Episode 2 - Radio Business and Personalities

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This is back to the eighties.
This is dis Kondo and chain with you

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another day in lockdown. You know
what? Speaking of lockdowns, I have

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not done this board since I was
locked in a beer freezer in the liquor

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store that I worked at. Now
back, you know the freezer doors in

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the liquor store, you have a
knob that you pull out and from the

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inside you can push the button and
if released as the lock I was in

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the beer box because I was the
stock boy at this liquor store back in

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the eighties and beautiful downtown Montabello,
California, and my buddy pulled the handle

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on the outside of the door and
he put a two by four there.

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Now that's going to keep me from
being able to push that knob and free

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myself on the freezer. Sure,
so I was locked in there, and

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I was having to open every beer
door or every refrigerator door to y'alla,

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has somebody to open the door for
me. No one would do it.

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They kept me in there for an
hour. I was wearing nothing but gloves,

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a beanie and a ram jersey and
my Sam's liquor vest I'm surprizing Hypopharmia.

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I came out colder than Henry's Winehart
and Loan Brow that evening, brother,

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do you remember those beers back in
the eighties? I sure do you

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know what? That's got to be
a topic for another eighties show. I

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do want to take this time and
thank you guys for joining Tiscano and Jing

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here and back to the eighties.
And I want to remind you that we

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do have a Facebook fan page that
you can go ahead and drop us your

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notes. Specifically, if you want
to drop us a line and let us

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know what topic you want us to
discuss here, We're more than happy to

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do so. And also to let
you know that we are here every Friday.

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It's an opportunity that we have to
be able to share our memories,

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and I'm sure that a lot of
you had very very similar memories back in

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the decade of excess. We have
Marshall Thomas and Oldies Jack who changed you

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and very very well. That is
our mentor that's right, that's right.

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We also have ziggin Bush from one
of three point five Coast one five here

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in Los Angeles joining us night.
He's got lots to talk about and we've

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got lots to talk about here,
and so let's kick it off. Today's

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topic by the way, so that
you know is radio business in the eighties,

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the radio business side of things.
I mean, radio is something that

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filled our lives in more ways than
one back then in that decade. Oh

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yeah, good god lord, yes, bro. Now remember the eighties were

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gave Brits to a lot, but
radio, especially in Los Angeles, California,

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where we both grew up. I
think that was a staple in Los

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Angeles for entertainment. I always thought
that radio back in Los Angeles, whether

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it be AM, I don't know. If you remember some of the stations

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back in AM that crashed in LA
back in the seventies, you had KHJ.

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Do you remember KLAZ Yes? I
do remember KLAZ Yes. Do you

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remember k West? I do remember? Yeah. Now, my most favorite

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station growing up was KAMET the Mighty
met Who party animal Fraser Smith put Kelly.

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Of course my mentor that you do
know, radio has kind of died

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down in Los Angeles. You're you're
out there still. Of course I won't

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let anyone know where my whereabouts are
there just in California. That's all you

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need to know. Radio back then
it was very similar to when our parents

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probably grew up with radio. When
radio was the entertainment eighties, was still

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theater of the mind. And I
think that's what we're missing in radio,

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theater of the mind. A radio
personality back in the eighties, he can

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put you in the same mindset as
he is, just by what he says,

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his energy, his personality, or
the music that he played. That's

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important because a lot of us grew
up identifying with a certain radio personality.

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Right. We used to look forward
to you. I used to listen to

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Rick D's Mark and Brian. I
used to listen to Mucco Morales, which,

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by the way, Mucco Morales was
the reason I was able to take

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my first big step into the broadcasting
world. He brought me over to the

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Academy of Radio and Television Broadcasting in
Huntington Beach. Do you remember the mighty

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six? Ninety? Oh yeah,
I remember the ninety six? Will you

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remember pirate radio? Pirate radio?
As a matter of fact, now that

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you're saying pirate radio, I got
some information. I'm gonna give you some

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facts, all right. I found
an article from the La Times December twenty

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seventh, nineteen eighty nine. So
what better way to end the decade that

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was dubbed Degreed Decade by closing out
with record prices for radio station. Now,

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back when nineteen ninety started, everything
changed and there was a very famous

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or popular mega deal done by Group
W and they bought eight stations from Metropolitan

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Broadcasting, including one that a lot
of us in Los Angeles know with kt

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w VFM the wave Do you remember
that KTWP the wave The wave used to

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be KMET ninety four point seven exactly. It reports this sale for these eight

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stations was finalized at three hundred eighty
five million bucks man. It's interesting to

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me that the article goes on to
say that in nineteen eighty five, the

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SEC increased the maximum number of radio
stations that was being able to be bought

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by single owners to twenty four,
so one owner can own Back then twenty

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four stations, they could own twelve
FM and twelve AM. All right.

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They didn't want everybody to own everything, unlike today. Okay, Now,

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there was a very very famous GM
His name was Bill Summers. He was

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a general lager for KALOS, right, and this is what he said,

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and I think it's vital because of
the price tags being sold. He said,

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all of a sudden, now that
there's enormous pressure to really get the

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business to pay off all the debts, right, so it's not as friendly

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as it used to be. He
said, radio is strictly a business.

