When old school Hot 92.3 FM
became hip-hop Real 92.3, one of the casualties was Art Laboe, whose syndicated
Art Laboe Connection didn’t fit in with the new format.
The 89-year old broadcaster
is considered a friend to his numerous fans, and those fans span generations.
Many remember him from the original KRLA (now KDIS, 1110 AM), a station he
helped save with an oldies-current hybrid format in the 1970s, or his live
broadcasts from venues in East Los Angeles beginning in the 1950s. Laboe is the
DJ loved by grandparents, parents and children all the same time.
And they didn’t like when
he was removed from the air.
Luckily, KDAY (93.5 FM) is
picking up the slack. The station announced that Laboe’s syndicated program can
now be heard Sundays from 6 p.m. to 12 midnight. If you are in the Inland Empire
or have a clear signal for Old School 104.7 (KQIE), you can hear him even more
often: weeknights from 9 to midnight.
Laboe is a Southern
California treasure. Not just a legend ... he truly loves his listeners and
loves his audience. He plays -- as he always has -- requests and dedications,
and is the epitome of old school personality radio. You just don’t have many
like him left. And his radio career all started because he wanted to impress
girls.
True story.
For the trivia-minded ...
this brings Laboe full circle with the KDAY call letters; he spent a year or so
at the original KDAY (now KBLA, 1580 AM) around 1960.
New PD
Ken Charles has been named
the new Program Director for KNX (1070 AM) replacing, well, no once technically
... the station has been without a programmer since September when it let go of
longtime KNX and KFWB (980 AM) Andy Ludlum.
Charles comes to CBS from
Clear Channel/iHeart Media where he most recently was VP of programming for
iHeart’s Sacramento cluster of stations as well as being the national brand
manager for all of the iHeart news, talk and sports stations. Whatever that
means.
Position 93
A lot of action over of Airchexx.Com, with
some recent additions being recordings of KHJ (980 AM), KFI (640 AM) and Ten-Q
(1020 AM) circa 1978.
It’s an interesting
comparison of what was done in the face of stiff direct competition -- all three
stations were running forms of top-40 -- along with the competition from the FMs
in the form of album rockers KLOS (95.5 FM), KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM), and
top-40 formats on such stations as KIQQ (now KSWD The Sound, 100.3 FM).
Listening to KHJ of the era
is just sad. All the excitement that made the station what it was is missing
from the format created by programmer John Sebastian. On the other hand, Jimi
Fox-led Ten-Q was on fire and KFI was about to make its move under the direction
of John Rook. Ironically, as bland was KHJ was during the Sebastian years, today
it would be s standout personality-driven format. And Ten-Q would be killing
everyone, just as KFI would have done had they not gone soft.
The last great era of
top-40 on AM is represented in part by these airchecks. Add in some later KHJ
when Chuck Martin brought them back from the dead and you will wonder what
happened on the way to radio as it is done today.
Check out Airchexx.Com and ReelRadio.Com.
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