KHJ

Some Top 40 stations came and went. And some became the stuff of legend. One such station was KHJ, a Top 40 outlet that lived at 930 on the AM dial.

From a year after the birth of Beatlemania to a month before the death of John Lennon, KHJ brought Southern California the latest and greatest hits.

For about three years its competition was its neighbor on the dial, long-time hit station KFWB "channel 98". In March, 1968, KFWB threw in the towel and switched to an all-news format. Boss Radio was king.

It was in April 1965, that programming consultant Bill Drake crafted KHJ's top-40 format. Drake hired program director Ron Jacobs, who had created formats in Hawaii and California.

Ron Jacobs loved his job at KHJ!

Jacobs had competed against Bill Drake in the “Battle of Fresno” back in 1962 and 1963, Jacobs programming KMAK, and Drake programming KYNO. Drake won, but remembered Jacobs well enough to hire him as his Program Director at KHJ.

Jacobs was best known for ushering in years of constant promotions and big events at KHJ, culminating in the 48-hour “History of Rock and Roll” in February, 1969. He left KHJ in May of that year to join former KFRC, San Francisco PD Tom Rounds in forming Watermark Productions. They hired Casey Kasem and launched American Top 40 in July of 1970.

Boss Radio car antenna flag

A sheet of KHJ RULES! stickers

9th Street West TV show ticket

The format featured a restricted playlist and restrained commentary by announcers (although a few, such as Robert W. Morgan, Charlie Tuna, Humble Harve and The Real Don Steele, were allowed to develop on-air personalities).

Other DJs from 1965-68 included Roger Christian, Gary Mack, Dave Diamond, Sam Riddle, Johnny Williams, Frank Terry, Johnny Mitchell, Tommy Vance, Scotty Brink, Steve Clark, Bobby Tripp, Tom Maule and Bill Wade. Part of the format, known as "Boss Radio", were jingles by the Johnny Mann Singers.

"Boss Radio" spread throughout the U.S., bringing with it, high ratings to KFRC in San Francisco, WFIL in Philadelphia, KGB in San Diego, WQXI in Atlanta, CKLW in Windsor, Ontario and WRKO in Boston. Bill Drake brought many of their announcers from the other stations, using them as a proving ground for talent.

Sonny and Cher who credit KHJ for breaking "I Got You Babe," visit Real Don Steele in 1965.

KHJ's call-in request number used the Los Angeles area code 213 and a 520 exchange, followed by the current year. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the station competed with three other local stations with similar formats: KFI, KTNQ and San Diego-based XETRA-AM, which operated as "The Mighty 690". KHJ competed with four "soul radio" stations serving the Los Angeles radio market: KDAY and KGFJ in Los Angeles and border blaster XERB in Rosarito, Mexico.

During the summer of 1970, the station ran a series of contests, known as the Super Summer Spectacular. In the contests, the Real Don Steele drove a red car to a particular area and announcers encouraged listeners to find him with clues as to his whereabouts. The first person who found Steele and fulfilled a condition received a cash prize and was interviewed by Steele.

The conditions varied, from answering a question to possessing certain items of clothing. An example of an on-air clue was: "The Real Don Steele is moving into Canoga Park so be on the lookout for him. What will happen if you get to The Real Don Steele? He's got twenty-five dollars to give away if you can get it, and baby, all signed, sealed, delivered and wrapped up."

KHJ MEMORABLE MOMENT. Robert W. Morgan recalled one bizarre experience when he and Mama Cass delivered puppies to contest winners out in the San Fernando Valley. "It was 110 degrees, we were in this limo and all these puppies were in the car while Mama Cass ate cheeseburgers."

At the time, KHJ had the largest teenage audience in the Los Angeles area - 48 percent - compared to its nearest competitor's 13 percent.