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It's not fun anymore. And I
think he hit the nail right on the

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head. And they go on to
say in the article that they had market

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research groups, focused groups, they
had song testing that was utilized because not

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only did they want to know the
demographics, okay, but they also wanted

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to know what was called psychographics.
It was important because that's what gave him

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the tools that they needed to now
start the whole Radiomega empire as as a

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business. And you know, that's
what we want to talk about tonight.

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There were so many stations of mom
and pop stations, if you will,

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being bought out and then reprogram to
duplicate exactly the same format style of information

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and output that we see it everywhere
now, which I think is killed radio

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correct. Some of the biggest gains
in money was spent, believe it or

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not, it was spent on radio
advertising. And in the eighties something that

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was really really huge were billboards.
And what they did is they took all

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these focus groups and came up with
huge, multimillion dollar campaigns right next to

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the freeways. Check this out.
They discovered that from nineteen eighty all right,

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the number of radio listeners had grown
substantially in LA and there were about

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seven hundred and thirty thousand more cars
in nineteen eighty nine than there were in

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nineteen eighty. Wow, no wonder, I still have an eighty nine Toyota.

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That meant that four point five million
cars were on the road. Four

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point five million. So what did
that do? Well? They said,

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that is the perfect avenue for us, because now everybody lives in their cars.

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They took that opportunity and wasted just
hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising

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in those years. That's when we
saw a lot of kale os, K,

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K ROCK. Those billboards were growing
up like crazy, Pirate radio,

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K and AC. Everybody was buying
mass billboards throughout the southern California area so

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they can just boom. It's like
that subcunt. You see the billboard boom,

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You're automatically going to listen. You
know now that you said pirate radio

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kq LZ or pirate radio, it's
spent a very small fortune blitzing southern California

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with billboards. And there was a
super DJ from New York. His name

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was Scott Shannon. You remember him, Yes? And he filled in that

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Yeah. And he filled in a
gap in the radio station by playing eclectic

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mix of rock and heavy metal,
and the shot up to the top five.

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Yes, Los Angeles was in three
months of its debut, right,

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and I believe he was the morning
jock. And after he left they started

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declining. But that was at the
same era when Mark and Brian embarked in

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the La Rock radio as probably to
me and you the greatest duel of rock

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and roll jocks of any magnitude of
all I think that have ever graced us.

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Double the mic and double the headphones. Now back to that question I

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asked you. You said Mucho Morales. Was was he your favorite jock or

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was he the first? No?
No, I want to say my favorite

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jock was Rick D's. Now do
you remember Manny Pacheco? Do you remember

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Huggy Boy? I definitely remember Huggy
Boy and Manny Pacheco. Of course we

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know him personally. Now you gotta
tell me you remember the greatest of all

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time wolf Man Jack a drag dandy, I'm coming you right here. Man

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who can forget such an iconic voice
national the beard and the Zoro hat?

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Do you remember that? Yes?
What's funny is my dad used to see

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him and used to always tell me
that that's what happened to Zoro after he

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retired. That's nice. Do you
remember this DJ who used to come out

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in the Federated commercials in thirty days
and purchastaerted refunds a difference right plus ten

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percent of the difference with the trouble
bad Now I guaranteed little price. I'm

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a Quasar VHS videocaste recorder two seventy
three eleven and tom oh Fred rated Shadow

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Stevens wasn't it Shaddow Stevens brother Right? This is back to the eighties when

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we come back, Marshall Thomas,
don't go away now. So you want

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to make a podcast, well,
with Spotify, it's easy to record,

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edit and distribute your podcast everywhere.
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00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:05.320
Creative tools like video, podcast Q
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to the Eighties Radio show on another
level. Download the Spotify for Podcasters app

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00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:26.879
today or go to Spotify dot com
slash podcasters to get started and nothing but

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well, we're back here on Back
to the Eighties Radio and as promised,

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we have Marshall. Thomas. Marshall's
a good friend of mine and a mentor

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and a great teacher when I was
at the Academy of Radio. And Marshall,

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thanks for being on Back to the
Eighties Radio with you. Hey,

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Mario, it's a pleasure back to
the eighties. Let me see, there's

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a lot of years ago. I
looked much different than I did in the

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eighties. So that's that's a change. Well, I think we all did.

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You know what. I'm very happy
for those that look exactly the same.

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There's very few of those. And
then there's people like me that have

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changed quite a bit throughout the years. And it's okay. Nothing haircut can

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fix the kid, that's right.
So let everybody know a little bit or

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a lot about yourself and when it
comes to how it's related to the radio

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business, and also about that great
era and what you did during the eighties.

