KHJ: INSIDE BOSS RADIO ~ Part 3

Back to the story of the transformation of KHJ to Boss Radio. By 1965, the Drake-Chenault consultancy had pulled KGB from free fall. This pleased the station’s owner, broadcast pioneer Willet Brown (above.) He had teamed with Don Lee to start the Mutual Network to compete against NBC and CBS. Brown was a friend of Howard Hughes — whatever that could possibly involve. He owned one of the nation’s major auto dealerships, Hillcrest Motors, the Cadillac franchise in Beverly Hills. Since he already “had everything,” to Brown, winning became everything. (I would work for and learn much from Willet Brown in the ’70s.)

Willet Brown was a peer and confidant of Thomas O’Neil, President of RKO and all its companies. In 1965 O’Neil, also one who abhorred losing, was disgusted with KHJ. The once proud, prestigious station had not kept up with the times. Local management, with money rolling in to KHJ-TV, let the radio arm languish. They were frozen in the 1950s. O’Neil told Brown of his irritation with KHJ’s lackluster performance. Brown, pleased with the results of Drake-Chenault’s efforts in San Diego, brought them to O’Neil’s attention. A deal was made. You will find Bill Drake’s play-by-play description of the negotiations as you turn the pages.

Drake-Chenault made one key demand: Programming control of KHJ. They asked for, and received, autonomy from RKO General Broadcasting headquarters in New York. The California consultants would answer to Tom O’Neil himself. This cleared the track for a straight shot to the top of L.A. ratings. Drake and the crew he assembled would be bulletproof, protected from corporate infighting. We could keep our eye on the ball, never losing sight of our goal to win in the ratings, but also to methodically carpet-bomb our competition out of existence. It was the time of the Viet Nam war, you understand what I’m sayin’?

“A competitive world has two possibilities for you. You can lose.

Or, if you want to win, you can change.”

Lester C. Thurow, “60 Minutes,” CBS-TV, February 7, 1988

After the Program Director job was mine, I told just a few close friends that if KHJ couldn’t win with all we had going for us, I should quit radio. It would be uncool to publicly appear as cocky as Robert W. Morgan (above) and I felt about our chances. Working together in Fresno in 1962, we knew each other’s moves. Each admired and respected the other’s abilities.

Football Analogy #1: With Morgan as the morning personality and me as PD, KHJ resembled an expansion team with an experienced coach and quarterback in place. We had paid our dues together and awaited our shot in the bigs.

Walking into 5515 Melrose, there was little to intimidate me. We would be up against weakened competition. We had a plan. We knew how to execute it. There was the Drake-Jacobs conceptual yin and yang (more about that later), Drake’s visceral compass, a killer signal and no one from “corporate” messing with us.

Starting at KHJ, I was called Operations Supervisor. There was a P.D. there, Don Otis, who had been doing legwork for Drake. It was Otis who suggested Johnny Mann to Drake as a possible jingle person. Otis’ presence also gave the office staff a symbol of continuity. To the people working there, with few

exceptions — Chief Engineer Ed Dela Pena, Production Engineer Bill Mouzis, News Director Art Kevin and Promotion Director Clancy Imislund — we were looked upon as creatures from outer space. Fortunately, we spoke the same professional language: “ROS, fade, TFN, upcut, OTO, hiatus, PSA,” etc.

I steered clear of Otis. Drake told me I would soon be officially P.D. but to cool it awhile, so I did. Besides, I was making more money than ever, the same as the jocks. They were paid the AFTRA union minimum of $15,000 a year — a nice amount of money in 1965. I leased a new Cadillac convertible from Hillcrest Motors for about $200 a month. I rented a house in Benedict Canyon. This entitled me to a Beverly Hills address and zip code. From Halawa Jail to the Home of the Stars! I’d “show” the kids in the prestigious Honolulu private school that I dropped out of. I could make it without their diploma, let alone a college degree. I would have made these moves anyhow. Maybe flashy, OK, but they weren’t financially reckless.

My first wife got us settled in on Portola Drive (the street where the Manson Gang stopped to wash the blood off their hands a few years after we moved on). I immersed myself implementing our pre-Boss Radio format. In the “production studio” the future jock staff practiced with high-speed precision drills using elements produced for our rockin’ debut. On the air we ran a continuous music feature called, “The Cavalcade of Hits.” A Boss-Jock-to-be, Top-40-style suppressed, played records by the Ray Conniff Singers, Doris Day, Dean Martin, etc. Listening to The Real Don Steele do that was a truly bi-polar experience. Things were going as planned. What happened next was predictable: The shit would hit the fan.

The professional is the man who can do it twice.”

Dizzy Gillespie, as told to Pete Hamill

2 B continued . . .

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