Sunday, December 30, 2007

KFXM Tiger Mag Dec 29, 1967 Year End Countdown

Happy NewYear end issue telling about the biggest and best of 1967 on KFXM
Ed GRrrrrr SEZ telling about KFXM events from January through December of 1967
Sounds like a good New Year's Eve show at The Municipal Auditorium The Boxtops, The Leaves, The Outsiders, Soul Survivors and Them.
Who were the Top Groups on KFXM in 1967. The Monkeees #1 beating The Beatles, with The Rolling Stones barely making the top 10.
Top Male Fankie Valli Top Female Nancy Sinatra and Top Instrumental Group Booker T & The MGs



The top 100 of 1967 The Letter-Boxtops
Notice #74 I made a correction 40 years ago) Spencer Davis Group version of I'm A Man charted in 1967. The Yardbirds hit in 1966.
Some big local hits in the top 100
#4 for the year Blue's Theme-Arrows
#21 I'm Captured-Good Feelins
#24 Music Box-Light
#37 Flower Children-Marcia Strassman
Live/Harmonica Man/Try It/Purple Haze/Mr Soul/Amy/She's Looking Good/Show Me/Rock & Roll Woman and so on. This has to be so different than the national /Billboard end of year chart.#1 Hello Goodbye-Beatles
KFXCLUSIVE
OK, I remembered at the end of 1966, instead of publishing the weekly chart, KFXM published the Top 100 of the year, so in case the same thing happened this year, I listened and kept track when they played the top 40 of the week.
I was right, so below you have an exclusive of the complete top 40, that was not publioshed
Some Highlights
Highest Debut #17 Spooky-Classics IV
Walk In The Queen's Garden-Them #39







KFXM Greg Mitchell Clarification

Received a message fom Greg Mitchell/George Junak clarifying his time at KFXM. He wasn't just a weekend guy....
For those who did not see it...
Greg Mitchell has left a new comment:
Doug,
I was actually fulltime 5-midnight twice and weekends twice at KFXM in 1975-76. In 1975 I first did weekends at KFXM doing two shifts on Sunday while still working at KDES/Palm Springs. After a few months of that I quit KDES & got more weekend hours at KFXM.
The last half of 1975 or so I did the 6-midnight shift at KFXM until I got canned in late December 1975 and returned to doing weekends. I left KFXM in early February 1976 to work fulltime at KDES.
Then KFXM called in April and asked me to return for the fulltime 6-midnight shift. I was back from April-August 1976 doing 6-midnight.
Then Jeff Salgo was hired as their consultant and after a month or two he brought in "Captain Billy" Martin as PD, replacing Ted Brown. Ted had been doing middays on the air and they were going to bump him to 6-midnight so Captain Billy could do the midday shift. Captain Billy's first act was to can me and I immediately went to KSOM/Ontario to do 6-10PM for Bob West there..Greg Mitchell

Greg, just want to say thank you for the comments. Doug

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

K/mentertainer December 23, 1967

Russ O'Hara with the Firebird 400

Notice the prices of the Doors tickets $5 $4 $3 How about Santa and his elves. Find out what the KMEN want for Christmas. The elves look strangely familiar.
What Christmas songs are bing played in 1967, maybe some of the same ones in 2007



The Rolling Stones and The Beatles in The British Scene. So what else is new?



#1 Hello Goodbye/I Am The Walrus-Beatles knocking down Itcycoo Park down a notch.

Hey, Snoopy's Christmas-Royal Guardsmen made it to the top 10, just in time.


Hit Bounds

Piece of Mind-Paul Revere & The Raiders, should have been a bigger hit.

The 2nd Everybody knows-Dave Clark 5, just starting up the charts.