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Yeah, you know, we're leading
into the eighties. Obviously, the

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seventies was where I cut my teeth
doing college radio. That was my footstep

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into the business, and that in
working in clubs spinning discs. Don't tell

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anybody, Mario, but I was
playing disco because of late seventies it was

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rocking. Oh of course. Oh
man, the clubs were alive and you

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could get a job spinning records,
yeah, records, Vinyl records, kids,

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and it was a little slice a
heaven. Of course, those gigs

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were only like on Friday and Sturday
nights, so you can do something else,

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and I did. I got out
of college doing college radio, did

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an internship at a rock station in
Los Angeles KWUSD K West one of six

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FM. It became the Magic after
that announced Power one of six. But

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they were a heavy hitter in the
rock station world of K LOS and K

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in Los Angeles. And from there
I bounced into the eighties with KNAC and

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Long Beach KNAC one five five in
Long Beach. It was on top of

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the tenth story of the F and
M building. It's still there. It

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was built in nineteen twenty nine the
building off the radio station and it's on

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Broadway and Fine, and we were
knocking out everything from Elvis Costello to Elvis

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Presley. It was a heck of
a format. We were rocking in the

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eighties was our slogan. And I
remember I remember Kan A C. As

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a kid growing up. You used
to see the signs everywhere. I mean,

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billboards were the thing back then,
next to the freeways and you could

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see him all over southern California now
everywhere. Kenni State got huge in it

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as it evolved in it further into
the eighties, however, it lost its

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new wave pop rock sort of originality
what it seemed. Its grass roots were

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everything. I mean, it was
just a great because you could hear all

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the classic rock mixed in with the
punk rock, mixed in with the new

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wave and the pop, which made
the eighties very exciting. Coming into the

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eighties. Punk rock was still raging
from the late seventies, the New British

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invasion, the clash and the sex
pistols and whatnot very exciting. And then

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you had the Go Gos, for
instance, very colorful all girl band that

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just bowled everybody over. Blenda carlsle
and her group and they're still popular to

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this day. Belinda's semi retired now
in Paris, France. But no,

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the eighties really spawned, this ignited
a fusion of all these colorful groups and

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the British bands. Of course we
mentioned just a minute ago a pre pre

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podcast Orchesto Movers in the Dark and
such bands as as that and spend Out

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in Ballet, and there was so
the cure. I mean, on and

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on. But it was a very
caulful and really fun time. Radio was

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different. Now at the end of
the Reagan era was eighty one to eighty

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nine. Unfortunately, things become a
little unwound at the end of the eighties

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and the nineties because of what Ronald
Reagan did as president, and that is

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the regulation brought us around to corporate
radio as it is now in the twenty

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first century, which is a whole
different animal, full full different We in

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the eighties still had the luxury of
coming out of the sixties and seventies where

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free form radio was still still there. There was an inkling of it,

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just a just a little thimbleful,
but it was enough to keep a real

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radio alive, and radio stations like
I worked at in the beginning there K

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West and DANC. We're still doing
just that somewhat preformed type radio and that

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for people wondering what that means,
it wasn't highly formatted. You weren't told

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what to stay and what to play
every hour, and you know, just

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unfortunately radio these days has been distilled
down to a very formatic and predictable type

205
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of radio where you listen for an
hour or an hour and a half.

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Huge motorcycles point by. I'm up
in the mountains today, by the way,

207
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taking a country, Well, enjoy
the mountains here. A good thing

208
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is here living in southern California,
is you can be in the mountains and

209
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then in a couple of hours you
can be at the beach. Exactly.

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We're totally blessed, my friend,
to have all those things that are avail.

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So, you know, Marshall,
one of the things that comes to

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mind, listening to radio in the
eighties was more of an experience than it

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is today. I mean, no
comparison from what it is today. Oh,

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most definitely. That's the reason I
wanted to get into radio. As

215
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a kid, I was riding my
skateboard around Los Angeles with a little pocket

216
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transistor radio listening to my favorite jocks, the real Don Steel and Charlie Tuna

217
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and Robert W. Morgan. These
are heavy hitters back in the day.

218
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And Humble Harp and Johnny Hayes.
I mean that could go on. There's

219
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a ton of them. That's why
I want to get into radio at that

220
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man and the iconic Wolfman Jack remember
that, Hey baby, let's get naked

221
00:17:32.680 --> 00:17:37.799
and listen. That's right in the
seventies when I first got my first card

222
00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:44.039
here in La on KRLA, they
were running a syndicated version of the wolf

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Fan shows. Yeah, and I
got to meet the wolf fan that k

224
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was when I first experience. Yeah. And you know, that's one of

225
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the things that I know that a
lot of people miss about that time that

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era is the ability to have someone
that they can identify with or somebody that

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they can look up to and go, you know what. That guy just

228
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brings a little bit of happiness to
my day, whether it be morning morning,

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rush hour, afternoon drive or even
really late at night depending on the

230
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program. Well, the big personality
is ruled Yeah and thank you. I

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over the years have tried to hone
that obviously in its work because there were

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stations along the way where I worked
in the evening shift. For instance,

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I've worked up in the Annamalo Valley
that's Lancaster Palmdale area. There's plenty of

234
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stations up there of all different formats. And I did an evening show where

235
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I was able to stay and play
whatever I wanted. That's what they wanted

236
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me to do. Because I had
done it down the dial or another station,

237
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a country station. I went to
a hot AC station temporary, and

238
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I got to open up the phones
talk to the community at large and just

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my And I've had people tell me
before, you have a very soothing voice,

240
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you have a very soothing manner.
You have a you're enjoyable to listen

241
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to, because it's just like you're
talking to me in my car or my

242
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living room or office. Broma.
Man. I love that, just me,

243
00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:07.160
me being me. You get what
you what you see is what you

244
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get. But I had parents calling
me and saying, look, I appreciate

245
00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:15.039
you so much. You take my
teenagers call, you help them with their

246
00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:18.400
homework. You give them very nice
you know, and they love you.

