REEL TOP 40 RADIO REPOSITORY

Mark Gleason at KCBQ, 1975
Mark (16) at KCBQ, 1975

Mark Gleason at KAMP, 1977
Mark at KAMP, 1977

Mark Gleason with Gordon Jump, 1985
Mark Gleason with
Gordon Jump, 1985

Mark Gleason at KJQY, 1994
Mark at KJQY, 1994

Mark at the Goodwill Games, 2002
Mark at the Goodwill Games for Turner Sports, 2000

Mark at All-Star Game, 2002
Mark at the All-Star game for ESPN, 2001

The Mark Gleason Collection
By Mark Gleason

My radio career started in the summer of 1975 at the ripe old age of 16, when I answered phones in the morning at KCBQ in San Diego for Jay Stone. It addition to answering the phones, I stuffed surveys in envelopes, went on food runs for the jocks, and most importantly, started learning how to operate the audio equipment. I spent a lot of time in the production studio and put together some airchecks in anticipation of getting on-the-air someday somewhere.

Jay got let go in the Spring of 1976 and migrated to Denver, Colorado to KTLK. We still kept in touch. When the summer rolled around, he asked me if I'd like to come up to Denver for the summer, live with his family, and get on-the-air there. Well, I packed up my red Chevy Vega and bit the road.

My first on-the-air job was at KYSN in Colorado Springs in the summer of 1976, July 5th to be exact. I also made a couple of appearances on the overnight show on KTLK in Denver that summer. In September, I returned to San Diego to complete my senior year in high school. I still wanted to be on-the-air, so I made some phone calls and landed a job working weekends 120 miles to the east at KAMP, a 1,000 watt daytimer in El Centro, CA. I worked Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

In October of 1976, I landed a job at B-100 with Bobby Rich at the helm. I wasn't on-the-air, but I answered phones and spent more time in the production room learning the ropes.

Eventually though, I did end up working weekends and swing at B-100. In August of 1978, I moved over to 91-X (XETRA-FM) with Gene Knight as PD. We taped our shows in a studio in downtown San Diego and then drove the tapes across the border. I was one of the tape couriers, in addition to doing weekends.

In August of 1979, after about 400 trips to Mexico, I moved on and went to work for programming syndicator Peters Productions, eventually rising to Production Director. Before I left there, I also got to program their rock format. In October of 1981, I left there and went to work for an audio/video production house in San Diego called Lightning Corporation (see Mike Larsen/KROY) as Audio Production Director.

After winning local awards for my audio production, in October of 1991, I decided to take a different direction with my career. I wanted to get back into radio and also explore the possibility of being a TV cameraman. I made some calls and landed a weekend gig at 92.1 KOW-FM (KOWF), a country station in Escondido, which is in northern San Diego County.

In December of 1991, I started working weekends and swing at Soft AC Sunny 103.7 (then KJQY). Ten years later, I'm still working at that frequency which is now 103.7 The Planet (KPLN). I also do some work across the hall at Soft AC Kicksy 96.5 (KYXY).

My main job now is as a free-lance Camera Operator, doing mainly sports. I work for ESPN, CBS, Fox, Turner Sports, WGN, as well as doing local sports in the San Diego area. Living in Southern California, I've been lucky to hear some great radio. Locally, I listened to KHJ, KCBQ and B-100 during their heyday in the mid to late 70s. I also have traveled around the country recording some of the greats of the industry. I'm grateful to be able to share these airchecks with you!

The Repository thanks Mark Gleason for sharing!

[Descriptions by Mark Gleason ]

G2/5.0 compatible TOP STREAM 32.0 Kbps (14 Khz)
KCBQ San Diego Visible Vault Composite, 1975 (11:21)

. . . The cash and the trip are in the vault . . .

[Description by contributor Mark Gleason]

I worked at KCBQ, my first station, in 1975.

This composite of the KCBQ Visible Vault Promotion has Jay Stone in AM Drive, Bill Moffitt middays, Shotgun Tom Kelly PM Drive, Brian White evenings and Gene Knight nights.

