Jimmy Rabbitt and the Beatles both arrived in Dallas at about the same time in 1964. Rabbitt's radio show soon filled the Dallas, Ft. Worth nights, not only with the trendy British music of the time, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Cream, The Animals, The Yardbirds, Herman's Hermits , Peter and Gordon and others, but also mixed in were local stars of an ever-growing Texas Music scene. He played selected Top 40 hits, and mixed them with "album tracks", being played nowhere else in the country! New music by local favorites like John Fred and his Playboy Band, B.J. Thomas, The Steve Miller Band, Janis Joplin, The Five Americans, ZZ Top, (then sporting blue hair, and calling themselves The American Blues!) The Sir Douglas Quintet, ( featuring old friends Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, Johnny Perez, Frank Morin and Harvey Ragen all sporting new Beatle haircuts and English costumes! ) Mouse and The Traps, The Chessmen, ( featuring old band mates Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughn ) old pals Roy Head and Johnny Winter, and many others, all credit Jimmy Rabbitt and KLIF with giving them their first break on the radio. Throw in some blues and country just for fun, and you'll get some idea of the broad scope of music the people of Texas were being offered on "the Mighty 1190" during Rabbitt's show.

Jimmy Rabbitt then still in his late teens, was also an actor who soon appeared in several movies like "High Yellow", "Sindy", "Hot Rod Fever", "Cajun Cowboy", and "Motorcycle Mamas", and his recording career in Dallas included several minor hit records like "Pushover Baby" by Jimmy Rabbitt and the Karats and "Whiskey Washy Woman" by Jimmy Rabbitt and the Rowdies. ( available soon on "Rare Texas 45's" from Pellett Music, at: www.jimmyrabbitt.com. )

He also just happened to be sporting one of the first Beatle hair cuts in Texas, as a result of an on the air challenge back at KDOK by Bill Young. The station showcased the handsome young DJ, in a second floor studio complete with lights and marquees, outside speakers and microphones, so Rabbitt could both talk and listen to the sounds of the city! Crowds began to gather every night when he was on the air, in downtown Dallas at the "Triangle Points" of Commerce Street, Jackson Street and The Central Expressway!

Then, to add fuel to the growing fire, Rabbitt, who was also a "Screen Life Magazine, gossip columnist", (don't ask, and he can't remember! see insert: Screen Life Magazine 1964) read internationally by millions of teens, decided that since everyone else was kissing his or her ass, he wouldn't! He had said, tongue in cheek, in the January 1964 issue, that he and his readers, and listeners were getting tired of the Beatles! Remember, they had 20 and 30 chart records at a time, even entire top 40 surveys made up of just Beatle hits! Rabbitt said that The Beatles would have to prove it to him and his "Screen Life People! He said. "I'm not really sure about The Beatles anymore! What if Brian Epstein had discovered a new kid named Bob Dylan, or a group called The Rolling Stones? Where would John, Paul, George and Ringo be here in 1964?" he asked his readers, "They just might be plunking around a dingy Liverpool pub, while some real English dog and pony performers are headlining Ed Sullivan's 1964 Winter extravaganza!"

LESLEY GORE'S BOYFRIEND BEFRIENDS THE BEATLES!

Months earlier, on the air one night, "The Rabbitt" had responded to a story called, "Lesley Gore Is Breaking Up The Beatles", by saying that he knew she would never forsake her American fans for those guys, and that he knew for sure that she wasn't dating any one of them, because she was his girl friend, and that's why he played more of her records than theirs anyway! With a little creative editing, Lesley's press kit/open-end interview became a "live" phone call to Rabbitt on the air, professing her love for him, and they both had laughed out loud about a report that the "Fib Four's" American sales had peaked, and that world wide their sales were falling off!

