Radio Waves Podcast #269

Radio: October 11, 2020

Longtime KGB/San Diego personality Jim McInnes is back on the air on KPRI/Pala (93.1 FM), a low-powered community radio service of the Pala Band of Mission Indians in Northern San Diego County. You can hear the station via smartphone radio apps or through the station website, RezRadio.FM; McInnes can be found Saturdays from 8-10 p.m. Over the air you'll need to be closer to the station.

It’s kind of an odd almost full-circle trip for McInnes, as his first radio job in (at the time) the “City in Motion” was at the original KPRI (106.5 FM), San Diego’s version of KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM). KPRI was the original “freeform” station in the area, beginning in 1968.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Perhaps due to the fuzzy memories brought on by various substances used on those same stations, I cannot get an accurate account of the exact timing.

Some sources place McInnes at the beginning of the original KPRI, with him credited as helping to get the format launched in the as-mentioned year of 1968. McInnes himself said in an interview that his first San Diego gig was indeed KPRI … but in 1973. The problem with that date, is that it conflicts with another story that had him start at the station in 1972 … which may still be wrong because of still another story placing him as the second DJ hired by consultant Ron Jacobs for KGB when the former AM top-40 station became “recycled” into an album rock station in April of 1972.

And no one seems to remember that it was indeed the AM (now KLSD, 1360 AM) that went album-rock first, later adding the FM simulcast at 101.5 FM that ran until sometime in 1975 when it split and the AM became a pseudo top-40 station again and KGB-FM played on.

Whew.

Anyway, what is known is that McInnes spent a million years at KGB-FM, give or take a few. He was partly responsible for producing at least a few (most?) of the Homegrown albums in the early days of the format, in which the station released vinyl records of music from local bands. McInnes himself was in a local band, The Shenanigans.

At the new Rez Radio KPRI, he’ll be hosting a show sandwiched between recordings of legendary DJ Wolfman Jack and Dead Air (Grateful Dead music). It’s called the Vinyl Resting Place, and features deep album tracks and local artists that are probably not heard anywhere else on the air or off. The show will build on McInnes’ own personal album collection.

Rez Radio 91.3, KPRI (Kupa Pala Rez Indians) is owned and operated by The Pala Band of Mission Indians and broadcasts in the San Luis Rey River Valley at 91.3 FM.  Live streaming can be done worldwide on iHeartRadio, TuneIn.com, Radio Garden and at at website, where you’ll also find the station program schedule. Ask your smart speaker to “play KPRI”.  And if you want to hear something in a totally different way, you can call toll-free and hear the station on the listen line: 712-775-5748.

Going, going, gone …

It may seem like deja vu, but something tells me this time it’s for real and permanent: Don Barrett announced October 5 that he has shut down his LARadio.Com site. For good.

Unlike past times, this time the site itself is actually gone; even archives have been pulled. 

Barrett launched the site originally as a way to help market his book, LA Radio People, released in 1994 with a revised second edition following a year later. The site ended up being a must-stop for radio fans like me, and it has been a sort of water-cooler hangout to hear the latest news and rumors. 

“My goal from day one with my books and later website was to pay tribute to the men and women who have entertained us in LARadio for the past half century, Barrett wrote in his goodbye statement on the site. “The underlying theme was to paint an accurate, positive picture of on-air radio people who sit in empty rooms broadcasting to thousands of people, weaving tales that kept the listener engaged and enthralled – the ultimate storytellers.

“I wanted to pay tribute to those who had gone before us and blazed the trail. Many of our profiles filled in so many missing pieces about the stories of our favorites we only thought we knew from behind the microphone. If you read a story and said, “I didn’t know that,” or “that’s fascinating,” then I accomplished my task. And when Los Angeles Radio People died, I never wanted that LARP, no matter how big or small, to leave in obscurity. It was important to make sure he or she didn’t leave as an unknown, but rather as a part of this rare fraternity of Los Angeles Radio People. 

“I never wanted radio to be thought of only as ‘the way it used to be.’ I never wanted to live in the past. Oh, yes, I wanted everyone to be aware of the past, but never to live there. My intention was always to lift the medium up and be proud. When management or personalities stumbled, I was quick to point that out – not in a pejorative way but rather, how can we do radio better.”

His positive focus is what set him apart from most, and he’s gotten me to change my style over the years as well. Thanks for a few great runs, Don, Enjoy your retirement.