AROUND THE CLOCK WITH KRLA
The Baltimore Colts were the NFL champions, beating the New York Giants 31-16 in the playoffs. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson died tragically in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.This pastiche of airchecks from several different sources follows KRLA's line-up in late 1961, including an excerpt of one of Los Angeles' few women deejays, Sie Holiday, giving the time check into Roy Elwell's 9am show. click this link to hear an entertaining deejay montage from October 1961. (12:19)
When the station was sold to Eleven-Ten Broadcasting, they became KRLA, the second AM top-40 station in Los Angeles, competing with KFWB "Channel 98" in the early '60s.
In early 1963 Ted Quillin came to KRLA via KFWB to fill in the 9am to noon slot. With teenagers in school during that time listenership tended toward a more adult audience. Quillin's "Coffee Break" club, with rewards for cardholding listeners, its supermarket report, and its demographically mature advertisements were geared toward the grown-ups at home. The playlist too was more bluesy than teen-beat.
Ted QuillinFellow deejay Bob Hudson guests on a Mark C. Bloome spot. You'll also hear a promo for ex-WLS Chicago deejay Dick Biondi, the so-called "Wild Eyetralian". Apparently attempting to placate the FCC with its devotion to community service, Quillin's show offers a plethora of public service announcements, and Jere Laird, one of KRLA's newsmen, pops up periodically to keep the listening audience informed about late-breaking stories. Here's Ted Quillin from August 27, 1963: [ LISTEN ] (32:29)
Dave Hull, known as The Hullabalooer, joined KRLA in 1963 but found his "voice" once the Beatles hit America. He had a night shift from 9pm - 12am in 1964, though he occasionally filled in for others earlier in the evening, which seems to be the case in this excerpt. Tonight's show included a "Beatles Bonanza" with extra Beatles tunes throughout the evening. "I'll Cry Instead" had just been added into rotation.
Dave Hull [ Dave Hull, known as The Hullabalooer, joined KRLA in 1963 but found his "voice" once the Beatles hit America. He had a night shift from 9pm - 12am in 1964, though he occasionally filled in for others earlier in the evening, which seems to be the case in this excerpt. Tonight's show included a "Beatles Bonanza" with extra Beatles tunes throughout the evening. "I'll Cry Instead" had just been added into rotation.
Portrait painter Nicholas Volpe, who had done promotional paintings for album covers and advertising, had just completed oil portraits of the individual Beatles in 1964 and Dave offered listeners the unprecedented chance to buy four reproductions for fifty cents each "now available at your favorite supermarket, beautifully displayed in cellophane packs".
In 1964, when the British invaded America, KRLA seized the moment and became the first southland station to air The Beatles. Emperor Bob Hudson had the duties of morning man during this time.
Dick BiondiBob Eubanks and Dick Morland on April 18, 1964. [ LISTEN ] (1:00:50)
The well-traveled Dick Biondi made a stop at KRLA for a nice run in the 60s. Here is Dick doing his thing in 1965. [ LISTEN ]
(Thirteen years later, KRLA would become known nationwide in a rather subtle way: on the cover of the album Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl, two show tickets are displayed. Look closely at the fine print at the top of the tickets. It says, "KRLA and Bob Eubanks Present".)
The well-traveled Dick Biondi made a stop at KRLA for a nice run in the 60s. Here is Dick doing his thing in 1965. [ LISTEN ]
KRLA's most notorious competitor arrived on May 7, 1965. A small, low-rated 5000-watt station known as KHJ transformed itself into the top-40 powerhouse of Southern California.
(Rumor has it that when KHJ started up, they built their music rotation off of KRLA's playlist!) For the next 34 months, top 40 fans had not two but three AM stations to choose from. In the end, it was KFWB that went down, and KRLA held its own against The Boss.