Chuck Roberts was the Program Director.

[Technical Note from Uncle Ricky: The dropouts beginning at 4:45 and continuing until 5:30 were present in the contributed source material.]

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G2/5.0 compatible TOP STREAM 32 Kbps (14 Khz)
KCBQ Becomes A Thing Of The Past, February 1976 (25:00)

. . . and if the radio stations there have any openings . . .

[Description by contributor Mark Gleason]

KCBQ ran promos and made announcements in the days leading up that it would "become a thing ofthe past this Friday". You hear the "final" moments of KCBQ followed by the announcement that ran Friday at 6PM.

Of course, it sounded like the Q was history, but the promo lets us know that the Q is actually repeating history. It features classic airchecks from past promotions like "The Last Contest", "KCBQ Keeps On Truckin'", "Mercedes Benz", and "The Great Q Rip-off".

Gerry Peterson (Cagle) is the voice on the promo and was program director at the time.

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G2/5.0 compatible TOP STREAM 20.7 Kbps (10 Khz)
Jay Stone, KCBQ San Diego, March 1976 (04:34)

. . . That's great Leonard - don't ever call me again . . .

[Description by contributor Mark Gleason]

This aircheck was put together by Jay Stone himself after he got let go at KCBQ in April of 1976. It landed him a job at KTLK in Denver.

[Jay Stone died in an auto crash caused by a heart attack on October 15, 2001. His car went out of control and overturned in Hawaii Kai (Honolulu, HI.) He was in his mid-50's.]

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G2/5.0 compatible TOP STREAM 32.0 Kbps (14 Khz)
Brant Miller, 96KX KXKX Denver July 9 1976 (11:30)

. . . Two Letter Radio - K X . . .

[Description by contributor Mark Gleason]

We've all had disc jockeys that were our favorites. We couldn't wait for them to come on the air every day. Brant Miller was one such DJ for me.

I was lucky enough to hear him during the summer of 1976 in the Mile High City. Listen carefully and enjoy a typical (?) day on the air at 96KX (KXKX). You'll also hear John London, later of "London and Engleman" fame.

Brant Miller is now a meteorologist at the NBC Television affiliate in Chicago.

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G2/5.0 compatible TOP STREAM 32.0 Kbps (10 Khz)
Bobby Ocean In the Morning, KHJ Los Angeles, Fall 1976 (12:53)

. . . I'm doing the entire show laying on my back talking up to the microphone . . .

[Description by contributor Mark Gleason]

With a different attitude on morning drive, Marv Howard with news, and a special batch of Mr. Coffee, Bobby Ocean fills in for Charlie Van Dyke.

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G2/5.0 compatible TOP STREAM 32.0 Kbps (14 Khz)
B-100 KFMB-FM San Diego Composite 1977 (9:26)

. . . they call me Dr. Boogie, of course, my real name is Linda Lou . . .

[Description by contributor Mark Gleason]

I was working at B-100 at the time and put together this composite for the sales department.

Bobby Rich was at the helm and this station was #1 12+ in the market. This composite features Shotgun Tom Kelly in AM Drive with "Uncle Fred" Stemen on news, Glen McCartney middays, Danny Wilde PM Drive, Gene Knight evenings, Kevin nights, Jimmy Rogers weekends, and Dr. Boogie (Bobby Rich).

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G2/5.0 compatible TOP STREAM 32.0 Kbps (15 Khz)
Boston PM Drive WRKO WVBF-FM August 5 1978 (9:17)

. . . You can just honk your horn right now, on the expressway . . .

[Description by contributor Mark Gleason]

This composite of Afternoon Drive in Boston, Massachusetts, recorded on August 5, 1978, features Big Ron O'Brien and Willie B. on WRKO, and Major Tom and Jo Jo Kincaid on WVBF-FM (F-105).

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The Mark Gleason Collection has been part of REELRADIO since February 2, 2003.

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