REEL TOP 40 RADIO REPOSITORY
Don Kent graduated high school in early 1964 and writes: "I had NO idea what career path to take. During my Senior Year I browsed through several college catalogs and came across "broadcasting" at Los Angeles City College. That sounded like fun. Besides, my dad had been in radio during WWII and it was sort of like following in his footsteps; well, kinda! I did pretty well at it, getting straight A's and a place on the Dean's List, so I figured that I'd found my "calling". Back in those days I collected a bunch of aircheck tapes from my, then, favorite stations. I studied the techniques for school, but I just liked listening to them, too. Eventually, I connected with others who had done the same and we traded. While I was still in school I took a job doing the news part-time at KBLA in Burbank, CA. That was in 1965. It worked into a job offer from KWIZ AM/FM, Santa Ana, which, so far as I know, was the first all-oldie station anywhere. That ended in 1969 and I returned to the station in Burbank, which was now KBBQ (Country). I HATED the Country format, but by then I had a wife and son and I needed the job (didn't have to turn the monitor up, though!). The P.D. from KLAC, Los Angeles, heard me on the air and offered me a job at his station. Needless to say, I took it. After several months I switched over to the Engineering Department there. The station was co-housed with KMET-FM and I did Production-Engineering for both. In 1970 I moved over to KFWB, Los Angeles, as a Production Engineer. A couple of years later I briefly moved to KNX/CBS but didn't much care for it and returned to KFWB, where I stayed until 1979. That's when I moved over to television, where I did freelance audio work (common in that business) for a short time. That led to a staff offer from KTLA-TV in 1980. I started there doing "doofus work", but moved up the ladder to the position of Senior Engineer and later Crew Chief.
Many years ago I collected rock 'n' roll records, but the "sound" changed from what I liked and I hung that up. I still have about three thousand records from back then though. In the intervening years since college, I just put those old aircheck tapes on a shelf in the garage. I haven't listened to them since the early 70's but they still sound pretty good, so enjoy! The Repository thanks Don Kent for sharing! |
[Descriptions by Don Kent]
TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (10Khz)
Elliot Field, KFWB Los Angeles, January 9, 1959
(29:02)
. . . My mommy listens to KFWB . . .
This is what "Color Radio KFWB" sounded like when it first began. I remember hearing the station in this form back when I was in junior high! [Uncle Ricky: Elliot Field started KFWB afternoon drive on January 2, 1958, the birthdate of Chuck Blore's Channel 98 format, and stayed with the station until 1964. KFWB was celebrating the first anniversary of Color Radio on the date of this aircheck.] | |
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TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (14.5Khz)
Gary Owens, KEWB Oakland, CA. September 29, 1959
(34:13)
This Exhibit 'SCOPED (17:29)
It starts with a Jack Morris newscast. Gary Owens sounded pretty good here, in the early part of his career. This is the earliest example of KEWB I've heard.
[Uncle Ricky notes:] This aircheck is an absolute treasure. If Wink Martindale's Deck of Cards isn't enough, you'll enjoy the Clinton S. Feamish Tap-Dancing Weather and The Thing that attacked downtown Milpitas ... and his orchestra. | ||||
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TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (10Khz)
Don MacKinnon, KEWB Oakland CA., 1961
(8:31)
Don MacKinnon did the morning drive show at "Cube" for several years, prior to moving to Los Angeles in February of 1965. This KEWB aircheck from late 1961 concludes with Big Bay Bannerlines, the newscast on the half-hour, with Ted Meadows. | |
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TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (10Khz)
Bobby Dale, KEWB Oakland CA, August 4, 1963
(13:49)
Bobby Dale went through the new Fab 40 Survey each Sunday on KEWB. He had been at KFWB just the year before, and would go on to KRLA later. But Bobby sounded the best, and was most at home, on "cube". [Uncle Ricky: Bobby Dale left radio in 1985. Los Angeles Radio People, Volume II (1997) reported that Dale was retired and worked part-time for a pre-school as a crossing guard in the San Francisco Bay area. Bobby Dale was diagnosed with liver cancer and passed away on January 17, 2001. Bobby Ocean contributed a special remembrance for Bobby Dale.] | |
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TOP STREAM 32.0Kbps (14.5Khz)
Ted Quillin, KRLA Los Angeles, August 27, 1963
(32:28)
This came from Ted Quillin's personal collection, such as it was. It was recorded at KRLA. Ted was doing "housewife-time" then. He let me copy this in the early seventies, when he was working for Ernie Freeman Productions in Hollywood. He had NO airchecks from the years of his earlier on-air jobs! | |
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TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (10Khz)
Ken Holiday, WABB Mobile Alabama, 1964
(11:55)
 The production director of KBLA, Burbank, a man I worked with 35 years ago, received this audition tape when he was P.D. of a station in the east. He had saved it and gave me a copy. Here's Ken Holiday on WABB Mobile, Alabama, on a Sunday morning in September, 1964. |
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TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (10Khz)
Don MacKinnon, KFWB Los Angeles, March 1965
(5:33)
This was the opening of Don MacKinnon's 12-3PM show on KFWB in Los Angeles, March 15, 1965. Joe Yocam, who had filled that timeslot for many years, was out of the lineup for the time being. Yocam was President of the L.A. Local of AFTRA and was involved in a legal dispute with KFWB. Don MacKinnon died in a car accident in June of 1965 before Yocam's situation was resolved (in December) and he returned to KFWB. Larry McCormick filled the timeslot between the two. | |
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TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (14.5Khz)
B. Mitchel Reed, KFWB Los Angeles, December 1965
(23:42)
. . . Lord Tim is a . . .