ROBERT W. MORGAN Wake Up With The Rooster From Wooster It is safe to say that Wooster (Ohio) College has never been one of the really big names in Southern California radio ... ranking somewhere between cumquats and Lake Ontario. But the Wooster Meteor has taken over the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. wake-up chores on Boss Radio, and things are looking up! Robert W. has sandwiched a remarkable radio career between campus days and his entry to Hollywood. In four major stations, he has scored No. 1 in every segment in which he has appeared. Most recently the leading fog-clearer in San Francisco, he now grabs the dial at 93 first thing in the morning, and just doesn’t let go. Here is Robert on-the-air on October 18, 1968. [ LISTEN ] (1:01:51)

Perennial morning man Charlie Van Dyke cut his own 45-rpm record that actually made it to the station's top 30 list in the summer of 1976: The Flag, a spoken word piece backed by patriotic music, which celebrated our nation's symbol. In the mid seventies KHJ hired its first female DJ, a lady who went by the single name of Shana. A second female DJ, Sally Adams, came aboard in 1977. KHJ ORIGINAL LINEUP 1965 6-9 a.m. - Robert W. Morgan 9 a.m.-12 noon - Roger Christian 12 noon-3 p.m. - GARY MACK 3-6 p.m. - The Real Don Steele 6-9 p.m. - Dave Diamond 9 p.m.-12 midnight - Sam Riddle 12 midnight-6 a.m. - Johnny Williams

Don Steele hands the mic over to Sam Riddle

One day, as the song Fame was ending, the DJ came on and did an uncanny impression of a KLOS jock saying "Alright, a little David Bowie there...." then, switching back to his regular voice asked, "What's the matter with these FM DJs? They think they're gonna wake somebody up?"

They'd also occasionally poke fun at their own personalities. A DJ once said that KHJ was the place where "when Charlie Van Dyke cuts himself shaving in the morning, he bleeds coffee."

KHJ HIRES IT'S FIRST FEMALE DJ

SHANA graced the airwaves of KHJ from 1976 to 1978. Born Margaret Reichl of German parents on April 10, 1953, at Camp LeJeune AFB in North Carolina, she was raised just outside of Detroit and began her love affair with radio while growing up in Kalamazoo. She learned English from cartoons like Felix The Cat and Casper and started her radio career at the Kalamazoo college radio station in 1971. She then moved to KWBB-Wichita.

Programmer Paul Drew became Shana's mentor and in 1974 at age 21, she started on the all-night shift at KFRC-San Francisco, becoming one of the first female Rock jocks. KFRC PD Michael Spears gave "Margo" her new professional name. Two years later, she came to the Southland to work at KFRC's sister station and become a "Boss Jock."

New Year's greetings from the Boss Jocks for 1967, 1968 and 1969.

KHJ once had a contest where if you counted the number of times Ringo Starr's hits were played one weekend and were the first one to the station with the correct answer, you won dinner for two with Ringo. Another time, a message by Elton John was scrambled and the first person to correctly decode it won something really big.

KHJ Boss Cartoons
Vol.1 No.1

The Boss Cartoons were done by the creative team of Mike Dormer and Lee Teacher. They did several items for KHJ including the “KHJ RULES!” sticker sheets and Sitar Treasure Map.

They’re probably best known as the creators of the “Shrimpenstein” kids show that ran on KHJ-TV and for the “Hot Curl” character seen in SurfTOONS comics.

During the mid-seventies, Los Angeles had the good fortune of being graced with the KHJ Coca-Cola Concert Caravan, a series of summer concerts held at random shopping mall parking lots around the southland. Spanky & Our Gang played Del Amo Fashion Square. Laurel Plaza hosted The Hudson Brothers. Early '70s stars Rare Earth and King Harvest jammed at a mall in Montebello.

Novelty act Larry Groce (Junk Food Junkie) co-starred with Pratt & McClain (Happy Days theme) at Northridge Fashion Square. The Ramones were scheduled to play a parking lot in 1977, but got pulled at the last minute and replaced by Stephen Bishop. And a shopping mall in Costa Mesa greeted big time act England Dan & John Ford Coley. All these concerts were free, along with all the Coca-Cola you could drink.

With the rise of FM top-40 initiated by KIQQ in 1973 (and continued by other stations as time went on), KHJ's ratings began a slow downturn. Serious AM competition came around Christmas 1976 when KTNQ signed on just up the dial with its "anything goes" top-40 format. This served as a wake-up call for KHJ.

