Bobby Dale

Bobby Dale was born Robert Dale Bastiansen in Minneapolis. After a series of "weird jobs," he started in radio at age 25 in Glendive, Montana. From the very beginning, Bobby knew he had an uncanny knack to pick hit records and he loved music.

Bobby went on to KOIL in Omaha, where he replaced Gary Owens and then to KDWB in Minneapolis. In 1961, the disc jockeys at KFWB went out on strike in sympathy for the newsmen. Management and Crowell-Collier sister station jocks were called. Bobby worked his 6-to-9 p.m. shift in Minneapolis, got on an airplane to Los Angeles and was on the air in B. Mitch Reed's shift the next night. (Reed flew to Minneapolis to replace Dale.)

"Big 610 Men", Class of 1966. From left: Royce Johnson, Mike Phillips, Bobby Dale, Steve O'Shea, Howard Clark, Ed Mitchell, Glenn Adams.

Bobby's infamous vibe is on display at KEWB on August 4, 1963. [ LISTEN ] (13:47)

For a brief time Bobby worked at KFWB's sister station, KEWB, in the Bay Area and then returned to the Southland to work at KRLA. According to Dale, that was the biggest he ever was in L.A. He played the Rolling Stones like the others were playing the Beatles. He was huge.

July 11, 1966
[ LISTEN ] (22:29)...

...and another, July, 1966
[ LISTEN ] (9:15)

He also worked at the legendary MOR station, KSFO San Francisco, in the late 1960s and for four more years beginning in 1971. During his years in San Francisco, he hung out with Tom Donahue in North Beach. He claimed to have taken Donahue on his first acid trip. In the mid-1970's, Dale did weekend shows at KSAN. In the early 1980s he worked at KTIM, The Big Band Blend, in San Rafael. Then back to San Francisco to work at KKCY "The City". He gave up radio as a full-time profession in the early 1990's. From time to time he appeared on the KSAN tribute series Jive Radio on University of San Francisco campus station, KUSF.

The KDWB Seven Swingin’ Gentlemen, 1960: Randy Cook, Dick Halverson, Bobby Dale, Sam Sherwood, Bob Friend, Lou Riegert, Hal Murray.

In 1992 he lost his voice and an operation on his nodules was required. In preparation for the operation, it was discovered that he had diabetes, a heart problem and cirrhosis of the liver. A doctor told him that if he had one more drink or one more cigarette, he would die.

So he quit smoking and drinking and worked on improving his health. For much of the last half of the 1990s, he worked with youngsters at a pre-school in San Rafael and volunteered at a shelter that helped the homeless.

1960-61

Chuck Blore was the Program Director at KFWB who brought Bobby from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, where he brought a whole new color to Color Radio with a quiet wit, and with giant talent.

Bobby had a jazz soul, a love of music ranging from pop to blues, folk & jazz. He loved breaking away from Top 40 and into the freedom he found at KSFO on the all-night shift and at KSAN and KOFY. But even at Top 40, he was always his own guy, totally improv and off-the-wall, doing WC Fields/Lord Buckley-inspired riffs, goofing with live spots, and being so unpredictable that Chuck Blore once called him the worst DJ he'd ever heard, and then, months later, hearing him again, declaring him one of the best.

KGBS PD Ron Martin gave him virtually free reign in his choice of music on his show, because Ron knew, as did we all that Bobby was a better judge than anybody of what to play at night. One night Bobby put on some song that was pressed off center. About a third of the way through it, he got pissed, opened the mike, took the record off, smashed it on the turntable and said: 'If the record distributors can't send out a quality product and have more respect for their artists, don't send us anything at all, this is garbage.' He was playing Beginnings off the Chicago album before anyone else would touch it. When KRLA put it on their playlist, Bobby dropped it. He would play a song until it went commercial, then he'd go on to something else.

With Normi 1968

When the GM at KGBS started putting 'guidelines' down for his show, he said he was leaving, and he did. For those that never heard Bobby Dale, you really missed one of the true personalities of Los Angeles radio.

He is listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Top 100 Disc Jockeys. He is given credit for breaking a national hit, Phil Spector's To Know Him Is To Love Him by the Teddy Bears out of Fargo, North Dakota. He also had a major role is exposing Mickey Newbury and his music to the world. Don Sherwood once called him, "the Disc Jockey's Disc Jockey."

Bobby Dale succumbed to liver cancer on January 17, 2001, in San Rafael, only three weeks after he was diagnosed. He was 69. Bobby was survived by his wife, Norma Dale of San Rafael and their two sons, Joey and Tommy, and John Bridell, a son from a former marriage.

WHERE DID BOBBY WORK? Here is the list: KDWB, KEWB, KFRC, KFWB, KGBS, KKCY, KOFY, KRLA, KSAN, and KSFO.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: Airchexx