The Don Jennett Collection
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Don Jennett was born in Los Angeles in 1962, and is an avid collector of Los Angeles airchecks.
Many L.A teens grew up with Boss Radio 93/KHJ. But in 1969, Don was only seven years of age when he was first hooked on KHJ. As an adolescent, he made all-too-brief airchecks of KHJ, KFI and 10-Q. He was unaware that the tapes would become collectibles, so not much survives from that era. His collection, as presented here, was built virtually from scratch. Don dreamed of being a "Boss Jock" or a journalist while growing up, and was schooled in newspaper journalism. He was Entertainment Editor and Radio Critic for the Cal State Long Beach Daily Forty-Niner during his college years. He became aware of aircheck collecting as a hobby in 1991, when he stumbled upon KRLA's April Fools' day broadcasts of classic DJs like Dave Hull, Emperor Hudson, Bob Dayton and Charlie O'Donnell.
His career path took him into the world of advertising sales. He moved to Nevada City, California in 1998, where he worked as a publisher's representative. Don's only hands-on contact with radio — other than being a former groupie — was as a volunteer broadcaster at KVMR-FM, public radio in Nevada City.
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The Repository thanks Don Jennett for sharing!
Here’s Los Angeles radio veteran Paul Freeman on KNAK (1280 Khz) in Salt Lake City, Utah during the Solid Gold Summer of 1970.
KNAK had some ballsy ID drops, TM “Beat Goes On” jingles and a
“Salt Lake City Weather” acapella which caps the “Salt Lake City Today”
report (at 47:33) by Lloyd Lindsay Young. (Lloyd Lindsay was later at KFRC. Mr. Young was a TV weatherguy and commercial spokesman in Sacramento, CA. for several years.)
This is an enjoyable escape to a time when hit records were all “about” 3
minutes. Top 40 stations in smaller markets could pay the bills with reasonable commercial loads and the format comfortably blended rock, R&B and Pop. This was not “diversity”. It was plain old “variety”. Smaller market stations that got this good at their craft were still making exciting radio – and payroll.
Even more appropriate for the date of the online debut, within the last 60 seconds of this salty treasure you’ll hear a spot for Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
It’s 31 years, one month and a couple of days after June 27, 1970  and some things never change!
The “Big 93” of 1972 would prove to be the sixth and final one for Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele and The Johnny Mann Singers on KHJ. I vividly recall 28 years ago my friends and I writing down each and every song in this countdown as it was revealed.
RWM sounds as though he understood at this time that the official end of the Boss Radio era was finally at hand. Very few spots here (even for a Saturday morning), but the “Big 93” jingle is intact. This segment features Hits #93 through #67.
Listen for an extremely rare “KHJ News Bulletin” (from newsman Bob Lee) announcing the resumption of the Paris Peace Talks.
This segment features Hits # 31 – #1. After the “giant-killer” for the year is announced, it all begins anew with the #93 song.
[Description by Uncle Ricky for this exhibit contributed by Don Jennett]
A scoped partial version of this exhibit has been on REELRADIO since May of 2000, and now, in memory of Dave Diamond who passed on May 5, 2014, here are the entire three hours of the last Diamond Mine program on KBLA.
There were some small technical problems with the original tape, resulting in a few places where speed is lost. Three songs were restored because they were incomplete or for technical reasons. At one point, it sounds like the radio was tuned away for a few seconds, and then tuned back. There’s an odd “acoustic” effect on portions of the last 90 minutes, mostly noticeable on voice. Gary Whitaker handles news.
There’s plenty of pomp at the end, as KBLA becomes KBBQ.
Ever the consummate professional, Gene Weed (1935-1999), one of the only two remaining original “Seven Swinging Gentlemen,” brings down the curtain after 10 years, 2 months and 8 days of what was initially called Color Radio.
A certain highlight is Weed’s recitation of the names of 50 personalities (all male, by the way) who used a KFWB microphone between 1958 and 1968.
Bee Gees Day was coming – as evidenced by TWO Brothers Gibb tunes in this aircheck recorded during KRLA’s “New Season of Excitement,” a high-energy format which sounded very much like rival KHJ. Of course, by January of 1968, KHJ had lapped KRLA (and everyone else!) in the ratings. The DJ lineup at this time included Reb Foster (PD), Casey Kasem, Jim Wood, Dave Hull (in morning drive), Bill Slater and Rhett Walker (a New Zealander who was KRLA’s answer to KHJ’s Tommy Vance and KFWB’s Lord Tim Hudson).
Bob Dayton (1934-95) left WABC in 1965 after the infamous “Hiroshima” broadcast and headed west, first stopping at KBLA in Burbank (later KBBQ and then KROQ), where — as evidenced by an aircheck elsewhere at this site — he “puked” for two years. Reb Foster hired him the day KBLA folded, and by 1968 he had toned it down to at least “Boss Jock” level. In early ’69 he even went up against The Real Don Steele in KRLA’s afternoon slot.
The “New Season of Excitement” ran out of gas, however, and by mid-1968 KRLA had all but conceded that KHJ ruled the town, giving way to large chunks of “automated” programming. Dayton stuck with KRLA off and on through 1973 (including a brief run back in New York at ‘CBS-FM). He died of cancer April 28, 1995.
Here’s some of Jimmy Rabbitt’s final show on KRLA during their Phase 1 format. Phase II was launched when Shadoe Stevens joined KRLA as Program Director later that year.
Following this stint, Rabbitt joined B. Mitchel Reed at album-rocker KMET,
then moved to country KBBQ, where he stayed on for the switch to KROQ in September, 1972.
[Uncle Ricky: Classic comedy from The Credibility Gap is included in the extended newscast beginning at timemark 17:24 (06:55, ‘scoped version). Music was restored to this exhibit on May 31, 2015.]