Beatle fans were furious, they were really up in arms. Who was this d.j. in Dallas, who was going to marry Lesley Gore, and wouldn't play The Beatles anymore? It all started overnight, with the station request lines jammed. Then the next day thousands of cards and letters came flooding into, not only the KLIF studios, but also the New York, London and Hollywood offices of Screen Life Magazine. Mitch Lewis, and the KLIF publicity department had started an international rumor that Rabbitt was dating the singer, and refused to play Beatle records because they were hurting his girlfriend's sales! By the time they arrived in Dallas for their concert, they were ready to meet this guy! When Rabbitt was taken to their room, they clicked, and he made "Beatle Reports" from their room, and he hung out with them most of the night they flew into Dallas. Then the next morning, they called his room, and granted him a taped interview - the only taped interview in Texas!

While the interview was playing on KLIF the night of the concert, Rabbitt was roaming around the arena in shock at the thousands of beautiful girls screaming for these four musicians!

"Kids, they were kids, just like us in my band!" he recalls. The show was a blur, act after act, then The Cookies came on, and he remembered that someone had told John, "the Cookies last song is 'Chains', and when you guys hear it, no matter where you are, head for the stage!" And then, just like in a Beatles movie, the Cookies started their song early. The show was running long, The Beatles are coming on now!

"I headed for the stage to see them come on! Charlie and Harrigan were going to bring them on, and they said they would mention my name, maybe bring me up! I wanted to see that!" Rabbitt says. "Just as I flashed my backstage pass, and was heading onto the edge of the main stage, here come the Beatles surrounded by a sea of police! Ringo was first, and when some guy asked who is going to bring them on, he pointed to me! I was literally shoved onto the stage!"

As soon as he stepped out from behind the curtain, Rabbitt was blinded, a barrage of flash bulbs that exploded prematurely, as thousands of screaming teen-agers spotted a young man with long hair, wearing high heel boots step out onto the stage, and just went crazy!

"I had never heard anything like it, it was so loud, it scared the hell out of me! But at the same time, I loved it! I was never the same guy again, from then on, I was in love with the audience, and from then on I was hooked! But I couldn't think. I couldn't see. I just shouted 'Ladies and Gentleman, Jimmy Rabbitt, Charlie and Harrigan and K-L-I-F present - The Beatles!'  Then, believe it or not, the crowd's roar got even louder! It was like an atomic bomb, white light and all! I was on the right side of the stage for most of the show, but I never heard a single note of music! I was blinded, and almost fell off the stage!"

The Jimmy Rabbitt, "Friend of the Beatles" image, with long hair, wearing Beatle boots (actually Flamenco boots borrowed from Trini Lopez's brother Jesse) on stage at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium back in 1964, was recorded forever on thousands of rolls of Instamatic film, and in the minds of every Dallas listener! It would play well over the next few years, and Rabbitt and McLendon took full advantage of it!

During those wild and crazy years from 1964 thru 1967, in fact, right on through the "Summer of Love", Rabbitt selected all of the music he played during his show. Gordon McLendon was quoted as saying in an interview with the New York Times, "Jimmy Rabbitt is an exception to the rule, he knows exactly what the people like, and the ratings have never been better ..."

The ratings had never been better, indeed! Rabbitt's share often reached 70% of the highly competitive Dallas, Ft Worth radio market! Then when McLendon made him station Music Director, his special ear began to help shape the entire Texas Music scene! Dallas became the number one "breakout" market for new hit records through the years of 1965, 1966, and 1967.

Then late in 1967, McLendon became the first broadcaster to be sued, for not playing a record! Local insurance millionaire and record mogul John Abnor was suing McLendon Broadcasting, Ken Dowe, Program Director, Jimmy Rabbitt, Music Director, and the radio station KLIF, because their local group the Five Americans had an international hit, that had received almost no airplay on KLIF! After a lengthy trial that was extensively covered by the media, KLIF was found to have been at fault for not playing the record "I See The Light", which was proven to be selling well in Dallas, and forced to take the phrase "America's Most Accurate Music Survey" off it's top 40 surveys! McLendon suddenly began to take a tougher stand on playing records by local groups, which had always up till now gotten top priority in consideration for air time!