247
00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:22.759
And I thought, oh my god, this is forget about awards and about

248
00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:26.880
any sort of accolades for doing what
we do in radio. But that sort

249
00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:30.279
of feedback, right there was enough
for me to just skip all the way

250
00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:33.599
home on a cloud, that kind
of feedback. So yeah, it was

251
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very personality driven in the eighties and
now unfortunately in the twenty first century,

252
00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:47.640
corporation's rule in the bottom line is
where it's at, and personalities. Yeah,

253
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there's still a few out there that
are strong and earned let loose to

254
00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:56.200
do what they do best. But
for the most part, yeah, it's

255
00:19:56.200 --> 00:19:59.799
been lost. Marshall, don't go
away when we come back where we have

256
00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:03.759
one more thing to talk about related
to the eighties music business, and that's

257
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music itself. So don't go away, beautiful, and we're back. This

258
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is back to the eighties radio.
We're back with Marshall. Thomas Marshall,

259
00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:23.839
thanks for being with us one more
time. And you know, I started

260
00:20:23.880 --> 00:20:30.160
thinking about what is the one thing
that people request more regarding the eighties,

261
00:20:30.200 --> 00:20:36.039
and that's music. And you were
part of that era bringing people music.

262
00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:40.160
So my question is this, and
this is more of a personal question because

263
00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:45.039
I've had arguments, We've had parties
here with family and the newer generation says,

264
00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:48.920
you know what you're you're just regurgitating
what your parents told you about their

265
00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:55.079
music. When we talk about music
of today, and without getting too into

266
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that part, this is what this
is my answer. I always say the

267
00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:06.799
way differentiates from any other music today. I believe that from fifties, sixties,

268
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seventies, in eighties it helped to
form generations to come. It's music

269
00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:15.720
that for forty years, thirty years, or fifty years down the line,

270
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you'll still hear him in movies.
I'd have to agree totally. Mario.

271
00:21:22.119 --> 00:21:25.400
Yeah, that's a good way of
putting it. It was, it was

272
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evolving, it was exploding out of
the seventies into the eighties with all of

273
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this energy of you name it.
It was coming punk rock, pop rock,

274
00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:40.799
New Way, all of the glad
bands, all of the what was

275
00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:44.880
the orchestral maneuvers in the dark kind
of bands that were sort of this ethereal

276
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sound from England, and of course
punk rock who was very brash and in

277
00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:53.200
your face. So there was a
lot to choose from. And it was

278
00:21:53.839 --> 00:22:00.039
an era that evolved very quickly,
like a meteor shoots to the sky and

279
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.640
eventually just explodes into these mini particles. But that's how the eighties seemed to

280
00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:07.240
me anyway. The clubs were alive. I was going to a lot of

281
00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:11.000
concerts. Stations I was working at
made sure that we saw every show we

282
00:22:11.079 --> 00:22:15.240
wanted to see and got all the
music that we could digest. And most

283
00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:18.799
of the radio stations let me bring
in bands if I wanted to on my

284
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show and interview them and play their
music, or a music store owner and

285
00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:26.440
play me the newest stuff. Hey, let's see what's happening. This what

286
00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:30.039
came from England this week? That
sort of thing. So it was a

287
00:22:30.200 --> 00:22:38.240
time of growth and expansion and evolution, and it was evolving at a very

288
00:22:38.359 --> 00:22:44.279
fast pace. In the early eighties
and then on into the nineties, things

289
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changed just about every format, even
in the country music, where got very

290
00:22:49.400 --> 00:22:55.319
ballid heavy at the end of the
eighties for whatever reason. But all music

291
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evolved and we evolved with it.
And it was a time of people.

292
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Even the clothing of that time,
think about it. Everybody's dressing like pirates

293
00:23:02.680 --> 00:23:07.920
from Duran Duran music videos. And
it helped our changed our peril. It

294
00:23:07.079 --> 00:23:12.359
changed to a lot of the cars
of the era were because of going into

295
00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:17.759
the eighties everything and the fifties,
the cars looked a lot like rocket ships

296
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:22.759
and missiles and airplanes. So the
eighties had its own sort of look as

297
00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:26.559
well and feel and sound. When
it came to the music, Yeah,

298
00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:30.319
very much, it certainly did.
Hey Marshall, do me a big favor

299
00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:33.640
with that eighties jock voice. Bring
us back to the eighties. Do you

300
00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:37.079
want to dance? Listen? You
stay in tune with the eighties kids,

301
00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:41.440
Listen to Mario, He'll keep you
going. And I got news for you.

