AN ONLINE AUDIO STREAMING SPECIAL

High school picture, or has time gone by?

In Celebration Of Our Whence
For the uninitiated, an "aircheck" is a recording of a radio broadcast. As a DJ, hearing how the ideas translated from my head to on the air was critical. Airchecking - recording one's show and listening for ways to improve is not unlike a Major Leauger taking batting practice.

Airchecking was also used to scout players, hear what ideas other cities were exposed to and, of course, comparing music charts. Recently, a recording from the first days of "Boss Radio" in Los Angeles caught my interest. It is a partial - there are pieces missing. but it's a rare gem. It is, I believe, the first time they presented "The KHJ Big 93 of 1965," a countdown of the pop hits.

The recording is being "refurbished," put back together in its entirety. Where a disc jockey or music is missing, the audio museum site is carefully, seamlessly re-inserting it.

And I get to play!

That means pulling out the old Bobby Ocean headphones and lips, dusting them off and playing great favorite songs along with fellow turntablists I haven't seen for ages. Some no longer call this planet their home. But we'll all be together again this weekend.

THIS SUNDAY, The Reelradio Aircheck Channel is playing the entire 93 songs, in order. Putting the music back in where missing and using all the original KHJ jingles from that era.

As Bobby Ocean, former Boss Jock at all four Boss Radio stations in California -- KNYO, Fresno; KGB, San Diego; KFRC, San Francisco, and KHJ. Los Angeles, I'll be on the Aircheck Channel's KHJ Countdown of the Top 93 hits of 1965, as if I had been there all along! Actually, I arrived at KHJ a full decade later.

This is an wonderful recording, blasting cobwebs from memories of early Boss Radio in L.A., the first year of the phenomenal Radio format on KHJ that soon engulfed San Francisco, America and the planet.

Listening as a young man with a microphone for his working tool, these airchecks were riviting in the collective originality originality and professional streamlined presentation. No one had ever heard radio like this before - as smooth, simple in its complex formatics and as clearly defined.

The entertainment world was changing as rapidly as the new, younger target audiences.Society was transforming and this was another exelent standard of West Coast thorough comprehension, execution and ingenuity.

Boss jock wanna-bes blossomed across the land.

Several generations of broadcasters watched with amazement as KHJ grabbed ratings, listeners and the very pulse of each market within which it took residence. Giants of the Industry were listening with all their might as these new, trancendentaly aware Programmers and performers percolated behind the design Among them:

Bill Drake, the ultimate radio wizard, able to see beyond the chaos of creation to envision the bigger picture radio audiences of the era were hungering for.
Ron Jacobs, whose whose mind was constantly overflowing, like a popcorn in a tub too small, bursting with evolutionary new broadcast techniques, impressions, ways, concepts and whose vision was constantly exploding with programming ideas and evolutions.
Bill Mouzis,  who fought for America's freedom in the Navy, turning battles that seemed destined for defeat into U. S. victories, then continued into the broadcasting arena, where he discovered he had a master surgeon's skills in the Production Room, turning tape recorders into magic lanterns that would do exactly what he wanted. He was the original technician behind the Drake Consultancy's phenomenal Radio Presentation, The History Of Rock And Roll.

The Boss Jocks on the air during this "must listen-t" aircheck were Johnny Williams, flawless, smooth consistent; The Real Don Steele, bigger than bigger-than-life, and the Boss Format specialist, whose signature was perfection, Johnny Mitchell.
And I'll be with them all, counting down your favorite songs from 1965 (in fact, my second year in broadcasting).
   
Unca Ricky of The Aircheck Channel, and most professional broadcaster subscribers would agree, however - it takes a real Boss Jock to provide authenticity to Time Travel PLayback like this. That's why I was drafted to pop up on ths link: to keep it real for you (that, and the indelible fun). I'll jump in occasionally with a few short "Between-The-Lines" In-Progress Bookmarks... - to keep the official countdown songs from this live recording FLOWING.

Having worked all the Boss Radio Shops in the West, I was at KHJ as well, from the mid-70s for a half dozen years. It was a dream-come-true for me, to finally make it to Hollywood. I got to know the Boss Ground Of Being well enough to create programs in my sleep. Along with Reel-Radio's Richard Irwin, Uncle Ricky, on all tech duties (without which, this would not be possible) I'll fill in the blanks, with intentions of making this one of the biggest, most thoroughly researched, recreated and entertaining Countdown Airchecks you have ever heard.

You hear the countdown sounding even better than the first time, with more KHJ staff and support involved in the presentation. You'll hear cleaner, more ear-friendly digital audio and all the original Boss Radio jingles.

When I say this is a Collector's Item, you sense in your bones, eardrums and soul it is true. Hope this info reached you in time!!

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