In 1975 PD Charlie Van Dyke brought me to KHJ/Los Angeles , for one of it's most highly rated periods before FM listening took over.  In fact, this was the last time KHJ would be number one in Los Angeles.  The Drake days were over. Paul Drew was national PD, but this was Charlie's KHJ --- not Drew's; you could tell by how much fun we were having!

It was the age of The Eagles, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt and Peter Frampton.  Okay, so  it was also the dawn of Disco; the music in the movie "Boogie Nights" could have been our playlist. 

I was the full-time part-time jock; quite possibly the coolest radio gig ever. Charlie's office was the bar at Nicodel's.  Martoni's was the jock lounge.  Alice Cooper and Bernie Taupin helped me do my last show.   

The airstaff included Charlie Van Dyke, Me, Mark Elliot, Bobby Ocean, Machine Gun Kelly, Dr. John (Leader) J.B. Stone and Dave Sebastian. We had nearly a seven share that  year. As Charlie used to say:"not too shabby."

It was a funky place, with er, "stains" from the Steve Lundy days, and bullet holes in the control room walls. Here, I got the rare privilege of sitting at the feet of the original Hudson & Harrigan, Mac Hudson and Paul Menard, who taught me the art of morning radio. 

Bill Young was one of my primary radio mentors, for which I will always be grateful.
 

On April 12, 1981 NASA launched mission ST-1, the first Space Shuttle, Columbia.  The crew, John Young and Bob Crippen were frequent listeners to our show in Houston on KILT , so their CapCom asked me to prepare a special audio wake-up call to surprise them. The piece turned out to be an elaborate inside joke about farting in space, caused by drinking too much Tang, (the instant breakfast drink) and was inadvertantly carried live by all the television networks. 

FOOTNOTE: NASA funding was cut significantly in subsequent years.

KNUS/99/FM Dallas was a groundbreaking hybrid of album rock and top forty, with all the showmanship you would expect from a Gordon McLendon station. 

KNUS combined the exacting formatics we learned from Bill Drake, with a unique music mix, and the flambouant promotional chutzpah we learned directly from Gordon himself.  

When the McLendons sold KLIF to Fairchild, he offered the FM to them, but they would not take it.  Our lawyers later discovered that the non- compete clause applied only to AM....soo, we pretty much had to kick their ass!  That we proceeded to do...with creativity, attitude, and guerrilla warfare tactics that they never saw coming. KNUS became the first FM rocker to dominate in a major market. 

Even more significant perhaps, was what we shared together off the air. We were an artists collective---a community. The guys I worked with at KNUS, Hal Martin (Michael Spears), Christopher Haze (Randy Brown), Tommy Kramer,  Kevin McCarthy, Brother Jon Rivers, Jim White, Dave Cooke, Joe Interante, Jack Hines, Ken Dowe, Fred Kennedy, Eric Chase (Phil North), Fred Kennedy(Olsen), Bart McLendon, Ron Gray, etc. remain dear friends, more than 25 years later. 

I will always have a fon spart in my home * for my boys from KNUS.

KAKC is where I got my radio schooling, as I weaseled by way into a relationship with PD Lee Bayley, Scooter Seagraves and Robert W. Walker by bringing them fresh airchecks of Morgan and Steele on KHJ which I obtained from a family friend in Anaheim. 

It worked.  I eventually got to work those hallowed halls myself in 1970 and 1971, paving the way for later stints at KFRC and KHJ. 

KAKC was an amazing radio station; sleek and powerful, with  Johnny Mann Jingles,  Watson on the Hotline and of course Bill Drake himself voicing the sweepers.  I think opening the mic here for the first time was a bigger thrill than going on the air in Los Angeles or San Francisco.

KCBQ was just incredibly bitchin. Pure audio adrenaline rush (or maybe it was something stronger, left over from the Buzz Bennett days). PD Jack McCoy's production was a lasting inspiration, as was the airwork of Shotgun Tom Kelly, Bill Gardner, Gene Knight and Bill Moffitt.  I was only there for a few short months before KFRC called, but I will never forget my summer on the Q!

It was here that I began the transition to fulltime freelance voiceover work when I formed Three Fine Pipes in Denver with Roger Thompson and my old KFRC comrade, Ed O'Brien. My VO work soon eclipsed what I could do in radio, and I relocated to Los Angeles for good.  Here, I have had to good fortune to work steadily in just about every venue that uses voice talent. But in my soul,I will always be a radio guy!