They expanded their music selection slightly, but except for Black Betty by Ram Jam, their wider playlist went in a different direction than Ten-Q. Aiming to attract older listeners, they added a few album cuts like Bob Seger's Main Street and The Eagles' Life In The Fast Lane, and even played some tunes more suited for FM AOR, like Led Zeppelin's Kashmir and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's From The Beginning.

In May 1977 their top-40 charts became eight-page foldouts featuring song lyrics on one page, concert and giveaway information on a couple of others, and in-depth information on any given artist. These deluxe foldouts were too expensive to produce for very long, and in 1978 they went back to their single-sheet top 30 charts. Later, they created "KHJ Sun Stickers" for your bumper or windshield.

The KHJ lineup on a billboard in 1966.

THE MONKEES September 11, 1966 This is an audio file containing a rare radio advertisement for KHJ.

The format brought high ratings to the station until the late 1970s, when FM radio became the dominant form of music broadcasting.

KHJ published a slick Top 300 of all-time booklet in August 1966. On the front was a collage of the artists they played.

On the rear are drawings of the KHJ Boss Jocks Robert W. Morgan, Frank Terry, Gary Mack, The Real Don Steele, Johnny Mitchell, Sam Riddle, Johnny Williams, Steve Clark & Tommy Vance.

This was one of those rare items not distributed through record stores but by mail to KHJ requesting one.

Signs that the station was in trouble became noticeable in the summer of 1980 when the two biggest songs of the year failed to make the KHJ playlist: Queen's Another One Bites The Dust and Devo's Whip It. A number three song, Together (by the group Tierra) also got snubbed, as did Bette Midler's ballad The Rose.

In November 1980, during the Bob Shannon show, "93 KHJ" switched from top-40 to country music. The country format, with the slogan "We all grew up to be cowboys", lasted three years before it was changed to an oldies format: "The Boss is Back", with the original Johnny Mann Singers "Boss Radio" jingles, on April 1, 1983. In 1984, the station tried a top-40 variant: "Car Radio", with traffic reports every ten minutes. (Its sister station in San Francisco, 610 KFRC, promoted "Car Tunes" at about the same time.)

On the evening of January 31, 1986, "Car Radio" DJ Dave Sebastian Williams was joined in the studio by Robert W. Morgan. Participants in KHJ's Boss Radio heyday, DJs M.G. Kelly, Bobby Ocean and Jimmy Rabbitt, and program director Ron Jacobs, phoned in for a farewell broadcast, playing the songs which had made KHJ a popular AM station in the 1960s and 1970s.

KHJ switched to country music in 1980 and back to pop in 1983. In 1986 the last song played on KHJ was Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley & His Comets. At midnight that night, the station switched its call letters to KRTH, adopting an oldies radio format as a sister station to 101.1 KRTH-FM.

THE LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE

These are a few photos taken on “The Last Train To Clarksville.” It was a round-trip train excursion for hundreds of KHJ fans from Los Angeles to Del Mar (officially renamed Clarksville for the event). The Monkees arrived via helicopter in Del Mar and rode the train back to Los Angeles and performed live in one of the train cars. The event took place on September 11, 1966, one day prior to their TV premiere on NBC on September 12.

Left: Boss Jock Sam Riddle scopes the scene. Right: Boss Jock Gary Mack makes a taped report from the beach at Del Mar.

(L-R) Boss Jocks Gary Mack, Johnny Williams, Johnny Mitchell, and Frank Terry in one of the train cars.

WHERE DID THEY GO?... After KHJ went country, PD Chuck Martin went over to KWST. When he took off for sick leave, they replaced him with John Sebastian, who thought the K-WEST calls meant nothing. So he dropped them and launched magic 106. Most of the KHJ staff from 1980 went to K-WEST in 1981. In 1982, Martin began a six-year teaching stint at Chapman University. He now owns an ad agency and a production/recording studio in Orange County.

THE BIG 93 OF '66.

KHJ's call letters stood for Kindness, Happiness and Joy, and there was plenty of that to go around for the Los Angeles station back in the 1960s.

On December 30, 1966, Robert W. Morgan, Frank Terry and Gary Mack and the other KHJ jocks counted down the Big 93 of 1966. [ LISTEN ] (39:34)

Batman with DJ Don Steele during the KHJ Batphone Secret Number Contest in 1966.