Ken Dowe left the station, and got out of radio for the time being, and the new program director, Jim O'Brien, fired Rabbitt because of his connections to the music industry, and because he feared that some of his testimony might lead to future charges of payola being leveled at not only Rabbitt, but the station itself. So Instead of looking for another radio job with the cloud over his head, he accepted a job as National Promotion Director for Abnak Records! "It was a great job", Rabbitt said. "All the jocks in America wanted to meet me and talk about the case, and it made John Abnor look like he's was such a nice guy, giving me a job and all, after what we had done to him and his group the Five Americans!"

During the next year, Rabbitt traveled the country promoting records produced by his old friend, and rock and roller supreme, Dale Hawkins. He was personally credited with "breaking" Abnak hits like "Western Union" and "Zip Code" by the Five Americans and "Do It Again A Little Bit Slower" by Jon and Robin and the In Crowd.

WEST COAST PROMOTION MAN AND OTHER DITTIES

When Rabbitt finally arrived in super hip San Francisco, during "the Summer of Love", he thought he had arrived in "hippy" paradise, at the prompting of local record promoter, and friend Bob Krasnow, ( Kama Sutra Records ) he left his neck tie and jacket in the hotel room, put on his jeans and fringed vest and went out looking like what he thought a "west coast promotion man" was supposed to look like! He also made his last promotional visit on behalf of Abnak, or any other record company.

Rabbitt visited Bill and Janet Gavin, of "The Gavin Report", who he had been reporting to as a big city music director for years, but had never met face to face. They were somehow shocked at his appearance, and just happened to mention to Jon Abnor Jr., whose record Rabbitt was promoting at the time, that Rabbitt looked more like an artist than a promotion man. They also thought he was better looking than the artist he was promoting!

When label owner John Abnor Sr. tried to send Rabbitt and Hawkins off to the barber shop, and then balked at Abnak Records producing an album of his new band "Positively Thirteen O'clock", he quit, or was fired, depending on who you talk to, and went back to work part-time for Ken Dowe, who had just returned to KLIF.

Right away, Rabbitt was asked to put together some special shows on the weekend featuring the kind of music he was playing in his new band . After Abnak refused to honor his contract to record, he and band members "Bugs" Henderson, Dave Stanley, Ken Murray, Doug Rhone, Ronnie "Mouse" Weiss, and old friend Robin Hood Brians were discovered by record producer, and Hollywood's uncrowned Mayor Tom "Screamin' Eagle" Ayres! Ayres, signed Rabbitt with Hanna Barbera Records in Hollywood, and they charted with the southern version of "Psychotic Reaction". At the time, Positively 13 O'clock was touring all over Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana playing clubs, behind all their collective hits, with Rabbitt still working part-time for KLIF.

PROGRAMMING THE FM GOLD RUSH

Late in 1968, McLendon happened to hear a special Sunday night feature of KLIF Radio, "The Jimmy Rabbitt All Electric Memorial Experience," with music by all of the new "underground" groups that were just beginning to surface around the country, but had been getting airplay on Rabbitt's show's on KLIF for a long time. Rabbitt was playing real "new" music, music on albums, not only hit singles. McLendon gave Rabbitt KNUS FM to program, and together they developed the first "Progressive Rock" radio format in the world. The success of KNUS FM and later, KILT FM in Houston started the "FM Gold Rush" that swept the world in the late 60's and early 70's!

RABBITT GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

Rabbitt rode the crest of that wave, all the way to Hollywood! When he arrived in 1969, he was once again the only young, longhaired d.j. in town, at a time when all of the other guys all looked like the 1960s Elvis of the movies, complete with pompadours held in place with Spray Net(tm)! So the super hip management of Top 40 station KRLA AM, hired "The Rabbitt" to continue programming his own show, with his own kind of music, and talk over the giant Los Angeles market, in hopes of duplicating his ratings success in both Dallas and in San Diego.