302
00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:45.359
The nineties are gonna make the eighties
look like the sixties. Rock on

303
00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:52.000
everybody. It's Marshall Thomas. Hey
Chang here from Tusconno and Chang you were

304
00:23:52.359 --> 00:24:07.799
listening to back to the eighties.
We'll be back in a flash, and

305
00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:15.880
nothing but that in that promised we
have Ted Ziggenbusch. Ted. I was

306
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:21.039
reading on your Facebook that says that
you've been in radio for fifty one years.

307
00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:26.359
Is that correct? Yeah, technically
that's correct. I started in high

308
00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:30.000
school out in San Bernardino. I
was invited to be the high school reporter

309
00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:36.279
for my high school, and so
I was on once a week doing high

310
00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:41.079
school news, talking about all the
things happening on campus and new exciting things.

311
00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:45.359
Around school, and that kind of
led to me being an intern for

312
00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:49.839
the radio station out there. I'd
already been hanging around a little bit as

313
00:24:49.880 --> 00:24:55.240
a kid. My interest in radio
began when I was probably twelve years old

314
00:24:55.680 --> 00:25:00.039
and I was invited in to help
out with some things. I guess I

315
00:25:00.079 --> 00:25:03.400
looked a whole bunch older than I
really watched at the time. And yeah,

316
00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:07.000
then I got my first on air
in the summer of sixty eight,

317
00:25:07.640 --> 00:25:11.440
actually, I guess was the fall
of sixty eight when school started. Been

318
00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:15.319
doing it ever since. Yeah,
if they were to tell you in the

319
00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:18.160
eighties, back when you started,
would you have believed everything that you accomplished,

320
00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:22.079
I wouldn't. Number one. I
wouldn't have seen myself in Los Angeles,

321
00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:26.720
as much as I wanted to be
there. But yeah, things turned

322
00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:30.680
out amazingly well on I think part
of it is because I worked at such

323
00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:36.480
a variety of stations before getting to
Los Angeles. The eighties, for me,

324
00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:41.240
it was made up of working at
top forty stations that played what we

325
00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:47.079
kind of call HR contemporary hits.
I get album rock that was basically,

326
00:25:47.799 --> 00:25:51.279
you know, things like Foreigner,
Stick, Boston Pipplin, things like that,

327
00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:56.480
and I even worked at what I
guess was kind of called smooth Jazz

328
00:25:56.680 --> 00:26:00.519
that was a mixture of great instrumentals
and the softer songs that kind of had

329
00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:04.000
a jazzy feel to them. It
wasn't ninety four point seventh the way was

330
00:26:04.039 --> 00:26:08.559
it back then? No, Actually
it preceded them. It was at a

331
00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:15.119
station in San Diego KIFM FM ninety
eight was trying to do something a little

332
00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:21.400
bit different, you know, top
forty stations, and it was it was

333
00:26:21.480 --> 00:26:27.680
a rather unusual mix of music,
everything from Pat Maffini and Chuck Mangione and

334
00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:33.279
artists like that too. Like I
said, the soft I think we even

335
00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:37.640
played aber Cadaver by Steve Millard because
it had kind of a jazzy feeling to

336
00:26:37.799 --> 00:26:41.799
it. Yeah. So when you
got to LA was it a big change?

337
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:45.039
Was it a big shock? How
did that go for you? And

338
00:26:45.079 --> 00:26:48.400
where did you go? Well?
When I was on in San Diego,

339
00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:53.480
I got a phone call out of
the blue from a Jeff Salgo, who

340
00:26:53.599 --> 00:27:00.279
was the program director at the time
of k West, which turned them Elves

341
00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:03.519
into Magic one oh six, which
eventually became Power one oh six. But

342
00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:07.319
he said, hey, I'd like
you to come up until weekends for me,

343
00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:08.920
if you had time to do that. And I told him, I

344
00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:14.240
said, I didn't send you a
resume, or where is this coming up?

345
00:27:14.440 --> 00:27:15.440
And he said, oh, I
know all about you. I know

346
00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:19.200
your career. I knew you in
San Berdino, and come up and do

347
00:27:19.319 --> 00:27:22.480
weekends for me. I think they'll
have a good time. And I don't

348
00:27:22.519 --> 00:27:26.640
know. I guess we do crazy
things when we're younger, because I was

349
00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:30.000
working six days a week doing mornings
in San Diego, and I came up

350
00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:37.160
and did Saturday night and Sunday night
at Los Angeles and then drove back to

351
00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:41.799
San Diego, or my wife brove
me back. And that led to when

352
00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:47.680
I saw an opening a Coast that
was changing from elevator music, Mantovani and

353
00:27:47.799 --> 00:27:52.519
Henry Mancini and artists like they were
going to be more contemporary. I applied

354
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:56.920
and I was the last guy hired
on the staff for Coast. I caught

355
00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:02.559
them just before they filled all all
the openings that right now, I move.

356
00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:07.599
Yeah, I moved from from K
West or Magic one oh six over

357
00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:10.559
the coast and the rest is history. I guess, as I say,

358
00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:14.240
I worked for them, Says eight
nineteen eighty two. When it came to

359
00:28:14.359 --> 00:28:17.920
being yourself and just to being what
you wanted to be on the air.