Shana went on to have a long career in Los Angeles radio, most notably at KLOS, KLSX, and KCBS-FM (Arrow 93). Shana passed away on July 17, 2015 in Detroit at age 62. Humble Harve has worked on KRLA. Mark Elliott continued hosting the nationally-syndicated Weekly Top Thirty.

Charlie Van Dyke owns a broadcast service in Scottsdale, Arizona. He worked morning drive at KRTH 101.1, broadcasting remotely from his Scottsdale home. He recently left the station after the remote broadcast was disallowed.

The Real Don Steele passed away August 7, 1997 at age 61. There are numerous tributes dedicated to him on the web. Bill Drake, 71, succumbed to cancer on November 30, 2008.

The "legacy" continues as a talk station in the high desert, 1380 KHJJ, promotes itself as "KHJ", and there is an FM station in Canada called CKHJ.

At the time that KHJ introduced its accelerated format in May, 1965, the 5,000-watt, RKO-owned station attracted less than 2% of the Los Angeles radio audience. But by October of the same year, the station was ranked No. 1, with more than 15% of the radio audience.

The Beatles were fighting for chart space with the Mamas & the Papas and Bob Dylan.

Young people were becoming angrier about the Vietnam War and civil rights. Motown was in its glory days. It was a perfect time for rock 'n' roll, and a perfect time for KHJ/Boss 30 radio to make history.

"Good morgan..." with Robert W. Morgan playing all the hits on August 8, 1970. [ LISTEN ] (26:36)

When popular music was king and it’s presenters were rock stars.

KHJ BOSS RADIO [ LISTEN ]

Humble Harve c.1967

WHO WORKED AT KHJ? Here is the list: Roger Aldi, Perry Allen, Christopher Ames, Big Bob Anthony, Ted Atkins, Jon Badeaux, B.R. Bradbury, Betty Breneman, Scotty Brink, Tom Brower, Bill Brown, Don Brown, Chuck Browning, Jerry Butler, Bill Calder, Jim Carson, Big John Carter, Steve Casey, Ron Casteel, Gene Chenault, Roger Christian, Steve Clark, Al Connors, Don Cox, Mort Crowley, Rick Dees, Mark Denis, Ken DeVaney, Dave Diamond, Tom Dooley, Bill Drake, Paul Drew, Geoff Edwards, Mark Elliott, Mark Ford, and Charlie Fox.

Sonny Fox, Bob Gable, Phil Hall, Marv Howard, J. Paul Huddleston, Dave Hull, Clancy Imislund, Michael Jackson, Ron Jacobs, Banana Joe, Bob Kanner, Barry Kaye, Machine Gun Kelly, Art Kevin, Lyle Kilgore, Dave Labby, Jim Lawrence, John Leader, Bob Lee, Jerry Lewine, Walt 'Baby' Love, Gary Mack, Tony Mann, Lee Marshall, Chuck Martin, and Glen Martin.

John Lennon fills in for Charlie Van Dyke on September 27, 1974

Wink Martindale, Danny Martinez, Tom Maule, Larry McKay, Pete McNeal, Johnny Mitchell, Michael Moore, Robert W. Morgan, Bob Morrison, Bill Mouzis, Jim O'Brien, Bob Hamilton, Gary Hamilton, Humble Harve, Robin Hill, Jeff Hillery, Scott Hodges, Mike O'Neil, Bobby Ocean, Ken Orchard, Billy Pearl, Jimmy Rabbitt, Walt 'Failsafe' Radke, Bobby Rich, Sam Riddle, Dick Sainte, Rick Scarry, Dave Sebastian (Williams), John Sebastian, Shana, Bob Shannon, Lee Sherwood, Cat Simon, Michael Spears, The Real Don Steele, Shadoe Stevens, J.B. Stone, Frank Terry, John Thomas, Jesse Torrero, Bobby Tripp, Charlie Tuna, Tommy Vance, Charlie Van Dyke, Bill Wade, Bill Watson, Beau Weaver, Andy West, Sweet Dick Whittington, Johnny Williams, Dexter Young, and Johnny Yount.