Bob Eubanks worked at KRLA from 1960-67. Bob got started in radio at KACY-Oxnard before arriving in Southern California for the all-night shift at KRLA. He worked morning drive as well as other shifts hosting "Teen Toppers," playing the most popular songs from all the schools in the Southland. Bob risked his personal finances to bring the Beatles to L.A.
While working at KEWB in Oakland, California, Casey Kasem developed a show that included bits of biographical information on the artists who recorded the records he played. His national reputation grew after he began working for KRLA in Los Angeles in 1963. Kasem drew the attention of Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand, and was hired to a co-host a daily teen-oriented music show called Shebang that began in 1964.
Johnny Hayes brought us The Big 11 Countdown every week. Dave Diamond was another KRLA notable, having worked at KHJ and KFRC as well. Dave Hull was the real name of the legendary "Hullaballooer". KRLA was privileged to have two other nationally-known jocks: The Real Don Steele (featured in Grand Theft Auto), and cultural icon Wolfman Jack who was featured in American Graffiti and was the subject of The Guess Who's Clap For The Wolfman in 1974.
While working at KEWB in Oakland, California, Casey Kasem developed a show that included bits of biographical information on the artists who recorded the records he played. His national reputation grew after he began working for KRLA in Los Angeles in 1963. Kasem drew the attention of Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand, and was hired to a co-host a daily teen-oriented music show called Shebang that began in 1964.
Johnny Hayes brought us The Big 11 Countdown every week. Dave Diamond was another KRLA notable, having worked at KHJ and KFRC as well. Dave Hull was the real name of the legendary "Hullaballooer". KRLA was privileged to have two other nationally-known jocks: The Real Don Steele (featured in Grand Theft Auto), and cultural icon Wolfman Jack who was featured in American Graffiti and was the subject of The Guess Who's Clap For The Wolfman in 1974.
KRLA: At the beach.1966: ROLLIN' WITH DAVE HULL
In this excerpt you'll hear bits and pieces of the station's all-request playlist, which generally followed top forty chart listings in major trade publications like Billboard and Cash Box. A complete newscast is a special treat, as is a tongue-in-cheek Valhalla Thunderbolt Gasoline ad with the fictitious "Remington Noble" extolling its superior propellants. Listen to Dave Hull from August 19, 1966. (29:23)
Dick Hugg, affectionately known to his listeners as "Huggie Boy", brought us the best in oldies and soul. For a time, he even hosted his own dance program, The Huggie Boy Show, which aired weekly on KWHY channel 22 for many years. His popularity continued to increase long after the show went off.
During the Fall 1967 every week on Sundays at 8:30pm you could hear a half hour of one of the most eclectic radio shows on AM radio.
Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall and the Beatles at a Denver press conference on August 26, 1964.Former Beatles personal assistant and sometimes-reporter for the KRLA Beat, Derek Taylor, was offered radio space on KRLA, and he filled the airwaves with his own brand of surrealism and social commentary, peppered liberally with music that meant something to him and, he hoped, to his listeners.
DON BURNSDerek Taylor September 17, 1967. [ LISTEN ] (30:07)
Derek offers a selection of popular artists covering Beatles tunes at the time, reads an excerpt of a British press interview with George Harrison ("The songs write themselves," explains George when asked how Beatles tunes are born). Derek drifts into a discussion about George Formby, the British music hall performer who influenced thousands of musicians in England, including the Beatles. After a brief political commentary about conservative radio commentator George Puttnam, actor Bob Hope, and televangelist Billy Graham, Derek ends with The Byrds' "Eight Miles High."
And how could there be a KRLA page without mentioning Mr. Rock 'N' Roll, Art Laboe? This man's name is synonymous with the station itself; under his guidance as Vice President, KRLA was the success it became. Art Laboe's Rock 'N' Roll School was the source for many a question on KRLA's Hitrivia, which was often featured on the back of their weekly playlists until 1979. When you think of KRLA, the name Art Laboe should be the first one that comes to mind.
