The meaning of "Tina Delgado is alive" back in the days was kept a mystery because it was something so amazing that was to be revealed by Steele, personally on the radio to the first person that would question this. It was supposed to have had shocking results. Trouble was, it was never questioned by ANYONE! at the time it was heard by anyone. So the secret died with him. It had something to do with a girl he knew personally, and what this had in common with radio and the whole show in general.
When I was a kid in the 1960's, my father showed me an article in the LA times about a teenaged girl who was walking on the railroad tracks in Pomona. She was supposedly listening to her transistor radio with the earplug in , and didn't hear the approaching train. She was tragically struck by the train and killed. When her broken radio was found it's primitive analog dial was frozen on the station of "The real Don Steele". The yelling "Tina Delgado is alive" was a tribute to her , as she lived on as each hit of the day was played in her honor. I don't know if the article is retrievable on micro film or something, does anyone remember?
According to the book KHJ:INSIDE BOSS RADIO by Ron Jacobs, Tina Delgado was a woman in Portland, OR where Steele was working. The local newspaper had printed an obituary for her and then a few days later retracted the story as Tina was very much alive. So Steel grabbed on to it and ran with it.
Recalling life in Huntington Beach, CA back then. Actually was printed at the time. Only thing was, then no one but Don knew her or whom she was to him. Occurrences, such as this, DID happen and school kids were warned about trains and radios....yeah......trains and ANYTHING distracting to paying attention to them. The largest difference was HER radio's dial was "impact-frozen" to the station she was listening to. This may not be "new" to you but observing analogue instruments AFTER an incident/accident became commonplace once the investigators (OSI, FBI, AIR AMERICA, etc.) completed their work. Briefly; the paint or naked metal impacting the background paint untouched, previously, by an instrument's dial versus it's face will leave a tell-tale of the exact time, velocity, g-load (anything you're measuring), to be permanently recorded and compared to other instruments' recordings. Other things, too, can be discovered, also, at that time. You would find the radio's volume, at time of impact, rebound inertia (trust me.....some need to know those), temperatures 🌡️ which may melt wire and so forth. It WAS a terrible tragedy and a sad loss. It DID serve to continue teaching kids about trains and inappropriate behaviour around them. Time was the factor which caused folks to forget certain things. Don Steele was a pretty locally involved individual. It would never surprise me to find Don helping to keep Tina's memory going.
None of it makes a great deal of logical sense if you ask me..I always just thought it was more corny thing among many other corny SEI nonsensical things heard over and over again....look that up in your funk and wagnal. wanna have some walnetto? kooky times So hang on Sloopy
L. Package. Interesting to follow story. For years I thought I was the only person who remembered the chanting of Tina Delgado is ALIVE. It was a mystery...I moved to West Hollywood and lost track and yet over the years every once in a blue moon I would hear the call for Tina Delgado...alive...alive!
I recently found the 93 KHJ broadcasts on YouTube. I find the "Tina Delgado is alive" narrative so mysterious and strange, I'm sort of glad there's no real explanation to it. I have a shirt now with the phrase on it.Everytime somebody asks who Tina Delgado is, I say "I don't know, but she's alive". Feels like saying "Rock-'n'-roll can never die"
You don't know how happy you've made a little old lady from the San Fernando Valley with this post...and the classic button...that must be cherished to eternity. Cruising west along the 101 in my red 1973 VW bug, windows open (no air conditioning), Aloha surf racks and 6-ft beach break board on top. On my way to Malibu Canyon, to Third Point, listening to the dash a.m. radio—to KHJ and the Real Don Steele bellowing his uplifting pronouncement, "KHJ Los Angeles...Tina Delgado is Alive!" That's what it was. That's what it was.
Tina Delgado is Alive! She's alive in our hearts and souls!
I was 16, in 1966 and 93 KHJ was the only station I played. The details I heard on the radio was that Tina Delgado was on the 24th floor of a Downtown Los Angeles high rise office building, got into the elevator and it broke. She plummeted to the lobby, 24 floors...but survived. Who's with me?