Tuesday, December 25, 2007

KFXM Greg Mitchell 1975-1976

KFXM , back of survey, March 12, 1976 listing Greg Mitchell as one of the djs making personal appearances.
Greg Mitchell (George Junak) was a weekender at KFXM in 1975 and 1976. Bill Earl's blog When Radio Was Boss presented articles about him recently. For those who haven't seen Bill's Blog, he is graciously letting me present the KFXM highlights from his articles. For complete articles see When Radio Was Boss


http://billearl.blogspot.com/

The only other survey I found listing djs working at KFXM in 1975
October 31, 1975 and the one at the top of the page: March 12, 1976

George Junak discovered Top 40 radio in 1958 when he was home sick from school as a five-year-old and stumbled across KFWB/Los Angeles on the radio. He knew immediately that was what he wanted to do when he grew up. After getting his FCC First Phone license through the broadcasting program at Pasadena City College, he landed his first radio job in 1973 doing weekends at KDES/Palm Springs as Greg Mitchell.
At one point in 1975, George was working weekends at both KDES and KFXM/San Bernardino, with a Sunday midnight-3AM shift at KFXM, then 75 miles to KDES for 6AM-3PM (babysitting public service from 6-10 and on-air 10-3PM), then back to KFXM for 7-midnight, all on Sunday.

KFXM Some interesting behind the scenes information
George reminisces to WRWB2 about the freedom that the deejays had in music selection on the original KFXM (San Bernardino) during his era 1975-1976.
"...the KFXM music rotation was extremely simple...during the week it was Oldie-Current-Current-Oldie-Current-Current and keep repeating. On the weekend, it was Oldie-Current-Oldie-Current (Flashback Weekend).
The KFXM Top 40 list was typed out on a standard sheet of paper which was slid in a plastic cover. You then drew 3 lines down it and made 3 columns. Each time you played a current you checked it off in grease pencil in that hour's column. When the hour was up, you erased the check marks in the oldest hour and started a new one. Everything not checked off was playable. As for Oldies, there was a wall of 45's behind the DJ on the back wall of the studio with a bin for each year, about 1960-1975 at that time with the Top 100 songs plus a handful of extras. The jock could pull anything he wanted from the wall to fill an oldie slot. You piled up the Oldies you played & after your show, dumped them into your personal bin.
Several days later, you refiled them onto the wall & they were again available for play by anyone. Very unusual system that you would certainly not find today. It gave the DJ much control over what got played on his show...."

and a little bit more...ratings and...

KFXM's GREG MITCHELL (George Junak) reminisces about his tenure at 590 AM in 1975 and 1976.
"...KFXM's days of music freedom for the DJs ended in mid 1976 when owner Howard Tullis hired Jeff Salgo from KKDJ as his programming consultant. While there had been close to 2000 Oldies available for play under the old system, probably a max of 400-500 actually received regular airplay. Jeff trimmed this down to probably 200 and divided them into 4 or 5 categories. The Oldies were now in boxes on a card table sitting behind the jock in the control room. Currents were also now divided into multiple categories with the hot ones getting Power rotation.
Arbitron had not yet included San Bernardino-Riverside-Ontario as one of their rated markets (wouldn't happen until 1980). Pulse still surveyed San Bernardino though. In May-June 1976, here's the Top 10:
1) KFXM 14.4
2) KOLA 8.8
KCKC 8.8
4) KBON 8.0
5) KMEN 6.0
6) KFI 4.4
7) KDUO 4.0
KPRO 4.0
9) KCAL-AM 2.2
10) KCAL-FM 2.0
KHNY 2.0
1976 was about the last big year for KFXM. KOLA would continue to eat into KFXM's numbers but never knock them off. But when KGGI went top 40 (1979?) they would kill off KFXM. In Apr/May 1980, KGGI had a 6.3 and KFXM was down at 16th in the Market with a 2.0.
They did bounce back to a 4.3 versus KGGI's 5.7 in the Oct/Nov 1980 book (that was probably the initial upswing from Frank Felix's "Clutter Free" Mighty 690 format on KFXM - also on the air at the time at the Mighty 690, which had a big signal in the Inland Empire 24/7).
From there it was downhill; 3.2 in Spring 1981, 2.3 in Fall 1981, 1.9 in Spring 1982, 2.0 in Fall 1982. By Fall 1983, KFXM was down to 1.3, tied with automated Gold KMEN. But FM KGGI was feeling the heat too; although they had a 4.3 in Fall 1983, KIIS-FM was kicking their butt with a market leading 8.3 share.
KFXM certainly hung on a lot longer than almost all AM Top 40 stations. Most were really hurting by 1976 but KFXM was still topping the market..."