360
00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:22.319
Was it easier back then? I
believe it was part of the reason at

361
00:28:22.359 --> 00:28:27.839
the time, at least in our
in our situation running the radio station.

362
00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:33.200
Our program director Johnny Kay said,
I want everybody to use their real name.

363
00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:37.720
I don't want any more of these
made up radio names. And so

364
00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:42.039
we ended up with you know,
walling Gren, Sacala Redi's tam Barelli,

365
00:28:42.440 --> 00:28:48.000
zigg and Bush. It sounded like
a law for instead of stead of a

366
00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:52.799
radio station, but it gave us
kind of a feeling that we got to

367
00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:56.839
be a real person. And the
other thing about it was that in those

368
00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:00.799
days, not so much now with
the imaging and other jingles and things that

369
00:29:00.920 --> 00:29:06.359
are produced much heavier than they were
back in the early eighties. We were

370
00:29:06.440 --> 00:29:11.200
only allowed to talk like every two
or three songs, and we were supposed

371
00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:15.759
to beat as personable as possible,
except at the breaks when we had had

372
00:29:15.799 --> 00:29:19.200
our natural commercial breaks, you know, every couple of times an hour,

373
00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:25.039
we could talk a little bit more. But we were pretty much encouraged to

374
00:29:25.160 --> 00:29:30.759
be just you know, very warm
and relatable in not being the boss jocks

375
00:29:30.839 --> 00:29:36.400
that a lot of us grew up
with listening to KHJ Los Angeles, KGB

376
00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:41.160
and San Diego or some of the
other stations that had a lot of punch

377
00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:45.559
and polish and performance to them.
That was the big change. What was

378
00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:49.200
your most memorable experience that you had
during that time? Did you have anything

379
00:29:49.279 --> 00:29:55.000
that just stood out? When we
started the radio station, we were invited

380
00:29:55.200 --> 00:30:00.119
to go out and meet people at
different locations, different and it wasn't always

381
00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:04.279
a sponsor, and we would put
a bumper sticker on the car. You

382
00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:08.279
know, remember when people thought that
was okay? Oh yeah, yeah,

383
00:30:08.319 --> 00:30:14.319
I remember that stickers You put it
on for you know, political campanions,

384
00:30:14.920 --> 00:30:18.559
and there were people that were a
little hesitant about doing that. But if

385
00:30:18.559 --> 00:30:22.640
you did that, you had a
chance eventually to win big money you're a

386
00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:26.720
car or something else. So we
went out hands, kiss babies and put

387
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:33.319
bumper stickers on cars. And I
remember our boss Johnny Kay saying, you

388
00:30:33.400 --> 00:30:36.839
know, people think Los Angeles is
too big to do something like that,

389
00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:40.839
that there's no way you could touch
enough people in a town of you know,

390
00:30:41.559 --> 00:30:45.960
eleven and a half million now in
the Los Angeles market, biggest city

391
00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:51.359
behind New York, and you know, he convinced it would pay off,

392
00:30:51.480 --> 00:30:55.200
and it sure did. I mean, in no time at all, the

393
00:30:55.400 --> 00:31:00.319
radio station started climbing up in the
ratings. And those people acknowledge that.

394
00:31:00.759 --> 00:31:06.599
What really kicked it into gear was
when we started doing the Love Song Show

395
00:31:06.680 --> 00:31:11.839
at night, which happened in eighty
three. We started in November of eighty

396
00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:17.960
two, but in eighty three we
got to to do the Love Song Show

397
00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:25.039
and that kind of became the signature
of the radio station. Convinced adult people

398
00:31:25.240 --> 00:31:27.839
that we're a station with a heart. We do think something you know,

399
00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:33.240
to help you with family relationships and
things of that. And of course it

400
00:31:33.319 --> 00:31:40.359
played well with teenage girls in high
school and college and for the eighties were

401
00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:45.720
the growth spurt for that particular station, that particular format as well. And

402
00:31:47.559 --> 00:31:52.279
it's funny that you're focusing on the
eighties because quite frankly, the nineties and

403
00:31:52.440 --> 00:31:59.279
beyond was radically different. I feel
very much, very much we can agree

404
00:31:59.319 --> 00:32:01.279
on that one. Oh yeah,
yeah, listen, Ted, we're gonna

405
00:32:01.319 --> 00:32:04.599
take a quick break. When we
come back, We've got a couple more

406
00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:07.079
questions for you. And then one
funny one that's brought to us by one

407
00:32:07.119 --> 00:32:22.799
of the tweets, sounds good.
Thanks for joining us here. On back

408
00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:24.880
to the eighties, Ted, before
the break, I told you we had

409
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:30.160
a specific question that was tweeted out
to us. The question is, if

410
00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:34.960
you can get into a DeLorean then
travel back to any year in that decade,

411
00:32:35.319 --> 00:32:37.200
what year would it be and would
you stay or would you go?