Yes, San Diego, where he briefly hosted the number one night show, on KCBQ FM late in l968. He followed the legendary Lee "Baby" Simms, who was afternoon drive, and worked with "the leader of the little people" Gary Allyn, and funny man and PD "Uncle" Mike Scott, both long time American radio stars. KCBQ was the station that first began loosen the stranglehold that Bill Drake's "Boss Radio" and KGB FM had on San Diego ever since the format's invention up in Northern California a few years earlier. They were number one and then Rabbitt and Lee "Baby" both jumped ship for Hollywood.

KRLA was a real trend setter, what with "The Rabbitt" on the air at night, playing an eclectic mix of virtually every kind of music, and "the Credibility Gap", KRLA's trend-setting news team, with Harry Shearer, Richard Beebe, and future TV stars David L. Lander and Michael McKean delivering "politically funny" news and satire. An impressive line-up of nationally known air talent including Jay Stevens, Bob Dayton, Russ O'Hara, Johnny Hayes, and Kasey Kasem rounded out the programming. The station was the talk of the town, an AM station going head to head with FM "underground" stations like KPPC and KMET, and Top 40 giants KHJ and KFWB.

The L.A. Times' radio critic, Don Page, soon proclaimed Jimmy Rabbitt "the first genuine super personality developed by radio in over a decade," and predicted big things for his singing and acting career. The L.A. Free Press called Rabbitt's show "the best thing on AM or FM!" His long sets of music, sound effects and spoken word, that he and his engineer "Super Magic Tommy Turntable" called "mini-operas" were often as controversial as the Credibility Gap's anti war, anti establishment tirades.

Controversy abounded, needless to say. The station's first ads, designed by Rabbitt's flamboyant manager Tom Ayres, pictured a longhaired Jimmy Rabbitt saying "The Rabbitt's on KRLA, Turn on!" These were soon replaced with a new hand drawn logo that showed him with carrots reflecting in his sunglasses, superimposed into an old-fashioned 40's model table radio! All this because members of the L.A. School Board thought, that a young, longhaired deejay being on a respectable Pasadena radio station, was sending the wrong message about how things in society worked to the kids in schools, where dress codes were being challenged for the first time.

MINI-OPERAS, TELEVISION, AND A RECORD DEAL

Meanwhile, Rabbitt's "mini-operas" brought in the ratings, and caught the ears of Howard Campbell, Mason Williams and Dick Smothers, who at the time were putting together the highly controversial "The Smother Brothers Comedy Hour" over at CBS Television. Rabbitt says there is no doubt that Campbell is "the man who invented MTV," way back in 1969. His video collages set to rock music had been airing on the show, and Campbell was the talk of the country. In fact, many people all around the world were suddenly looking for ways to set rock music to pictures and vice-versa. He suggested that they work together to blend Rabbitt's mix of sound and music with Campbell's video masterpieces as " 3-5 minute movies" for the Smothers Brother's variety show.

Then his luck changed again, as Tommy Smothers was visiting the KRLA studios one night and heard Rabbitt singing along with a Johnny Cash record. He was promptly signed to a contract with the new "Smothers Brother's Records" label, to be produced by longtime heroes Mason Williams and John Stewart. It was also decided that he would be signed to appear on several episodes of the show, as someone known only as "Easy Rider", based on a combination of characters from the movie, and Rabbitt's own "cowboy biker" image.

An album of music, featuring many of the country's best players and singers was recorded, including cuts featuring James Burton, John Stewart, Red Rhodes, Glen Campbell, Dallas Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, and others. The first single was a rewritten motorcycle version of Stewart's classic "July, You're A Woman", complete with the sounds of Rabbitt's Harley Davidson roaring on the track. Footage for Campbell's video segment was shot with Rabbitt on a custom bike and a famous actress on the back riding off in a blaze of glory into the sunset and the Hollywood sign, to the sweet sounds of what L.A. Times music critic James Brown called the first "country rock"! Remember, this was 1969, and there was no such thing.