KFXM's GREG MITCHELL (1975/1976) continues his reminiscing

"During the holidays each year, KFXM was an absolute cash-register that had to be emptied every hour or it would overflow...
KFXM had no limit on the number of spots it would run in an hour. 30 units? No problem! It got so bad (Christmas of 2005) that you could not even sweep across the Top of the hour, much less any other time of the hour....The jocks had to play the shortest songs they could find to squeeze in all the spots each hour - a 2-1/2 minute Creedence oldie? Great! It was really difficult to get all the spots in and not spill over into the next hour, putting you even farther behind...
Here's the story of how I got fired from KFXM the first time...one Saturday afternoon in late December, I was so frustrated by jamming so many spots into the hour, I went cold into a song with "KFXM..we'll be back with more of your favorite commercials right after this" GM Bob Bunnell happened to be there in his office that Saturday afternoon...he came running into the control room...."Uh Greg, we feel bad enough about all the inventory we're running....I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't bring it to everyone's attention like that....." Shortly after, I was canned and moved from the 6-midnight shift back to weekends....
Another KFXM commercial load story....Back when Cal Stereo opened their San Bernardino store ("right on the corner...right on the price") Tom Campbell became KFXM/KDUO's bestest buddy with all the business he was throwing their way. KFXM ran the high-energy Tom Campbell spots; KDUO (beautiful music FM sister) recut them in a low-key manner. Tom Campbell had the hotline number and every so often he'd call up the jock to request that more Cal Stereo spots be added to the commercial log on top of what was already running - "Hey Greg, Tom Campbell here. How ya doin'? Would you please add 2 more Cal Stereo spots to the 4-5PM hour? Thanks buddy!" Anything for Tom!
We'd add them for him and the KFXM cash register would ring again! Howard Tullis must have loved those days! It was cha-chinggggg all year long.
Thank you again Bill for the information about Greg Mitchell and his days at KFXM

Monday, December 24, 2007

KFXM Tiger Mag Dec 22, 1967 Merry Christmas!

Christmas cover with everyone's autographs. I noticed Jonny Bruce top center. Is this the first time mention in the Tiger Mag? James Brown coming to the Swing Auditorium
Article about Becky Lamb and her Christmas single. If she was six in 1967 that would make her 46 now.
The Night Before Christmas---KFXM style by Ed GRrrrrr


I Am The Walrus/Hello Goodbye-Beatles #1


Personal Pick double sided hit for Cream-Sunshine Of Your Love/Swlabr


Friday, December 21, 2007

K/mentertainer December 16, 1967

K/MEN presenting The Doors once again.


A prior comment mentioned Phil (Bobby) Otis. He is one of those Kmen that seem to show up at KMEN off and on for at least 20 years after he started. Johnny Helm, who at this date was on KFXM eventually came to KMEN and often left and also came back to KMEN.

The Beatles new album Magical Mystery Tour. As we found out later...the walrus was Paul...
...............................................
The Beatles haven't quite made #1 yet onn KMEN. They had to wait for Itchycoo Park-Small Faces to take that position first knocking Daydream Believer down to #2
Hit Bounds
How about Morning Glory Man-Declaration Of Independence. Another unfamiliar song.
Green Tamborine-Lemon Pipers and Baby, Now That I Found You-Foundations, two Hit Bounds that are.



Thursday, December 20, 2007

KFXM Tiger Mag Dec 15, 1967

The Lettermen take over the cover of The Tiger Mag, the Donut Eating Contest gets the Headline. See the Rolling Stones 3-D cover, but not in 3-D, and in black & white.