412
00:32:37.720 --> 00:32:43.119
Oh my gosh, gosh, there
were so many great movies in the eighties

413
00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:46.920
and things like that. I was
still getting my feet wet in my career,

414
00:32:47.599 --> 00:32:52.880
trying to grow, trying to try
and join it, just to a

415
00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:58.920
rather unusual radio schedule. Some people
call me the Vampire of the Night because

416
00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:04.720
I did the late nights for eighteen
years before I moved to another shift.

417
00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:09.440
There's something about like nineteen eighty six, eighty seven, probably eighty seven.

418
00:33:09.839 --> 00:33:14.319
I don't know whether if it's you
know, the movie Dirty Dancing and the

419
00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:17.319
music, and maybe part of it
is, you know, I don't if

420
00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:22.799
we didn't realize it at the time, but even like the first year,

421
00:33:22.079 --> 00:33:27.079
nineteen ninety was going to be so
much different, you know, we just

422
00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:31.480
didn't realize that the things were going
to change, and I mean things aren't

423
00:33:31.480 --> 00:33:36.079
going to say staged it forever.
But I think a lot of people really

424
00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:40.480
enjoy the eighties, maybe not necessarily
that the eighties hairs. I know this

425
00:33:40.640 --> 00:33:45.680
at the radio station. He had
much more facial hair, yeah, than

426
00:33:45.799 --> 00:33:49.039
we did in the nineties, whether
it was a mustache or a beard or

427
00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:52.200
whatever. You know, longer hair
was in the fashion. Still, I

428
00:33:52.279 --> 00:33:55.400
think there's a meme on the internet
that says, no more mullets, and

429
00:33:55.519 --> 00:34:00.519
they had the eighties and a big
lung mullet hanging out. I probably wouldn't

430
00:34:00.839 --> 00:34:05.960
stay there, like, you know, attected as I might be. To

431
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:10.599
have fun. I do a lot
of reminiscing about not only my career but

432
00:34:10.840 --> 00:34:14.880
music and movies and things like that, you know, because it was just

433
00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:17.239
part of the culture and kind of
mixed in with what we were doing on

434
00:34:17.320 --> 00:34:22.320
the radio. But I'm happy with
today, you know, I'm happy rather

435
00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:28.519
than the current coronavirus going on.
That's not too much fun. World changes,

436
00:34:28.599 --> 00:34:30.880
and you know, we adapt and
we find new adventures and new things

437
00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:36.679
to do. And certainly from a
technological standpoint, who would want to go

438
00:34:36.840 --> 00:34:42.360
back to the days before good cell
phones did any kind of computer? What

439
00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:45.199
about what we were making a mixtape
and we wanted to sing a song,

440
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:47.880
we couldn't understand what the artist was
saying, so we'd have to rewind to

441
00:34:47.960 --> 00:34:52.039
play, rewind to play until you
got what he was saying, and sometimes

442
00:34:52.079 --> 00:34:55.400
you didn't get it at all.
Oh yeah, we always had to research

443
00:34:55.519 --> 00:35:00.639
the lyrics if that would be possible. You know, an album or album

444
00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:06.119
insert, if people remember that it's
actually printed the lyrics for you. I

445
00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:08.760
guess they knew we couldn't understand what
they were saying. Halff Hey, Ted.

446
00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:13.840
So being that most people now with
any internet connection can be sort of

447
00:35:14.320 --> 00:35:17.039
the on air personality, do you
think that takes away any of the radio

448
00:35:17.239 --> 00:35:23.280
magic a little bit? I suppose, you know, from a personality standpoint,

449
00:35:23.400 --> 00:35:25.760
and a lot of us in the
business have talked about it. We

450
00:35:25.960 --> 00:35:30.920
still love what we do. I
loved what I was doing every day,

451
00:35:30.039 --> 00:35:36.719
and I had the nicest compliment paid
to me by our vice president of programming.

452
00:35:37.079 --> 00:35:39.199
He stopped in to say hello to
me one time that I was filling

453
00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:42.480
in on a daytime shift, and
he said, you know, Ted,

454
00:35:42.840 --> 00:35:45.239
after all these years, you still
like you still sound like you're having fun

455
00:35:45.320 --> 00:35:50.480
and having a great time, And
I thank you. I appreciated I do

456
00:35:51.159 --> 00:35:52.800
you know. I mean, that's
all I've wanted to do since I was

457
00:35:52.840 --> 00:35:57.760
about twelve years old, and I
still enjoy it. I know, the

458
00:35:57.920 --> 00:36:05.199
audience has so many options now with
everything from podcasts to you know, downloads,

459
00:36:05.400 --> 00:36:08.360
to YouTube to you name it.
You know, there's a lot of

460
00:36:08.400 --> 00:36:13.599
places to go, and thank god, there's still people who feel a connection

461
00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:17.000
to a radio personality that's on a
station, and bless their heart, you

462
00:36:17.079 --> 00:36:22.159
know, when they come up to
us at appearances and say how much we've

463
00:36:22.199 --> 00:36:27.159
meant to them, Like you know, women that grew up rocking their their

464
00:36:27.239 --> 00:36:30.000
newborn, you know, listening to
the shill at night, or we got

465
00:36:30.039 --> 00:36:34.280
them to work in the morning before
they even realize they've been on the road

466
00:36:34.360 --> 00:36:37.440
for an hour. Things like that
really make you feel like it's been worthwhile.