Then, in true Hollywood style, the record company went bankrupt, the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was canceled by CBS, and the Rabbitt quit KRLA to move to New York City. New York City? Yes, New York City.

THE NETWORK

Rabbitt was among the best of a whole new breed of radio stars, known as "FM personalities" or "Underground ." So when the ABC Network decided to develop the first syndicated, full-time rock radio programming "Network" for their stations around the world, "The Rabbitt" was signed up to help. It was decided, after much fanfare that he should stay in L.A. His show would originate at the KABC FM studios in Hollywood, but would also be heard in New York on WABC FM, KQV FM in Pittsburgh, WLS FM Chicago, and some fifty other company affiliates including, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Cleveland and London. Billboards showing Rabbitt in his ever-present sunglasses, with the peace sign as a logo went up all over the world. Rabbitt became the first deejay to become Number One in all of the Top 10 radio markets at one time. His new audience was so vast and international that when Esquire Magazine printed its list of "The Hot One Hundred In Rock And Roll" for 1970, Rabbitt was shown on the same page with John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Howard Stern, Columbia record's president Clive Davis, and even the legendary Fender Guitar!

After about a year, Rabbitt resigned from the Network, over the objections of Tom Ayres, and his management team. Ayres had just signed Rabbitt to a big contract with RCA Victor Records, and sessions had begun with people like long time friend James Burton,(the Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Ricky Nelson, Bands) Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, Scotty McKay, (Gene Vincent's Blue Caps) Albert Lee, (Heads, Hands and Feet, Patty Loveless, Vince Gill, and The Emmylou Harris Band) who would later be on board for the first live Renegade shows in L.A.

Assorted other folks such as Alice Cooper, various friends from The Beach Boys, Jerry Lynn Williams and members of his first band, High Mountain Hoedown, Rex Ludwick and Jerry McDonald, Kris Kristofferson, Atwood Allen, The Cowsills Family and far too many back up singers to mention showed up. Naturally, RCA had great expectations for the album to be titled, "Jimmy Rabbitt and Friends." The first single, actually produced by Jerry Cowsill, Tom Ayres, and Todd Everett, was "To Beat The Devil", a song just written by friend and fellow "Nashville/Texas/California Cowboy", Kris Kristofferson. That was backed with "Holdenville to Hollywood", a new song written by Rabbitt, Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, Johnny Perez and Harvey Kagen, about Rabbitt's radio career. "To Beat The Devil" was released, and charted briefly in 1971, due to some "underground" airplay, but the album was never released. The song "Holdenville To Hollywood" was re-recorded later by the guys (listed above) who wrote it, and released as El Conejo (the rabbit) on the Epic Columbia label. That never charted, either. This single, including the flip side, "Sunshine," a song written by longtime Rabbitt friend, Mickey Newberry, featured Mickey himself on guitar and back up vocals is available at: www.jimmyrabbitt.com)

GOODBYE NETWORK, GOODBYE "SUITS!"

A flap arose about over some "overblown" censorship problems from the local ABC brass. When Rabbitt tried to resign his local live show at KABC FM in Los Angeles, the telegram sent by Rabbitt's Hollywood office to ABC FM Network headquarters in New York took it at first as a total resignation. After the local stations found out he was not going to be available any longer, they all tried to keep him on the Network at any cost!

Lawyers met, and Rabbitt, who did not want to move to New York City under any circumstances, was released from his contract. He took a giant cut in pay, sold his hot rod once again, and promptly joined the ranks of what the L.A. Times called "real underground radio in the City of Angels," Metromedia's KMET FM. He did mid-days for L. David Moorehead's team of "corporate hippies," and soon began to garner a whole new following to the station. As he mixed more and more country into his rock and blues and whatever, the ratings began to take off! His long sets of anti-establishment music and content also made him a hero with KMET's faithful "alternative" listeners!

