… Mama, come and get your baby boy – the leader’s first name is Burton …
B. Mitchel Reed, prior to joining WMCA. The inscription reads, “Never be in need, with B. Mitchel Reed”. (Courtesy Ben Fong-Torres.)
[By Rob Frankel]
This aircheck was given to me by Gary Liebisch, who recorded it himself. I’ve done some minor restoration work, but it is mostly intact.
[By Uncle Ricky]
In the early years of the Top40 format, B. Mitchell Reed was one of the few jocks to have been successful on both the East and West Coast. A native of Brooklyn and one of the original Swingin’ Gentlemen at Chuck Blore’s Color Radio KFWB in 1957, Reed returned to New York to become a WMCA Good Guy in 1963. His motivation was to unseat Murray The K on WINS. BMR felt that Murray hadn’t earned the position replacing Alan Freed. Mission accomplished, he returned to KFWB and when they dropped their music format, B. Mitchel Reed became a pioneer in the emerging Album Rock format. B. Mitchell Reed passed away in Los Angeles on March 16, 1983 at the age of 56, of heart disease.