From BMR's second tour at KFWB: B. Mitchel Reed is heard in morning drive with newsman Cleve Hermann in December, 1965.
[Uncle Ricky notes]: KFWB is playing PAMS Series 26 & 27. BMR plays an exclusive from Petula Clark, and newsman Hermann does a bit about the Seventy Sickers.
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TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (14.5Khz)
Dave Hull, KRLA Los Angeles, January 1, 1966
(8:24)
It's New Year's Day in Pasadena, KRLA, 1966. Dave Hull makes reference to the Rose Bowl game, won by UCLA that year, and he is playing the number one songs from 1965. | |
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[Uncle Ricky notes]: Note the Chuck Blore Encore jingle package, also in use at WCFL in 1966.
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TOP STREAM 32.1Kbps (16Khz)
KFWB Custom Funky Jingles, 1967
(9:49)
. . . KFWB Channel 98 . . . This was the last jingle package used by KFWB as a music station (1967). It's a custom package labeled as featuring The Count Basie Orchestra and The Vandellas (without Martha!) This tape was salvaged from the KFWB attic in 1971. It includes several instrumental-only (thematic) cuts. Bob Oakes, KFWB Program Director in 1967, claims this custom package featured "the best of the best of LA's sidemen backing several different vocal groups including a group called The Blossoms." (see COMMENTS, below) [Edited for online presentation, does not include duplicate and remixed cuts.] |
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TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (14Khz)
Bob Hudson, KFWB Los Angeles, January 10, 1968
(49:21)
. . . [cough] You come to work fourteen straight days with a hundred ten temperature, and you're bound to drag a little . . .
This aircheck is from January 10, 1968, just after the announcement of the format change, which was to take place two months later. | |
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TOP STREAM 20.7Kbps (14Khz)
Joe Yocam, Gene Weed, KFWB Los Angeles, Jan 11, 1968
(1:03:05)
. . . this is Joe Yocam, makin' trouble for you out there . . . This was Joe Yocam at the end of his long radio career. After the KFWB format changed to News in March 1968, Joe went to KCET Television in Los Angeles, where he was the staff announcer for several years. He died of cancer in 1974, at the age of 55. Gene Weed (1935-1999) is heard after Joe. Gene went on to country music (he came from Texas, after all). He did some radio and also produced the Country Music Association Awards Show on CBS for several years, among other things. | ||
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TOP STREAM 32Kbps (9Khz)
Gene Weed, KFWB Los Angeles, January 11, 1968
(1:00:03)
This Exhibit 'SCOPED (23:21)
. . . even Joe Yocam had it but then it went limp and he doesn't know what to do with it . . . This recording of the late Gene Weed is a continuation of the afternoon show above, after the announcement of WB's format change. We hear the station evolving from Top 40 to M.O.R. It wasn't the best in town at either! Here's a typical show, regardless of the impending change. George Dvorak and Beach Rogers are featured with news. | ||
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TOP STREAM 32.1Kbps (16Khz)
Charlie Tuna, KHJ Los Angeles, February 23, 1969
(01:25:49)
. . . How do you follow the History of Rock and Roll? . . . Description by Uncle Ricky (3-25-2001)
What a treat to hear KHJ just minutes after the greatest Top 40 radio special ever conceived! Don recorded it on 1 mil quarter-inch, quarter-track reel tape, at 3.75 inches per second. It included some electrical noise and hetrodyne whistle, most of which was removed for presentation here. The length of this exhibit made additional processing prohibitive, but overall, the fidelity is really very good.
KHJ gave away a tape recording of the entire History "and a tape
recorder to play it on". Promos are heard for that contest, as well as
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TOP STREAM 16.2Kbps (8Khz)
The Hamster, KHJ Los Angeles, 1970
(10:46)
Description by contributor Don Kent. Robert W. Morgan was subbing for fellow Boss Jock Bill Wade, and having a good time doing it. In fact, he was having so much fun that he decided to go incognito, calling himself "The Hamster". [From Uncle Ricky: The fidelity on this rare recording is very poor, but the content is so good we had to share it.] | |
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