Among the hip crowd of L.A.'s "underground" scene in 1971, Rabbitt's ever-present sunglasses, full western dress, cowboy hat, tattered Levis, saddle bags instead of a brief case, cowboy boots and his signature single left side silver spur, helped him become a real country star, no matter the station or format.

Rabbitt still says, "I don't need more than one spur because if you get one side of the horse movin', the other side will follow without prompting.  An' besides if you are going from horse back to Harley, it's saves time, and where are you gonna stash a spur anyway?"

As cowboy legends go, the stories about Rabbitt riding and breaking horses and packing heavy metal are true. Rabbitt rode horses in many Southern California parades, including the "Hollywood Lane Parade," and "The Rose Bowl Parade," under many different radio banners over the years. Whether riding in a parade, or with his posse through the streets of Hollywood, no one ever doubted that "The Rabbitt" was always armed, just like his cowboy heroes during those years.

It was reported in the Hollywood press that he once wore a Colt 45 strapped to his leg when he met with a hostile reporter at The Polo Lounge of The Beverly Hills Hotel. The gun rack on his award winning show car "Old Yellar," a 1956 Ford F-100 pick-up, always cradled not only a "double barrel, Texas shoot em' all and let the Lord sort 'em later" shotgun, ( for hunting of course! ), but a classic Winchester 74' rifle, with a saddle always thrown in the bed, both at car shows, and on the streets of Hollywood in the days before car alarms. Maybe Charlton Heston has been right all along!

Between radio jobs, Rabbitt did break horses for a living way out in the wilderness of Topanga Canyon, and work briefly as a fast draw artist and bareback riding Indian at a well-known amusement park in the L.A. area. Like the reporter said "Rabbitt's about as close to a real cowboy as you can find on L.A. radio, if not in Hollywood, period!"

RABBITT GOES COUNTRY FOR REAL

While he was on the air one day at KMET, downstairs and down the hall, a lifetime away, Bob Kingsley, then program director for Metromedia's country outlet KLAC AM was listening to their sister station as he usually did.

" I had been listening to 'The Rabbitt' since the days of KRLA and the Credibility Gap, and on that ABC "love radio" thing, everybody was talking about him, the Country Music industry loved him. He was great for the music, if not the format!" Kingsley laughs. "Remember now, he was number one in all those top ten radio markets, on all those FM stations, playing anything he wanted, no play list, real country, Kitty Wells and Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty and Willie Nelson, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash! Mixed in with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and The Byrds, not only in Rabbitt's home town Hollywood, but also New York, San Francisco, Houston and Dallas, even Philly and Pittsburgh!"

"In fact I was a real Rabbitt fan!", Kingsley remembers. "One day it hit me like a ton of gold bricks, this guy is really doing something different! There's something in his madness, country but totally different than the traditional country formats. First, he's finding and playing the hot new country artists that are coming out of Austin, Atlanta and L.A., many of which were getting airplay on other "rock" formats, while throwing in the traditional country classics, and mixing it all together with the new country hits right off the charts."

Kingsley recalls, "If someone had tried to sell me on the idea, I don't think I would have gone for it! I think Rabbitt did bring it up sometimes, after he had a few drinks at those Metromedia parties! Jimmy Rabbitt on KLAC! I remember David Morehead looking at me like I was nuts! But after we both listened to his show and talked about it, we agreed that 'The Rabbitt' would be the perfect jock, for country nights in Hollywood that summer of 1971! We just couldn't use his picture for publicity! Couldn't put his picture in the lobby, what with all that hair and beard and stuff!"

Rabbitt agrees, "Nobody had long hair in country music in those days not Willie Nelson, not Waylon Jennings, nobody but Crystal Gayle, Doug Sahm, and me! And at that time in Hollywood, there were only four cowboy hats, more or less! There was Kris Kristofferson, Doug Sahm, me and the doorman at the Hollywood Wax Museum!"

"We kept him under wraps until he caught on, then nobody cared about his hair anyway!" Kingsley says.

