The Last Golden Age Of Radio

I was born into a Christian religion, but I became a believer in Radio. It was simple. The broadcast faith rewarded those who did one thing: listen.

As I grew up a rabid radio listener in the Golden Age of Top 40, I developed fierce loyalties to my favorite southern California rock radio stations.

93 KHJ "Boss Radio" was the AM powerhouse in the mid-60's, later toppled by progressive album rock FM: KPPC, KLOS and KMET, "a little bit of heaven, 94.7" in the 70's.

These Los Angeles stations first played the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Doors and more--the soundtrack of our generation. Grooved into the memory of the good times. The air personalities were deserving of their names--The Real Don Steele, Shadoe Stevens, the Obscene Steven Clean, Richard Kimball, Mary "Tacos" Turner--the list goes on. One-of-a-kind antics and entertainers, everyone.

I have always loved the potential and magic of radio as a medium, though it's been more like an extra-small in these days of hard drive automation and "iPod on shuffle" programming.

My Vietnam-era Navy service also included Journalism training. Which also included radio broadcasting. I was allowed to become--a disc jockey! I can tell you learning to be an entertainer was what "Zak at the KNAC" in Long Beach was doing. Twenty years of polishing schticks and looking for laffs.

I have had the honor of being part of the air staffs of many California rock stations at the time: KNAC 105.5FM/Long Beach, KOME 98.5FM/San Jose, KZAM 1540AM/Seattle, KZOZ 102.5FM/Seattle, and KOTR 94.9FM/San Luis Obispo. My time in the business encompasses working with consultants, Jeff Pollack and John Sebastian, two of the biggest.

The first radio guru I had the pleasure to learn from was Mikel "Lefty" Herrington, program director of KOME in the 80's. His career spanned top 40 KLIV in San Jose as "Captain Mikey" to being known as "Mikel Hunter" and in the early 70's, programming KMET to the top of the L.A. radio ratings.

The former KOME staff are planning a reunion in January. (Ed note: it was the best time and great group wake for "Lefty.") We'll all "put another one on the shelf" in honor of Mikel, who passed into the Great General Manager's office in the sky a few years ago.

The second program director that mentored me is Paul Sullivan. We had worked together in Loong Beach and he called me again to be the on-air personality for KZAM 1540AM, and later in its incarnation as the all-jazz station, KJZZ. Great music and programming techniques from the master program manager.

Sometimes, months or years later, reflecting upon a particular employment experience the answer to "how did that happen?" or "how did he do that?" becomes much more clear. Learning in slow motion you might say.

Through it all, it's those exceptional broadcasters who inspired me to be my best. They were in the people business because they knew the music programming and dj personalities projected what humans want to hear--real human communication. Funny. Sad. Informative. Outrageous. Compelling. "Cavanaugh," your friend in the radio.

The notable radio human, Garrison Keillor, has confessed to being a radio listener in addition to being a radio performer. He's from Minnesota, so his confession is even more humbling, given the state's Lutheran manners.

Sure, much of today's music radio is bland, boring, repetitive. However the Internet makes it easy to find today's new music at some online "stations." These, too, are mostly jukeboxes, but the golden days of real "live" spontaneous entertaining radio could happen--all over again.

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