The Les Durrant Collection

Les Durrant at 4 years old
Les Durrant at four years of age - born to play with records!

Les visiting KDYL, 1983
Les visiting KDYL, 1983

Les Today
Les Durrant, today

Les Durrant was born in 1964, in Northern California, the son of a Navy Airman. His family moved around quite a bit, but his early years were spent mainly on the island of Guam, where he got his first taste of radio. For a project in the Cub Scouts, his Mom took him to the Navy radio station on the base (AFNG) and he was hooked. When he returned to the States in 1974, they stayed near San Francisco and his favorite radio station became KFRC.

He was only in San Francisco for a short time before moving to San Diego where he "grew up" listening to KCBQ. At night, he snuck under the covers with his transistor radio. At one point he made a list of all the radio stations he could pick up, from Boise to Seattle to Chicago. (He still has the list.)

By 1980, Les was in Utah while his Dad attended school. He got his first radio job at a station in Tooele, Utah, playing the Sunday morning church shows, but he "got to give the time and temp, so it was cool." His family finally settled in Lubbock, Texas where he pursued his radio career on three stations at once (Big Band KKAM, and adult contemporary stations KWAZ and KSEL.) Les stayed in radio until 1984 and then he became a Club DJ for several years, off and on.

Currently, Les works for a "great company doing workforce management." He misses his days on the mike, and hopes you enjoy his Collection.

The Repository thanks Les Durrant for sharing!

… the American Band – you can tell, they got their uniforms on …
Here’s Charlie Fox on KXKX-FM (96 KX) Denver, Colorado, circa 1977. This tape was given to me.
… they sent me the Batwoman logo, I like the bottom part of that a lot …
Here’s KKLQ (Q106), San Diego, on Halloween 1989, and kick-butt jock Jo Jo Kincaid (I met him – what a guy!)

Welcome to the new ReelRadio!

This site is now operated by the North Carolina Broadcast History Museum. 

We want to thank the board of ReelRadio, Inc. for their stewardship since the passing of the founder Richard Irwin in 2018.  It has not been easy and they have maintained the exhibits for future generations to enjoy.

I met Richard Irwin, aka Uncle Ricky, when we were freshmen at East Carolina University.  We both had worked at local stations in our hometowns.  No one was more passionate about radio, especially Top 40 radio, than my friend Richard. 

Our goals with this site are to preserve the exhibits and make them available free of charge for people to enjoy.  Over time, we hope to add some airchecks to the site.  This will not happen immediately.  Time and resources will determine the future of new exhibits. 

Many thanks to the web folks at the Beasley Media Group for countless hours of work.  Again thanks to the board members of ReelRadio, Inc. for their faith in us. 

Richard Irwin’s hope was that his site would live on long after his passing. He said, “I hope REELRADIO will survive as my contribution to the ‘radio business’. The business is allowed to forget me, but the business should never forget the great era of radio that we celebrate here”.

We remember Richard and we thank him. If you enjoy this new site, we would appreciate a contribution. We hope you enjoy the new ReelRadio!

Carl Davis
Trustee
North Carolina Broadcast History Museum