THE BEST, THE BRIGHTEST, AND TURKEY-TIME

Now that we've elected a new President, it didn't take long for the first Xmas trees to pop up at malls around the country. Bang! Zoom! From the Electoral College to Santa's Workshop in a matter of days, as if the rest of November doesn't exist. At least Nordstrom's has the right idea. I saw a sign in front of their newest store advising all who entered that they believe in celebrating one holiday at a time, and that their holiday decorations will go up on the 28th. "Happy Thanksgiving," the sign read. A pretty solid message from a place with a lounge-lizard piano player on site.

The holidays will bring a full schedule of for me, the first sustained work for, what up til now, has been my former and intermittent employer, KRTH, Los Angeles. It's a time to look ahead to prospects in 2009--prospects in a depressed economy--and to look back at the 14 years I spent at K-Earth 101.

Dave "Sky" Walker, who handles the weekend overnight shifts (while they still exist, knock on wood) remarked that it's amazing, the number of radio stars I've had the opportunity to work with, and he's right. I thought I'd share my observations about those who are no longer with us, and one who spent all of five days working in Los Angeles...but what a five days they were.

THE REAL DON STEELE

I'd always been aware of The Real Don Steele. KHJ was everywhere when I was young, and it was impossible not to hear him barreling out of radios all over L.A. I knew him best from his hosting duties on Boss City, the Saturday evening dance show on KHJ-TV Channel 9 (later called The Real Don Steele Show, once "Boss" became passe).

I became a true fan at a time I was struggling to advance in the business. That was in 1985, when Don burst forth from a seven year hiatus to do afternoons at KRLA, AM 1110. No air talent ever augmented the hits with more formatic precision, more energy, double entendres, sarcasm, and minimal, expertly timed observation than The Real Don Steele. I could go on and use a hundred superlatives about his work, which stayed extraordinary... from his earliest days in Omaha, 1962, until his terminal illness forced him off the air at K-earth 101 in April of 1997...but I've said enough. A memo by Bob Henabery of WRKO, Boston says it all succinctly and profoundly. This remarkable seven page document was written in June of 1966, when WRKO management contemplated a move to the Top 40 music format that made a huge success of its sister RKO station, KHJ. Henabery assessed KHJ from top to bottom, from the music to the jingles, newscasts and the boss jocks. He had this to say about Don:

"The Real Don Steele is the most articulate of the Boss Jocks in respect to the argot of the youth. he delivers this language flawlessly, at a furious and witty pace. Steele is the most intelligent and talented of the Boss Jocks..."

WRKO went on to become the Top 40 station in Boston for the next 15 years. Real Don went on proving Henabery correct until he passed away, August 5, 1997. He's the best there ever was, and it was surreal to be on the same air staff with him.


ROBERT W. MORGAN

My first memories of Morgan were from his TV stint with a puppet named Mickey Mudturtle. When I told him that, he laughed, coughed out some cigarette smoke and exclaimed "Christ, I was 27 years old!"

Morgan was a morning presence in our house. His was the voice from the transistor radio as my older brothers got ready to head off to high school. Armed with a razor sharp wit, he was ahead of the curve when it came to presence in morning drive. To describe him as gruff in his later days, would be to say that porcupines were a little prickly from time to time. That was part of the armor you experienced in person. On air, he was quick, absolutely funnier than anyone else, and a perfectionist. When we lost Steele and Morgan in freakish tandem, we lost more than two men of flesh and bone and spirit. The medium of radio lost two larger-than-life entities that towered over the rest. A pair that defined professionalism. The generations to follow will never know what it's like to have performers of their greatness present music on the radio. To have Morgan tell me "You make the station sound good," is a compliment I'll take to the end of my days.

Robert W. was tart and topical; his booming voice vibrated acerbic quips over intros to songs, tete-a-tetes with phone callers, and hit musical posts with punchlines. He tolerated no fools. Toward the end of his career, those five years at K-Earth 101, he was unrelentingly political, but he lost none of his old fans from Boss radio days at KHJ. Because morning meant MORGAN. Unlike Real Don, he went public with his lung cancer diagnosis, and retired at a lavish broadcast from the Museum of TV and Radio in Beverly Hills, January 9, 1998. He passed away on May 28th of that year.