PICK UP ON THE VIBES:Jimmy Rabbitt February '70
As Eddie Payne, the deejay more widely known as Jimmy Rabbitt began his on-air career in Tyler, Texas in the fall of 1961. His career expanded with the British Invasion and he landed a lucrative position in Dallas at KLIF-AM.
By 1970 Jimmy Rabbitt was working the 9 pm to 12am shift at KRLA, relying on standard hits of the day as well as album tracks from rock classics such as the Beatles, Badfinger, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Thunderclap Newman, Jimi Hendrix, and Simon & Garfunkel.
Advertisers had drifted into attempts at counterculture references (the Datsun commercial is a prime example) but most spots are as banal as they were in the early sixties.
Of particular interest to Credibility Gap fans, this night's broadcast provides a six-minute bit by the pared-down satirical group (Harry Shearer, Richard Beebe, David L. Lander and Michael McKean) who, in the guise of the Three Stooges, invade Richard Nixon's oval office and almost start World War Three. The entire news program was nearly twelve minutes long.
You can catch the Credibility Gap starting at the 13:30 mark in this 36-minute-long aircheck.
Broadcast on Saturday night February 27, 1970, this aircheck also reveals that KRLA had gone back to its original jingle from the early 1960s, a rather incongruous reminder of the past. [ LISTEN ] to Jimmy Rabbit.
HALLOWEEN FREAK-OFF:October '66
Over the years, the station became synonymous with oldies, but kept current hits mixed in with the gold. Midway into the seventies, billboards promoted KRLA as the "Elvis-to-Elton" station. (In 1978, a second Elvis would have a hit single on the KRLA charts.)By 1970 Jimmy Rabbitt was working the 9 pm to 12am shift at KRLA, relying on standard hits of the day as well as album tracks from rock classics such as the Beatles, Badfinger, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Thunderclap Newman, Jimi Hendrix, and Simon & Garfunkel.
Advertisers had drifted into attempts at counterculture references (the Datsun commercial is a prime example) but most spots are as banal as they were in the early sixties.
Of particular interest to Credibility Gap fans, this night's broadcast provides a six-minute bit by the pared-down satirical group (Harry Shearer, Richard Beebe, David L. Lander and Michael McKean) who, in the guise of the Three Stooges, invade Richard Nixon's oval office and almost start World War Three. The entire news program was nearly twelve minutes long.
You can catch the Credibility Gap starting at the 13:30 mark in this 36-minute-long aircheck.
Broadcast on Saturday night February 27, 1970, this aircheck also reveals that KRLA had gone back to its original jingle from the early 1960s, a rather incongruous reminder of the past. [ LISTEN ] to Jimmy Rabbit.
HALLOWEEN FREAK-OFF:October '66
Situated less than 20 miles south of Los Angeles in the city of Commerce, the Monster Halloween Freak-Off held in October of 1966 was sponsored by KRLA. Of the seven bands, The Seeds and Davie Allan were well known. Lesser known were Les Watson and The Panthers, whose single "A Love Like Yours" was released in 1968. The track was released on Pompeii Records - run by Pat Morgan, promoter of the Monster Show. The Dallas-based label also released music from Ike and Tina Turner and issued pressings by the Ikettes.
Morgan promoted an earlier Freak-Out at the Shrine Exhibition Hall in Los Angeles. Mainstream press refered to the event as a "happening". The lineup included The Factory, Count Five, and the Mothers of Invention.
Morgan promoted an earlier Freak-Out at the Shrine Exhibition Hall in Los Angeles. Mainstream press refered to the event as a "happening". The lineup included The Factory, Count Five, and the Mothers of Invention.
A few years afterward, John "Bowzer" Baumann (of Sha-Na-Na fame) did a television ad for the station which went something like this: "Hey! This is Bowzer -- and I'm beside myself with excitement -- because I just found a great new radio station - KRLA. They play today's hits, and the WONDERFUL tunes of the late '50s and early '60s."
In late 1984, KRLA made a slight format adjustment and went all-oldies, eliminating most of their '70s (and all the '80s) music.
