (now KDIS, 1110 AM) by 1970
was sounding more album-oriented.
KHJ really was the station
that changed radio. Airchecks as heard on ReelRadio.com easily show what the typical
station sounded like pre- and post- 1965, and it is dramatic. That influence is
the reason people fondly remember the station’s top-40 format 50 years after its
launch and 35 years after the format was dropped. Too bad so many programmers
have forgotten the lessons learned, but that influence does still hold today
even if so many stations have gotten lazy again.
Happy 50th, Boss
Radio.
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