467
00:36:37.840 --> 00:36:40.719
It's it's touching to hear those things. Yeah, and those things are

468
00:36:40.800 --> 00:36:45.760
actually they're just priceless. Before we
let you go, what was your top

469
00:36:45.840 --> 00:36:50.159
three favorite songs in the eighties.
That's really difficult to never put it down

470
00:36:50.199 --> 00:36:54.400
to three, but I could probably
pick out three songs that I like,

471
00:36:54.960 --> 00:36:58.679
you know, I mean, as
much as we've played it, and we

472
00:36:59.000 --> 00:37:02.239
really have played depth over the years, I still love the song take on

473
00:37:02.400 --> 00:37:07.599
Me by Ah. Whenever I hear
that, I sing along. I've got

474
00:37:07.719 --> 00:37:10.199
to go with it. I like
Foreigner, I want to know what love

475
00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:15.079
is. Yeah, I didn't realize, you know, I researched that song

476
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:22.000
one time. I didn't realize that
was converted from an old spiritual and you

477
00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:27.159
know, rewritten, reformulated and ended
up being a great, great song for

478
00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:30.239
Foreigner. Really yeah, yeah,
I didn't need it. And you know,

479
00:37:30.599 --> 00:37:34.719
I mean, everybody wants to Rule
the World from Tears of Theory.

480
00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:39.000
I always cranked that with up Sweet
Dreams from the rhythmics. Gosh, I

481
00:37:39.039 --> 00:37:43.039
mean, I could list forty it
would be hard to say what, you

482
00:37:43.119 --> 00:37:46.039
know, what ten of those forty, even because all of them have such

483
00:37:46.199 --> 00:37:50.880
significance. One of the reasons that
we're doing this is because we want to

484
00:37:50.960 --> 00:37:54.480
reintroduce a lot of the things that
we had back then, hopefully all of

485
00:37:54.519 --> 00:37:58.800
the good stuff, in particular anything
that was heard on the radio. I

486
00:37:58.960 --> 00:38:02.079
wonder if we're going to ever see
the people that were really going out of

487
00:38:02.079 --> 00:38:06.360
their way to try to compete and
be a part of the game in the

488
00:38:06.480 --> 00:38:09.239
eighties, because there were so much
great music and so many different. I

489
00:38:09.280 --> 00:38:14.199
don't want to see different genres because
that's not what it was, but different

490
00:38:14.320 --> 00:38:20.480
tempos, different different production, different
creativity. Part of it, I believe

491
00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:25.159
was that the artists or the people
producing the music, they were arranging songs

492
00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:30.239
and not changing the lyrics, but
they were thinking about how is this going

493
00:38:30.360 --> 00:38:36.000
to sound coming out of a radio
in a car, you know, in

494
00:38:36.360 --> 00:38:40.119
a home jumping out. I mean
like speaking of Jump Jump by Van Halen,

495
00:38:40.719 --> 00:38:45.159
that song comes on, it's turn
up the radio time and let's have

496
00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:50.880
a party. I mean, you
know, there were so many songs from

497
00:38:50.920 --> 00:38:54.440
the eighties like that, but it
just seemed like the production quality from the

498
00:38:54.519 --> 00:39:00.440
standpoint of let's make this song just
jump out the radio of people, and

499
00:39:00.920 --> 00:39:04.920
I don't know, it's kind of
hard when you look at the songs that

500
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:07.719
we've heard in the past twenty years. Not to complain too much, but

501
00:39:08.440 --> 00:39:13.599
I don't think you find the quality
of songs like we saw in the eighties.

502
00:39:13.960 --> 00:39:16.000
I'll have to agree with you there, Ted, listen. It's been

503
00:39:16.159 --> 00:39:21.639
great to hear the stories firsthand from
somebody who was there and who still is

504
00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:25.679
there, bringing a certain smile to
everybody personally from me, Ted, I

505
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:30.519
want to thank you for doing that
for so many years, because you're one

506
00:39:30.559 --> 00:39:34.280
of the ones that we can not
only look back to and reminisce about,

507
00:39:34.320 --> 00:39:37.880
but you know what, we can
still listen to you and just keep that

508
00:39:37.119 --> 00:39:40.239
spirit alive. So thank you for
taking the time to be with us here.

509
00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:47.199
Oh thank you, Mario. Hey, you're listening to Back to the

510
00:39:47.280 --> 00:39:51.519
Eighties. This is Toscato and Shang. Thanks for joining us. Don't forget

511
00:39:51.559 --> 00:39:54.880
to be with us every single Friday
here where we bring the eighties to a

512
00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:01.320
whole new generation, sharing our nostalgia
and menissing on the good memories we had

513
00:40:01.559 --> 00:40:06.039
back in the eighties. Keep your
face masks, keep your hands cleaned,

514
00:40:06.039 --> 00:40:08.719
and take care of each other.
Remember back to the eighties is where you

515
00:40:08.800 --> 00:40:09.119
want to be.