Promotion Director Clancy Imislund (left) and KHJ General Manager Ken DeVaney with the 52,000 postcards received by KHJ in the “More Music Jackpot” promotion in June, 1965.
Working behind-the-scenes, both gentlemen were an integral part of the Boss Radio team. It was Ken DeVaney who first coined the phrase “Boss Radio” for use as the station’s slogan.
A number of sources credit Clancy Imislund as the originator of the “Boss Radio” slogan. While Ron Jacobs was writing his book
KHJ: Inside Boss Radio, Ken DeVaney sent Jacobs an e-mail to clarify the situation around who originated the phrase. Jacobs included it in his book on page 40.
Below is the text from Ken DeVaney’s e-mail to Ron Jacobs:
For what it’s worth, it was I who initiated the name “Boss Radio,” the slogan that is now indelibly etched in the history of radio itself.
In May 1990 the 25th anniversary of Boss Radio generated a staff reunion. The event marked a sense of renewed nostalgia and history of the early, frantic days of the new KHJ format that debuted a quarter century before. At the time, Clancy Imislund was “officially” credited with coming up with the Boss Radio slogan. Well, for all of his considerable gifts, he did not coin that term — because he had no basis upon which to do it.
With my wife’s disability we had a great number of teenage mother’s helpers in and out of our home in the San Fernando Valley at the same time we were pulling together KHJ. I noticed that these girls, in the slang of the day, constantly used the term “boss” when referring to someone or something that was superior in all respects.
Before “Boss Radio” made its debut I was at one of our brainstorming sessions on Melrose awaiting the official signing of Drake-Chenault, and shortly thereafter, the hiring of Jacobs. I told the group of my experiences in a house full of teenagers day and night. The next thing I knew Clancy was developing ads based on a “boss” theme. Now, you may believe that or not, but that is the way of it.
