Excerpt #25 from the long-awaited book that Chuck Blore has almost finished writing ...

www.chuckblore.com

OKAY, OKAY, I WROTE THE BOOK

One of the things I haven’t talked much about is the News Department’s contribution to our success at KFWB, helping to create a great deal of the color in Color Radio. Two or three things come immediately to mind. The first is how we were constantly changing the format, the content and the presentation itself. Never all at once, but continuously, until about five years into this evolutionary process. Then I remember thinking, “Ahhh, that’s it. That’s what we’ve been searching for.”

First of all, even though the ‘then’ popular phrase, “I’ve got news for you, buddy!” was defiantly negative, I thought the words themselves were too good to pass up. So, our over produced, super-dramatic news intro became a streamlined example of simplicity itself. A “beep Tone” was heard marking the top of the hour, and then ... “It’s four o’clock in Los Angeles. This is Charles Arlington and I’ve got news for you.” Then a Tympani roll and we were into it.

During that same period, Time Magazine had been using an editorial style that involved connecting one story to the next. Almost the entire magazine was one continuous narrative from beginning to end. And that technique, I thought, was what we’d been searching for. Of course, in our four and a half minute newscasts each story was rarely more than three or four lines at most. So, doing all of the stories as one, or at least relating one story to the next, made the “continuous narrative” really romp along. It sounded somewhat like this ...

“This is Charles Arlington and I’ve got news for you.”

Tymp Roll, then Charlie continues,

“... A sonic boom cracks continuously cross the country today as the new X15 experimental aircraft breaks the sound barrier and every speed record known to man. While rocketing from coast to coast, the X15 crosses the vast expanse of sand representing the Texas Desert in less than two minutes. Far below, in a Houston hospital, that crack of sonic thunder rattles the windows of The Intensive Care Unit, where a gravely ill ex- Speaker Of The House, Senator Sam Rayburn, has been given only hours to live. Halfway around the world, young American soldiers may also have only hours to live as the Viet Cong amasses the largest army yet, preparing to capture the heavily fortified city of Saigon.”

That wasn’t far from what it genuinely sounded like, which is probably why Charles, and the entire news staff showed up in my office less than a week after this format ... the format we’d been searching for ... had been on the air. “By God, boy.” Charles was using every stentorian tone at his command to underline the seriousness of what he was about to say. And what he was about to say, in today’s terms would be; “Your new format sucks.” And suddenly all five of the newspeople were talking at the same time, saying the same thing,

“It sounds Pompous.”

“Preposterous.”

“It’s too f—king hard.”

“We sound like idiots.”

“Yeah.. “

“We’re supposed to be imparting serious information, boy!” Arlington speaking. “And we sound like circus clowns.”

I stood up and said rather loudly, “Now you people listen to me!” PAUSE. “You’re absolutely right.” And then, so I wouldn’t be seen as a complete loser, I added, “Although I do like the intro.”

They looked at each other and seemed to agree. “Yeah” “The intro’s okay” “I like it.”
Then Charles said to me, “Now you’re sure about this, boy. Because if you’d like us to give it a little more time ...”

“No, Charles. I’m sure. Just let me tell Mr. Purcell what we’re doing so he’s not surprised when he hears it on the air. Or doesn’t hear it on the air.” I got Bob Purcell on the intercom and told him what had just gone on.

Bob’s response kinda surprised me, it took him over a minute to say those three little words, “ Oh ........... Thank.............God.”

The thing about my wonderful friend and News Director, Charlie Arlington, was that he was always there when you needed him; always willing to do anything he was asked to do. “If it’s for the good of the ship, boy, count Arlington in.” I’ll bet I heard him say that a hundred times, and always without question, without reservation. Even when I woke him in the middle of the night and sent him to Buffalo to expose a big fat lie a radio station was trying to get Southern Californians to buy into. (I’m not going to use the actual call-letters of that station as they are today a very respected broadcast operation .) Here’s what went down:

The first real competition we had came about three years after the birth of Color Radio. Two Canadian gentlemen had somehow been granted ownership of a local 50KW station which before they came along had been playing Country Music to Pasadena. And not doing it well.

I imagine the more astute reader is saying, “Wait a minute. Canadians, gentlemen or otherwise, cannot own American Radio Stations.” Right. But one of these Canadian gentlemen had friends in some very high American places and he was granted “Instant Citizenship” by President Eisenhower. He could now legitimately, and immediately own an American Radio station. The next thing they did, and it was a pretty smart move if I do say so myself, they tried to hire me to run it. Oh, you cannot imagine the things I was promised. But, somehow, I thought the whole operation was kind of suspect. They took over the ownership of the station almost immediately and while they were still playing country music they were also running a promo which said, “Somewhere in Los Angeles there is hidden, a Golden Key. A key which will unlock the full Fifty thousand watts of powerful programming coming to Los Angeles radio. Find the Golden Key and you will be $50,000 dollars richer.”and then they’d give clues which got easier as the prize got smaller. The man who eventually became their first PD told me some time later that he had no idea where ‘ The Golden Key’ was hidden when he first started writing the clues. I think they actually did end up giving a couple thousand dollars to the person who found the key which turned on the new 50 thousand watts of “...more colorful programming.” Which I thought was a direct challenge to Color Radio. I remember thinking something very much like ... “Bring it on!”

Their second promotion began with their first day of broadcasting “...more colorful programming.” Here again, I don’t want to spell out the name of the deejay involved in this story who was not at all at fault. We’ll just call him Perry A. At that time KFWB was expanding, buying stations in other markets and it was my job to oversee the programming of all of them. One of the stations in our growing little empire was KDWB, in Minneapolis-St.Paul. I was trying to hire Perry A. to do mornings in the Twin Cities. He told me he was considering another offer in a much larger market. I thought this was just a ploy to get me to raise the salary offer, until I heard a promo on that station with the 50KW of more colorful programming. “ Can you find our new morning deejay?” The promo asked, “ KXXX will pay you $10,000 if you do. Just ask every person you meet ... Are you Perry A., the new KXXX morning deejay? Today Perry is in a Southern California super market and he’s wearing a blue jacket.”

He’s in a Southern California super market????? That’s BS. I just talked to him in Buffalo. It really bugged me (a term of the time) that these creeps were blatantly lying. I went to bed that night thinking about how I could show those liars what radio is like in the big leagues.

Charles Arlington was in Minnesota putting together the News Operation for KDWB. He was sound asleep when I called him. “My God, boy! It’s two o’clock in the morning.”

“Sorry Charlie, I forgot about the time difference. You gotta go to Buffalo.”

“We bought a station in Buffalo? My God, Boy! It’s freezing in Buffalo.”

The next morning, Charles walked into the station in Buffalo where Perry A. was on the air. He walked into the announce booth and said, “Are you Perry A., the new KXXX morning deejay?” Perry admitted that he was and allowed Charles to use his phone to call KXXX and tell them their contest was over. Charles called me. I called Bob Purcell. Bob called KXXX and claimed the prize. They at first refused to pay, but when Bob suggested that the story of Perry A. being found in Buffalo, while KXXX was telling the world he was in L.A., might be a very good lead item on KFWBs newscasts all that day. They said they’d pay.

We gave the money to the Music Department at UCLA.

(...to be continued)