Casey Kasem on September 16, 1967.
Top 40 on AM was slowly disappearing: KFI was leaning toward talk; KHJ (which had returned as Car Radio) played a few new tunes but wasn't strictly top-40; down in San Diego, The Mighty 690 was becoming 69 Extra Gold. The only southland station bucking the trend was upstart KWNK 670 in Simi Valley, which had just signed on and could barely be heard in downtown Los Angeles. But they, too, soon went talk.
In the middle of the 1980s, KRLA came under the same ownership as 97.1 KBZT (which changed to KLSX), with both studios located in the mid-Wilshire district. With KLSX's Classic Rock ("AOR gold", perhaps?) and KRLA, oldies were pretty much covered for the rest of the decade.
The next serious competition came on March 2, 1989. KNX FM (93.1) abruptly switched from MOR to music of the late '50s and early '60s, and changed calls to KODJ. Listeners of KLSX heard the "official" reaction from one of the higher-ups:
Well, it happened again in the southland. Another radio station has closed up shop and gone home.....now, I don't blame KNX for what they had going for them, but what bugs me is that they switched over to a moldy-oldies format.....Los Angeles already has an oldies station on AM -- KRLA! So if you know someone who's an oldies fan, you might wanna tell them about AM 1110, KRLA...because who needs oldies on FM anyway?
On the Mt. Rushmore of Top 40 DJs, The Wolfman and The Real Don Steele.
THE HULLABALOOER: DAVE HULL
Dave HullThe Hullabalooer made a career out of being corny and outrageous on the air and it made him popular. How corny? At WFLA Tampa Bay Hull held a corniest joke contest every morning. The winner got a silver dollar and a bag of popcorn. How popular? After Hull was fired from KRLA for playing a Beatle record before the release date, public outcry was such that he got his old job back.
"What Dave Hull did for Los Angeles radio cannot be duplicated," fellow KRLA "Eleven-Ten Man" Bob Eubanks told the Orange County Register in 2013. "The Hullabalooer literally took over the town. He's crazy, he's insane, he's talented, but most of all he's a good human being." May 27, 1965. [ LISTEN ] (46:12)
By the mid-'90s, AM music stations in general were all but extinct: KIIS 1150 had stopped playing rap/funk, KWNK was Spanish, XPRS had abandoned their long-running nightly fifties program, San Diego's KKLQ ended its simulcast on the super 600 frequency and 69 Extra Gold had long since gone talk.
KRLA soon found itself the only station still playing regular pop music on AM, save for the "standards" stations and an occasional bubblegum tune on children's-format Radio Disney.
By 1998, KRLA had over 39 years of heritage under its belt, and was, as Andrew Kvammen put it, "the oldest station in L.A. that hasn't changed format." Over the course of those 39 years, many top 40 stations had graced the amplitude modulation band in Southern California. Some came and went; others tried innovations; a handful were legends: KFWB, KHJ, KFI, KTNQ, KIIS AM, KDAY, KWOW, KROQ AM, KALI, KEZY AM, XTRA --- KRLA had outlasted 'em all. But talk and sports were proving to be the real money-makers now, and in the fall of 1998, GM Bob Moore made the decision to pull the plug.
THE FIRST EVER KRLA BEAT
Beat reporters were already well connected with Beatles sources, evidenced by their lead article revealing that Ringo would be entering the hospital later that autumn for a tonsillectomy. Pages 2 and 3 include exclusive photos of the Beatles' 1964 Los Angeles press conference and their Hollywood Bowl appearance.
Erroneously credited to Robin Hill, the photos were actually by Beat photographer Jerry Long. Page 4 included stories about Dusty Springfield, Peter and Gordon, the Dave Clark Five, record reviews from KRLA deejay Reb Foster, plus plans by singer Bobby "Boris" Pickett to host his own radio show.
