Radio - What Happened?

This week, in our first podcast without Jim -- we trudge forward with some airchecks.  Jim always loved it when we played airchecks, so that's what we're going to do.  This week, we listen to some Los Angeles stations back in the late 60s and 70s.  We hear Dr. Don Rose, the real Don Steele, and Charlie Tuna -- 3 icons of the radio industry.  Thanks for listening.

Today, we give you the sad news that my podcast partner, friend and business associate - Jim Christoferson - has passed away.  Jim suffered from pulminary fibrosis, and it had gotten progressively worse over the past 6 months.  We all thought he would beat it.  In fact, that was his mantra -- "I'm gonna beat it."  But, unfortunately, we got the call on Tuesday, April 30th that the disease had won.  I'm not sure what the future holds for this podcast - if we continue, it will certainly be different.  But, we had lots of plans for the future, things we wanted to discuss, guests we wanted to have on, etc.  We'll see. It'll be hard to do it without Jim.  Rest in peace, my friend.

This is hour two of our conversation on 710 AM, KNUS Denver on the Peter Boyles Show.  He was a gracious host, as we discussed the radio business, and all the changes we've seen in the last 50 years -- and we talk about our new book - "Radio: What Happened?", available now on amazon.com

Welcome back -- to us!  Sorry for the delay in getting a new episode out, but we're excited to get back in the saddle.  Today, we talk about our recent interview with Peter Boyles at KNUS 710 AM in Denver.  He's actually interviewing us -- about our new book that has the same title as our podcast.  We also hear from Gary Owens, and hear an aircheck of when KNUS was in Dallas playing their own version of top 40 music

This week, our guest is Ron Harrell. as we follow his journey from his Dad's pulpit where he performed his first 5 minutes - to working at some of the most high profile stations in the country, including KIMN Denver and KVIL Dallas.  We talk about the current state of affairs, and why he's "bullish" on the future of radio.  We also have an air check of Dr. Don Rose of KFRC San Francisco!

This week, we talk again with Sean Ross, editor of RossOnRadio - a great newsletter about the current events of the radio industry.  Topics include Christmas music and the songs that made a difference in 2023.  We also have a snippet of Charlie Van Dyke at CKLW in 1969!

This week's guest is Hall of Fame announcer, Rudy "Fearless" Fernandez from Abilene, Texas.  He's been on the same station for 45 years, and continues to entertain his audience daily.  And he's done some crazy stunts to raise money for local charities - like staying in a block of ice for 48 hours - or riding a Ferris wheel for 5 days!!!!  Plus, we've got an aircheck of the great Fred Winston of WLS, Chicago.

This episode will start a series where we highlight some of the all time great disc jockeys of our time (if you're as old as we are!).  We start off with Charlie Tuna, a member of the National Radio Hall of Fame, and maybe best known for his time at KCBQ where they premiered "The Last Contest", one of the greatest promotions ever!  Enjoy Charlie on air at KCBQ, KHJ and KTNQ.

Everybody did it -- but unfortunately most of us can't find them.  We're talking "airchecks".  And this week's guest knows all about them.  He was one of the first (if not THE first) to offer a website to house airchecks.  He has literally thousands of them, all for your listening pleasure. And he's always looking for more.  Take a listen to our guest, Dale Patterson of "Rock Radio Scrapbook".

Who invented the radio?  Raise your hand if you said Marconi.  Most people would.  But, you need to hear the story of Nikola Tesla, and his history with both the invention of not only
radio, but robots, cell phones and the light bulb (that's right, it might not have been Thomas Edison).  It's a fascinating story told by our guest this week:  Richard Munson.