Who it was
I was a 16 year-old high schooler in Los Angeles in 1960 listening to a legendary Top 40 station, KFWB. The DJ was Joe Yoakum on a Saturday morning, around 11am. The station's slogan was, "There's always something happening on KFWB." And there was. I never wanted to turn off the radio because I was afraid I'd miss something. And if you know the numbers KFWB got in those days, it's apparent that I wasn't the only one who felt that way.
How it affected me
That day, KFWB 980AM had a recurring contest where they'd give clues to identify something, and the first person who phoned in with the answer would win $9.80. I had no illusions of being a contest winner. But on the 2nd clue, something clicked, and I thought I knew. I called, got right through (to a secretary), and won. Minutes later, Joe Yoakum announced my name on the air as the contest winner.
That night I went to a high-school party. During the evening, virtually everyone came up and congratulated me. I was amazed--they had all been listening! It dawned on me that radio is an incredibly powerful medium. I was somewhat of a performer, always enjoyed public speaking, and could see right then that radio reached a huge audience.
Lessons Learned
- Five years later, having dropped out of college, I was searching for something to do with my life that involved performing. Again, it dawned on me that there's a big radio audience. I enrolled in a broadcast school, graduated, and went to work in small stations in small markets. Three years later, I was at a big Top 40 station in a major market. I had a successful career in radio, working at a number of major-market stations. This was back when radio was really fun, before deregulation and corporations took the heart out of it. That Saturday morning listening to KFWB actually influenced the path I took in life
