Airwaves: September 24, 2010
Zodiac Found!
Earlier this month I ran a letter from Loraine Engquist of Sun City Center,
Florida, who was visiting her daughter locally and wanted to know about something
she heard years ago on Dick Whittinghill’s former KMPC (now
KSPN, 710 AM) radio show.
The recordings in question had to do with signs of the zodiac, and Loraine
was wondering if any recordings were still in existence.
I could not find anything even close in my search. To my rescue was reader
Marvin Smith who not only knew what Loraine was asking about, he found recordings
on line and gave some of the history:
“They are on an LP that has been in my collection for some 40 years,” he
wrote. “It’s titled, ‘What Month Were You Born? A comical Look
at Your Horoscope” and was performed by Johnny Melfi, Dorothy Vann and Jim
Evering.
“The premise: in his office, astrologer I. C. Starz first tells us what
a person born under a certain zodiac sign would be like, and then someone with
that sign enters for an interview with Starz. Hilarity follows.
“Loraine can once again hear these recordings at http://damnthatojeda.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/zodiac-zingers,
or she can buy them (listed under Melfi) at https://www.vvmo.com/cgi-local/catalog.pl?comedy
or http://vinylrehab.home.mindspring.com/comedy.html.”
I checked with Loraine, and indeed, these are the recordings she was speaking
of. Thank you Marvin! You’ve proven once again that readers of this newspaper
and this column are the best and most helpful in the world!
Brand New
Making its debut this week on KPCC (89.3 FM) is The Madeleine Brand
Show, covering the news of the day with a twist: Brand acts as host and
head of the magazine-style talk show; reporters go out to get their story,
come back and share it in a relaxed, conversational way.
Hear it weekday mornings beginning at 9:00.
Kings Rock Followup
After my story on the new form of KRLA that can be heard on Los Angeles
digital television channel 8.5, I heard from Joe Collins, former KMET (now
KTWV 94.7 FM) personality and music director from 1973 to 1975 and “one
half of the air staff that makes up Kings Rock LA”
“The new KRLA is the brainchild of Jay Stevens, who worked at the
original KRLA in the late 1960s and early ‘70s,” Collins explained.
Jay and I both grew up listening to the ‘old’ KRLA when it was truly ‘The
King of Radio in Los Angeles,’ and we are trying to recreate the same feeling
a it had back in that era, without a lot of talk. We both voice-track (pre-record)
basic station sweeps; Jay’s voice is heard from midnight to noon, and I
am on from noon to midnight.”
One thing I missed is a special once-per-hour segment called “The Way
Back Tuner,” that features old commercials and aircheck clips from Los
Angeles radio’s top-40 stations of the late 1950s and ‘60s.
According to Stevens, this may be only the beginning. “We’re having
a LOT of fun with this,” he said, “and we have more formats planned
for KFLA (the call letters for Channel 8) as soon as we have all the bugs worked
out of Kings Rock LA.”
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Copyright © 2010 Richard Wagoner and Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
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