NAB DAILY NEWS, September 2001
By Scott Fybush
It's not every day that you can sit down for a chat with some
of the people who invented top-40 radio as we know it. But that's
just the opportunity Radio Show attendees will have when they
attend Friday's "Radio Legends" session.
Panelists Bobby Rich and Chuck Blore agree that being a "Radio
Legend" is something of a backhanded compliment.
"It means you're old and you've been doing it a long
time," joked Blore, who created the "Color Radio"
format that defined Los Angeles' early top-40 heyday beginning
in 1958 at KFWB(AM).
To Blore, though, the real legend behind top 40 radio was
his own mentor, Gordon McLendon, who hired him early in his career
at San Antonio's KTSA(AM). "He was a true genius,"
Blore said.
Ask Rich about Blore and you'll get a similar response. "He
all but invented what we do, and he has one of the most creative
minds our business ever knew," said Rich.
And Rich, too, has plenty to boast about: developing the first
hot AC format at San Diego's KFMB(FM) and winning multiple Program
Director of the Year and Air Personality of the Year awards from
Billboard and the Gavin Report.
They'll be joined on the panel by Gary Stevens, whose own
roots in the top 40 format date back to another pioneering station,
New York's WMCA(AM), the home of the "Good Guys." Michael
O'Shea, chairman of New Northwest Broadcasters, will moderate
the session.
Rich says young broadcasters need to hear about the "good
old days" from veterans like his fellow panelists.
"You've got to know where you've been before to know
where you're going now," he said. "Maybe people who
got into the business in the last 15 years haven't studied what
made that magic."
Blore says the secret he learned from McClendon, and carried
into his own stations, was to constantly think of radio as an
entertainment medium.
"On McLendon's stations, it was never just, 'here is
the news.' It was always, 'BONG! It's twelve o'clock in Moscow...'"
Blore recalled.
But beyond the morning show, Blore says most radio stations
today have forgotten that lesson.
"Ask a PD now, 'what kind of station do you have?' and
they answer with what kind of music they play," he said.
That leaves plenty of room, he believes, for creativity in
today's radio.
"The rewards in this business are so unbelievable if
you just hang on, if you don't stop trying," he said. "You
get noticed by doing it in a fresh, new, un-ordinary way."
While Blore is long gone from the day-to-day radio business,
focusing instead on radio and TV production for clients that
include every major network, Rich is still in the trenches as
program director and morning jock at Tucson's KMXZ(FM). From
his vantage point, he's worried about finding the next generation
of Chuck Blores and Bobby Riches.
"Kids don't come knocking at our doors anymore, begging
to sweep the floors just to do overnights," he said, recalling
his own humble start at a daytimer in Ephrata, Washington.
"My shift started whenever I could get there after school
and lasted until sunset," he said.
As for new technologies, Rich is worried about the effect
satellite radio might have on his own station. Blore remains
excited about the potential of Webcasting, despite being unable
to raise money during the dot-com crash for a proposed new Web-only
version of Color Radio, complete with original jocks like Gary
Owens and Bill Ballance.
"I'd still love to do that, and all the guys who are
still above ground would love to do that too," Blore said.
For now, Blore is working on another project, getting the
nation's top talk radio hosts on camera for a daily TV show called
"Talk TV."
"It's what the whole country is talking about that day,"
he says of the project, which will feature Los Angeles talk veteran
Michael Jackson as host.
As for Stevens, he moved into management and then finance,
serving as president of Doubleday's broadcast division before
founding his own broadcast mergers and acquistions firm, Gary
Stevens and Company.
Whatever their business cards may say today, each of these
"radio legends" still maintains a passion for the medium
that made them legendary.
"I love what I do, I do what I love," said Rich.