K-BAR-B-QUES AND OTHER STINTS

After he was moved downstairs, and down the hall, another huge ad campaign was started, including big signs on every bus in L.A. that proclaimed "The Rabbitt Is On KLAC!" The ratings came in, and Rabbitt was Number One again. All went well for a while until Bob Kingsley left Metromedia to take over the reins of Burbank's KBBQ, formerly KBLA. His replacement, Bill Ward ( just fired from KBBQ! ) didn't like station's new "country rock" look, and let Rabbitt and most of the staff go! Kingsley promptly rounded up Rabbitt and the other stray KLAC refugees put out on the street by Ward: Mac Curtis, Deano Day, Don Sutton, (yes, that Don Sutton! ). With Jimmy Rabbitt acting as d.j. coach, they all moved into Burbank at K-Bar-B-Que!

The station became very popular, so popular in fact, that when "Boss Radio" programmer Bill Drake was looking for a new personality for nights at his Hollywood outlet, KHJ, he reconsidered Rabbitt, who had been offered jobs by Drake before, but had always turned them down. After hours of secret negotiations, and over the objections of both KHJ Program Director Ted Adkins, and National Program Director Bill Watson, Drake brought him on board anyway. He had yet another giant campaign coming, and a new freedom to play some "album tracks" on the highly formatted Top 40 station. Drake said later it was a good idea at the time, and they only tried it in order to boost their faltering night time ratings. After all, Rabbitt had a huge night time audience that seemed to follow him around, station to station, format to format, he just might make a difference.

Rabbitt lasted three days on the air at KHJ! (negations between Rabbitt's lawyers and Drake must have taken longer than that - I've seen the contract in his biography!)

"Well, actually the stint lasted two days of practice on the "Boss Radio" format, and one night on my new shift", Rabbitt now recalls. Everyone agreed that his first real night was great. Old friends Charlie Van Dyke and Don Steele both called while he was on the air, to tell him how good they thought he sounded, and the person most responsible for Rabbitt getting the job, long-time fan and friend, Robert W. Morgan, called him the next day to tell him that he never sounded better and to say how well he was stretching the tight reins that Drake had on "the rest" of his personalities.

But not everybody agreed, the next day the RKO General ax fell hard on "The Rabbitt." First he was suspended, and then finally fired when Drake returned from a stay in Hawaii. Management said it was just a mistake on both sides, and they didn't need another Robert W. Morgan at night. Rabbitt just didn't say anything. After the contract talks failed, rumors about him moving to San Francisco surfaced in the media, Rabbitt just waived the contract, giving up a small fortune in salary and killing the "No Compete" clause. He smiled, gather up his guns, and returned to Bob Kingsley's Burbank posse, hardly missing a day on the air at K-Bar-B-Que!

PROGRESSIVE COUNTRY IS "BORN"

At about the same time, Rabbitt was offered a chance to edit a section of the Bob Hamilton Radio Report that reflected his belief that country and rock were closer than most big city programmers chose to see at the time. His "Progressive Country Report" was the beginning of many innovations in country radio during the mid 70's, as Rabbitt and his staff tracked the country stations that were just starting to play "album tracks" by hot country artists, as well as their current hit singles.

The early "Outlaw" country movement can trace many of it's roots to the time and efforts of programmers like, Jimmy Rabbitt, Chuck Dunaway, "Speedy" Perez, Johnny Dollar, Mac Curtis, Deano Day, "Hoss" Huggins and others at stations like, KGBS FM in Los Angeles, KOKE FM in Austin Texas, KAFM FM in Dallas, WNOE FM New Orleans, K-Rose FM in Tyler Texas and other "Progressive Country" pioneers. Their playlists included many artists not considered country at the time like Doug Sahm, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, The Grateful Dead, Asleep At The Wheel, Bob Dylan and even Jimmy Rabbitt and Renegade.

JIMMY RABBITT GATHERS A BAND OF RENEGADES

e-mail Jimmy Rabbitt             (If you missed Part 1, click here to read it)