Closeup pictures of Them, without Van Morrison, and The Caretakers


The Beatles jump to #1 with Hello Goodbye/I Am The Walrus
Highest debut Chain of Fools-Aretha Franklin #24
Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart with their first hit I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight at #39
I like She's A Rainbow by the Rolling Stones, not much else off their new album I liked.
Sam The Sham has a new one with the Coasters Yakety Yak, but it didn't go very far on the charts.


Thursday, December 13, 2007

K/mentertainer December 9, 1967

Robert E. Walker and Russ O'Hara playing records and giving away keys! Pictures of the Byrds concert at the Swing Auditorium


For thise Linda Ronstadt fans out there, some more words and pictures about here and th Stone Poneys.






#1 Daydream Believer-Monkees
#2 Itchycoo Park-Small Faces
Highest debut She's My Girl-Turtles #22
Hit Bounds
Until It's Time For You To Go-Nancy Sinatra I don't remember this being played too much. A few years earlier Buffy St Maries version was a big hit in the Inland Empire.
Too Much Of Nothing-Peter, Paul & Mary, also didn't do much on the charts. I never really listened to it, until a few years later, when I bought one of their albums, and at that point I liked it a lot.
Another remake Bill Medley with That Lucky Old Sun. Trying his luck without Bobby Hatfield.




Saturday, December 08, 2007

KFXM Tiger Mag Dec 8, 1967

These are the facts about THE KFXM TIGER MAG Last week a Beatles picture, this week the lyrics to I Am The Walrus. Cuckoo-katoo cuckoo-cu-katoo

interesting in Bits & Pieces that Monterey-Eric Burdon & Animals may not be released as a single in England, because it mentions groups that are unknown outside the States. Was it ever a single in England?
Pictures of the Seeds with DJ Craig Denny.
Glen Campbell picture and article.

EdGRrrrr Sez... mentions the second annual Highland Avenue Chistmas Parade. I remember parades on E Street, but not on Highland Avenus.

Wow! #1 Beautiful People-Kenny O'Dell.
Highest debut #16 Monterey-Eric & Animals
#20 Little Becky's Christmas Wish-Becky Lamb. I remember this. I believe it was a little girl talking about wanting her brother to come home from Viet Nam for Christmas.
I still like to hear #29 Nobody But Me-Human Beinz
Double sided hit coming up for the Beach Boys (at least for awhile) as a Personal Pick Here Today/Darlin'. This shows the A side as Here Today, but that changed. It should have been a big hit.




Tuesday, December 04, 2007

K/mentertainer December 2, 1967

1968 Pontiac Firebird-400 giveaway conteston K/men in 1967 KMEN contests and some winners.
Byrds concert coming to the Swing Auditorium

Rascals -It's Wonderful and other concert news. I don'y see the song listed yet on K/men Heavy Hits




#1 Daydrem Believer-Monkees On KFXM it is always listed as a double sided hit. Was Goin' Down played on K/men?


Bend Me Shape Me-American Breed Hit Bound I liked this and a bunch of their other non-hits. Anyone remember Step Out Of Your Mind by them?




Sunday, December 02, 2007

KFXM Tiger Mag Dec 1, 1967

The Beatles...Psychadelic picture that goes good with the B side of their newest single...I Am The Walrus Anyone ever see Sherman Mason from KFXM on KVCR 24. Back in 1967 I wasn't watching the San Bernardino Valley College station.




Daydream Believer/Goin' Down-Monkees #1 again, and Kenny O'Dell-Beautiful People moving up to #2
Someone out there should be happy Ten Little Indians dropping from #8 to #18.
Going Out Of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You-Lettermen #22 highest debut on top 40 this week
Personal Picks this week Everybody Knows-Dave Clark 5 will soon be a hit on the KFXM survey. This song has the same title as a hit they had in 1964, but is a completely different song.
How about Kites Are Fun-Free Design? I don't think I've ever heard it.
Monterey-Eric Burdon & The Animals. A different song for them, but their future singles will have a similar style.