DAN INGRAM

First things, first: Dan Ingram is very much alive, in New York City, active at age 73. He spent all of one week on the air in Los Angeles, from June 22 through 26, 1998, auditioning for the morning job at K-earth, left open by Robert W.'s departure. I got to follow him that first day. He was gracious, cordial, and hilarious.

Because I'm a Southern Californian born and raised, I hadn't heard of Dan Ingram until I read Rocking America, Rick Sklar's 1984 memoir about the heady, Top 40 days of WABC, New York. My introduction to Big Dan came by way of tape, and he was incredible. The zingers, the one -liners, the wink-of-the-eye smarty pants comments that preceded, followed and punctuated songs, commercials, newscasts and everything else, were side-splitting. For anyone who's never heard him, I'd say that, at his peak in the 60's and 70's, he was like Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam, but more in control, more exacting, more professional.

A good example would be a series of ad libs between commercials on the 4th of July, 1968. He read what we call the "tag" to commercial about a Sea World-type exhibition, made a quip, ran another spot, then said of the "Sea World" commercial, "How about this: when love congeals, it soon reveals...the faint aroma, of performing seals..."

Anyone from the Northeastern United States who got to listen to him every afternoon were privileged, indeed. The one week we had him, ten years ago, he caused more positive phone calls than anyone else who auditioned for the job, including the guy who wound up being hired.

To compare his work in the afternoon to The Real Don Steele's is like comparing WABC to KHJ: it's a case of excellence born to two different mothers, and any comparison would be nefarious. They were different, on separate coasts, and both brilliant within their own veins.

DICK HUGG, "HUGGY BOY"

I was not a fan of Huggy's. He was from a time when presenting music on radio was in its infancy. It was that cred from the deep past that made Hug beloved in L.A.'s deeply entrenched Mexican-American community. In the 50's, he'd done his show live, all night, from Dolphin's Record Shop in South Central Los Angeles. In the 60's, when the '50's songs became oldies-but goodies, he purchased his air time, and did all night shows on Spanish language station KALI, cementing his connection to Latino listeners.

Flash forward to the 90's, and an elderly Huggy was at KRLA, until the station's format was changed. In October of 1998, he slid into a late night shift at K-Earth 101. We were told it was to keep him from going to a competing Rhythmic Oldies station, but in truth, he needed income, and they created a place for him. I wasn't alone in thinking he wasn't competent to perform at a station as well executed as K-earth 101 was, 10 years ago.

When he joined us, I went out of my way to be nice, but he was aloof...indifferent to me, and so I was little more than polite when I saw him. He truly believed what they told him: that he was there to lure Latino listeners and increase the nighttime ratings. To those who shared my sentiments at the the time, I said, "Huggy could no more generate ratings here than he could a solid bowel movement."

I felt bad about that as time went on. He really was like part of the family to so many on the East side, but I was correct that he didn't make any difference in the ratings. I respected what he had accomplished throughout his long time on the air in L.A., and its historic significance. What was particularly egregious was how the poor man left the planet...not so long after a fall at home, with no one there.

While we never liked one another, I'm sorry a performer held in such high esteem by a significant part of the southland had to come to such a heart-rending end.

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APOLOGIES TO KATIE COURIC

In an earlier post, I think I wrote that Katie Couric had "cuted-up" the CBS Evening News. Well, when I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong. I hadn't watched her broadcast in some time, and according to the ratings, neither had much of the country. Though third in viewership among the network newscasts, Katie's program has become damned good. Her interview with Sarah Palin (Peggy Hill?) was epic! Quietly, politely, she delivered the questions that revealed Governor Palin's denseness. That's all you can ask of any good interviewer for a quality newscast. When I watch evening news, now, I watch Katie.