As legends of FM's freeform radio have passed away, the eulogies have lamented the lack of personalities and the end of their format-free visions on the radio dials. The same amount of respect needs to be paid to the men who birthed the world they fought, the AM radio programmers who were rebels in their own right.
Bill Drake, who died Saturday at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley, was one of those men. His formula - which broke first in L.A. at 93 KHJ - was called the Drake format: less talk, fewer commercials, more music. Radio would be smart to heed it today
He took top 40 and made it music oriented rather than DJ-focused, even while he allowed the jocks to establish their own personalities.
The Boss Radio format debuted in 1965, and within five months, the station had 15% of the city's listeners. Robert W. Morgan, the Real Don Steele, Humble Harv and Charlie the Tuna were legends to us kids who relied on KHJ and, later on, KRLA, to alert us to the hippest and the latest. Weekly trips to the local music store to get KHJ's printed sheets of the top hits and new music were mandatory, whether you were 9 or 14 in the late '60s. My friend Robin Bivona used to stay up as late as possible and count the number of Beatles songs they would play while his mother wondered why her 11-year-old son wouldn't pay more attention to this new band called Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Drake's death inspired me to pull out a tattered KHJ compilation album, "30 Boss Goldens." Side one alone is phenomenal: The Association "Cherish"; James Brown "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"; Bobby Fuller Four "I Fought the Law"; Keith "98.6"; Tommy James and the Shondells "Hanky Panky"; Love "7 and 7 Is"; the Five Americans "Western Union"; and Bobby Herb "Sunny." Among the other tunes: "I'm Your Puppet" by James & Bobby Purify, "96 Tears" by ? & the Mysterians, "The Rains Came" by the Sir Douglas Quintet and "Pushin' Too Hard" by the Seeds. A great playlist.
On the inside of the gatefold album station DJs are photographed at concerts and backstage with Diana Ross, the Fifth Dimension. Sky Saxon of the Seeds and Brenton Wood. It makes the listener feel like they're part of a community, the DJs being their bridge to the stars.
Commercial radio does not build those sorts of allegiances any more. And once KHJ streamlined the sort of music it played in the early 1970s, it was obvious the evolution of "Boss Radio" was not one that would favor the variety it displayed in the '60s.
Break down that list of songs from "30 Boss Goldens" by format and by 21st century standards they would not stand a chance of being played on the same station. Look at a playlist on an iPod and it's highly likely multiple genres will be present, and in the listener's mind there's a logic to putting funk, punk and pop next to one another.
KHJ was a reflection of youth. It shaped an "anything goes" world and gave it a soundtrack that worked because the music stood the test of repetition. Could it be done today? Only if the music we discover through the Internet were curated better and the determining factor of popularity was not limited to sales.