Anyone involved with graphic production during this era will recognize press-type, used for the headlines of each news story, as well as decorative borders painstakingly laid down by KRLA Beat production artist Bonnie Golden (later radio and newspaper journalist Wina Sturgeon).
The actual print schedule was every two weeks, so a second October issue probably came out later this month. The Beat took a great leap forward in February 1965, converting to a weekly format on newsprint under the aegis of publisher Cecil Tuck and established print journalist Derek Taylor.
This issue's date is estimated at October 9, 1964 based on the KRLA Tunedex and the appearance of Roy Orbison's hit "Pretty Woman" at the top of the charts. If the first tabloid issue of the Beat was released on Geroge Harrison's birthday (February 25, 1965), it stand to reason that the first ever Beat would be released on John's birthday. Take a [ LOOK ] at the first issue. (PDF)
The last selection was a soulful tune by the group War, Don't Let No One Get You Down. As November 29, 1998 segued into the 30th, a short piano intro "That's All" was played...and then thousands of listeners throughout the southland heard the final words of an unforgettable era:
"Huggy Boy has left the building."
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?: Dave Hull, the "Hullaballooer", now works at KWXY Cathedral City, one of the last truly "Beautiful Music" stations in the country. (See the KWST page for more on that genre.)
Shadoe Stevens can be heard on the nationally-syndicated Billboard Top 40 Countdown. (He was also the center square on the resurrected Hollywood Squares a few years back.) Corky Mayberry now lives in
Amarillo, Texas. Former PD Jack Roth now does voice-overs.
The incredible Lee "Babi" Simms April 30, 1971.
Chief Engineer Don Beem, who has since passed away, wrote a book detailing the entire history of KRLA. (Special thanx to Ted Shireman for the info on the book and Jack Roth.)
As for the station itself, even though the music has been silenced, the memories will go on -- after all, that's what this website is all about. To Robert W. Morgan, Emperor Bob, The Real Don Steele and Wolfman Jack: you helped see us through a very turbulent time and brightened many a day. Even though the four of you are no longer with us, may your legacy live on.
To all the KRLA listeners, staff, and oldies fans in general: here's to the station that brought you your music and many, many good times. A station that will live on as long as at least one of us is alive to remember and cherish it, and that other stations could take a lesson from. The station that was all that AM radio stood for at one time, and all that AM radio should be -- KRLA.
WHO WORKED AT KRLA? Here is the list: Roger Aldi, Perry Allen, Mike Ambrose, Christopher Ames, Earl Arbuckle, Richard Beebe, Reed Berry, Dick Biondi, Bronco Birdbath, Buck Buchanan, Roger Christian, Bob Cole, Rege Cordic, Bob Dayton, Lee Duncan, Craig Edwards, Roy Elwell, Bob Eubanks, Reb Foster, Charlie Fox, Matthew 'Doc' Frail, John Gilliland, Mel Hall, Humble Harve, Johnny Hayes, Robin Hill, 'Emperor' Bob Hudson, Dick 'Huggy Boy' Hugg, Dave Hull, Wolfman Jack, Michael Jackson, Jason Jeffries, Casey Kasem, Bill Keffury, M.G. Kelly, Art Laboe, Johnny Lee, Phil Little, Al Lohman, Gary Mack, Gary Marshall, Wink Martindale, Terry McGovern, Larry McKay, Jeff McNeal, Sonny Melendrez, Ken Minyard, Barry Mishkind, Don A. Muller, Tom Murphy, Charlie O'Donnell, Russ O'Hara, Jimmy O'Neill, Billy Pearl, Ray Peyton, Ted Quillin, Jimmy Rabbitt, Steve Ray, B. Mitchel Reed, Sam Riddle, Dick Saint, Lee 'Baby' Simms, China Smith, The Real Don Steele, Shadoe Stevens, Larry Tremaine, Charlie Tuna, Pete Weber, Johnny Williams, William F. Williams, and Jim Wood.
Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: KRLA Beat, Socal Radio History, Let The Universe Answer.
