Issue #205 - Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele begin their salary holdout and Bill Wade moves into the 9PM - Midnight slot as the Boss Jock lineup is juggled to fill the void.
KHJ Boss 30 - June 4, 1969
93/KHJ Boss Radio: A Look Back
Issue #205 - Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele begin their salary holdout and Bill Wade moves into the 9PM - Midnight slot as the Boss Jock lineup is juggled to fill the void.
5 comments:
I don't remember Steele and Morgan's holdout. I mean, at the time I wasn't aware of it. I'm sure I just thought they were on an extended vacation.
"Medicine Man" by the Buchanan Brothers peaked this week. It's another of those songs I was rooting for that fell a little bit short of No. 1. I didn't know exactly what they were singing about but it sure sounded cool.
Something else about "Medicine Man": The 45 version has never appeared on CD. It faded out with a reprise of the bridge -- "hold on ..." But the version that came out on a Cashman & West (they were also the Buchanan Brothers) matches the 45 until near the end, when the CD version just repeats the chorus ("I'm the man, understand ...") and then comes to a cold ending.
The Morgan/Steele walkout hit at the same time as the departure of KHJ's first Drake-era Program Director, Ron Jacobs, who'd had the gig for four years.
Jim O'Brien had just arrived from WOR-FM, and brought with him new jingles and instrumental beds and new formatics that included going cold from some commercials into music. And the jocks were discouraged from using "Boss" unless referring to the Boss 30 or the Bossline. It sounded very strange.
That combined with Morgan and Steele's absence and some very soft music on the Boss 30 from this week on (Bobby Vinton, Herb Alpert, Henry Mancini), made it sound to me at the time as if KHJ was going after KMPC or KFI.
Steele was back on June 30...Morgan held out until early August...and the formatics eventually got smoothed out to the point where, by early 1970, KHJ sounded very, very good again.
Does anyone know why Ron Jacobs quit? He had such a good thing going!
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