KFWB

KFWB was launched in 1925 by Warner Brothers founder Sam Warner. The call-letters stand for Four Warner Brothers, honoring brothers Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack - all of whom were involved in the station. Both Ronald Reagan and Bing Crosby launched their radio careers at KFWB.

It was the first to broadcast the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. The station made waves in 1946 when it imported well-known New York on air personalities Maurice Hart and Martin Block to do disc jockey shows.

In 1958, program director Chuck Blore transformed the station into Colour Radio 98, with high-energy, fast-paced round-the-clock deejay shows presented by the Seven Swingin' Gentlemen. The tight format featured lively jingles. And while it limited announcers to 6-8 minutes of talk an hour, personalities still shone through. KFWB became one of the most listened to stations in the U.S., and soon the format swept into other top markets around the country.

SEVEN SWINGIN' GENTLEMEN

Top row: Wink Martindale, Bobby Dale, Earl McDaniel Bottom row: Gene Weed, B. Mitchel Reed, Bill Ballance, Jim Hawthorne

Bill Ballance was a legendary Deejay from the dawning days of AM Top 40 radio. Here's Bill playing the hits of the day on Channel 98. [ LISTEN ] (10:45)

The format hadn’t been around that long in 1959, but KFWB was on top of the ratings in those days. KFWB began doing Top 40 a year earlier, in 1958. Programmed by Chuck Blore, The station was known on the air as “Color Radio, Channel 98” and at that point in time, the format was relatively loose, with the DJs pretty much picking the music to play themselves.

KFWB might actually have been the first radio station in the U.S. to employ Disc Jockeys. History records that as early as 1946, Maruice Hart and Martin Bloch were brought in from New York City by KFWB as Deejays. With no established Top 40 format, these two gentlemen picked their own records to play and generally played whatever the popular hits of the day were. Bloch would go on to New York’s WNEW and become a fixture there. He was the one who began the program “The Make-Believe Ballroom”.

By 1968, KFWB had fallen to third place among pop stations in Los Angeles, behind KHJ and KRLA and time was ripe for a change. On March 11, 1968, KFWB switched to all news, a successful format that continues on the station to this day.

Gene Weed signed off the music era of KFWB March 10, 1968. [ LISTEN ] (16:01)

Gene Weed, who at been at KFWB since the early days of Colour Radio, said farewell to the station's music format the night before with a nice send-off. Among the highlights: Weed's reciting of the station's 50 presenters during its 10 years as a pop music station.

WHO WORKED AT KFWB? Here is the list: Mike Ambrose, Bill Ballance, Roger Barkley, Roger Christian, Dave Diamond, Ken Draper, Reb Foster, Jim Hawthorne, Jack Hayes, 'Emperor' Bob Hudson, Art Laboe, Al Lohman, Andy Ludlam, Wink Martindale, Earl McDaniel, Jimmy O'Neill, Gary Owens, Ted Randal, B. Mitchel Reed, Pete Parsons, Ted Quillin, Sam Riddle, and Gene Weed.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Rock Radio Scrapbook