12 comments:
The meaning of "Tina Delgado is alive" back in the days was kept a mystery because it was something so amazing that was to be revealed by Steele, personally on the radio to the first person that would question this. It was supposed to have had shocking results. Trouble was, it was never questioned by ANYONE! at the time it was heard by anyone. So the secret died with him. It had something to do with a girl he knew personally, and what this had in common with radio and the whole show in general.
I called the radio station and was told by the producer that nobody knew who she was and the Real Don Steele wasn't saying....
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tina-Delgado-Is-Alive-Alive/317649558253559
When I was a kid in the 1960's, my father showed me an article in the LA times about a teenaged girl who was walking on the railroad tracks in Pomona.
She was supposedly listening to her transistor radio with the earplug in , and didn't hear the approaching train. She was tragically struck by the train and killed. When her broken radio was found it's primitive analog dial was frozen on the station of "The real Don Steele".
The yelling "Tina Delgado is alive" was a tribute to her , as she lived on as each hit of the day was played in her honor.
I don't know if the article is retrievable on micro film or something, does anyone remember?
According to the book KHJ:INSIDE BOSS RADIO by Ron Jacobs, Tina Delgado was a woman in Portland, OR where Steele was working. The local newspaper had printed an obituary for her and then a few days later retracted the story as Tina was very much alive. So Steel grabbed on to it and ran with it.
Recalling life in Huntington Beach, CA back then. Actually was printed at the time. Only thing was, then no one but Don knew her or whom she was to him. Occurrences, such as this, DID happen and school kids were warned about trains and radios....yeah......trains and ANYTHING distracting to paying attention to them. The largest difference was HER radio's dial was "impact-frozen" to the station she was listening to. This may not be "new" to you but observing analogue instruments AFTER an incident/accident became commonplace once the investigators (OSI, FBI, AIR AMERICA, etc.) completed their work. Briefly; the paint or naked metal impacting the background paint untouched, previously, by an instrument's dial versus it's face will leave a tell-tale of the exact time, velocity, g-load (anything you're measuring), to be permanently recorded and compared to other instruments' recordings. Other things, too, can be discovered, also, at that time. You would find the radio's volume, at time of impact, rebound inertia (trust me.....some need to know those), temperatures 🌡️ which may melt wire and so forth. It WAS a terrible tragedy and a sad loss. It DID serve to continue teaching kids about trains and inappropriate behaviour around them. Time was the factor which caused folks to forget certain things. Don Steele was a pretty locally involved individual. It would never surprise me to find Don helping to keep Tina's memory going.
None of it makes a great deal of logical sense if you ask me..I always just thought it was more corny thing among many other corny SEI nonsensical things heard over and over again....look that up in your funk and wagnal. wanna have some walnetto? kooky times
So hang on Sloopy
L. Package. Interesting to follow story. For years I thought I was the only person who remembered the chanting of Tina Delgado is ALIVE. It was a mystery...I moved to West Hollywood and lost track and yet over the years every once in a blue moon I would hear the call for Tina Delgado...alive...alive!
I recently found the 93 KHJ broadcasts on YouTube. I find the "Tina Delgado is alive" narrative so mysterious and strange, I'm sort of glad there's no real explanation to it. I have a shirt now with the phrase on it.Everytime somebody asks who Tina Delgado is, I say "I don't know, but she's alive". Feels like saying "Rock-'n'-roll can never die"
You don't know how happy you've made a little old lady from the San Fernando Valley with this post...and the classic button...that must be cherished to eternity.
Cruising west along the 101 in my red 1973 VW bug, windows open (no air conditioning), Aloha surf racks and 6-ft beach break board on top. On my way to Malibu Canyon, to Third Point, listening to the dash a.m. radio—to KHJ and the Real Don Steele bellowing his uplifting pronouncement, "KHJ Los Angeles...Tina Delgado is Alive!" That's what it was. That's what it was.
Tina Delgado is Alive! She's alive in our hearts and souls!
1965 seventh grade I had the bumper sticker pasted in my locker. This was N ca. in the Bay Area .
I was 16, in 1966 and 93 KHJ was the only station I played. The details I heard on the radio was that Tina Delgado was on the 24th floor of a Downtown Los Angeles high rise office building, got into the elevator and it broke. She plummeted to the lobby, 24 floors...but survived. Who's with me?
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