Helping in my quest to somehow mention KHJ (930 AM) every chance I get is Chuck Martin, the last great programmer of the legendary station’s Top 40 days. You may remember Martin as the man who brought the station back from near death in 1979 when he re-invigorated the on-air presentation with great music, new promotions, and most importantly a strong staff … including soon-to-be-superstar Rick Dees, who led KHJ mornings from ’79 until the station’s Top 40 sign-off two years later. Today KHJ plays a religious format.
Anyway, this caught me by surprise, as I never knew of this connection.
“I guess you may have heard that Sam Rubin — entertainment reporter for KTLA-TV Channel 5 — died of a heart attack last week,” Martin wrote, adding “I hired him on as an intern at KHJ.”
These would have been his college days, explained Martin. “I broke him in slowly and after some training gave him a shot on weekends producing our public affairs shows. He produced a few and he did well … and he had a lot of drive! He excelled, and I could tell he was destined to become a reporter.
“Sam was with me right up to the end. I believe he left, as others at the station did, about a week before me. He didn’t go directly to television, but it wasn’t long after either.”
Rubin would soon find himself at KTLA; Martin was hired shortly later to program K-WEST (now KPWR, 105.9 FM), turning the once-album rocker into an Top 40 station similar to KHJ. Such a small intertwined world, and kind of a neat thing to find out about the early days of Rubin.
Automotive Amplitude Modulation
While many younger people don’t listen to the radio as much as I did when I was young (though that may be a bit skewed as I listened all the time) it does appear that they still want it available in the cars and trucks that they drive.
The information comes just in time to help push the “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act” as Congress continues to debate the merits of the bill. In a report published by InsideRadio.Com (https://bit.ly/YoungAM), research describes the dashboard desires of the public.
Turns out that we want it all. Audio, video, podcasts, information. And that includes AM radio. Quoted in the story is Xperi’s Jeff Jury, who says “60 percent of respondents overall agreed that AM radio, which offers emergency/weather disaster updates, local content, community news, sports, and live, real-time traffic reports, is an indispensable part of their vehicle’s dashboard — and it is more important to those 17-44, versus than to those 45 and over”
I find that fascinating, as I would have thought older demographics would think it more important. Perhaps they see the value of the news and talk formats often found on the oldest broadcast band.
Music isn’t mentioned, but it must be pointed out that outside of Los Angeles, and especially in smaller towns, music on AM radio still attracts a sizable audience … which includes younger listeners. In my own experience, kids — including my own — have told me that it’s not AM broadcasting itself — and its perceived lack of sound quality — that keeps kids away locally, it’s that there is not anything they want to hear. Play what they want to hear and they will tune in.
Radio, including AM, may just be ready for a comeback. Certainly pronouncements of its demise are at least somewhat premature.
‘Ransom’ story
KSL/Salt Lake City (a station I used to pick up on skip in the days they played top-40) is launching a new crime-thriller podcast on their podcast network. Called “Ransom: Position of Trust,” the true crime series revisits the unsettling 1995 kidnapping of 12-year-old McKay Everett from his Texas home.
Art Rascon is the podcast host. An Edward R. Murrow Award and Emmy-winning journalist, Rascon, reported on the case at the time. In a press release regarding the show, he told of his personal connection to the event.
“This tragic story felt so personal to me. As a reporter, I covered the kidnapping, had children of nearly the same age as McKay, and lived just south of the Everett family. It was a family’s worst nightmare and it touched all of us so deeply. We felt the pain of the distraught mother and, like millions of others, prayed for a happy ending.”
McKay was just 12 years old when he was abducted from his home in Texas. His father, Carl Everett, had returned home from a meeting to discover the back door of the house open and received a call from a woman demanding a $500,000 ransom. While the FBI was involved in the investigation, it seems the kidnapper used inside information to stay one step ahead of law enforcement. In the end, it’s a story of greed and betrayal, with the primary suspect being someone local residents thought they could trust.
Distributed by Podcast One, you can find it on all the regular podcast sources such as Apple, Spotify, or directly at RansomPodcast.Com.
Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Emailrwagoner@socalradiowaves.com
