SHERWOOD AWARD - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame
The Bay Area Radio Museum has been informed that Alice Potter, the former general manager of Berkeley's KPAT/KRE and a member of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame, recently passed away at the age of 90. Miss Potter came to KPAT late in 1964 as director of [Read more…]
The Bay Area Radio Museum has been informed that Alice Potter, the former general manager of Berkeley's KPAT/KRE and a member of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame, recently passed away at the age of 90.
Miss Potter came to KPAT late in 1964 as director of public relations and chief copywriter. She had previously served as continuity director and program host at KSOO-TV in Sioux Falls, S.D.
She became a full-time sales executive for KPAT in February 1968, and later rose to sales manager of the station.
In February 1974, following a complete shakeup of the station's staff, Miss Potter was named general manager of the station, making her one of the very-rare female managers of a radio station in a major market. She left KRE early in 1977 to serve as vice president and general manager of San Francisco television station KTSF (Channel 26).
Miss Potter was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame as a member of its Class of 2012.
Bob Elliott was a big man, standing 6-foot-3, with a voice to match the physique that won him a Golden Gloves title and made him heavyweight boxing champion of the United States Marine Corps. With these qualifications, where else would he end up but in radio, and with what other name but "K.O."?
A P.O.W. during the Korean War, after leaving the military Elliott began his radio career at flea-powered KTEE in Carmel as part of a two-man classical music program on the 500-watt station in 1959. His partner on the show was none other than the legendary Robert W. Morgan, then just out of the Army and known simply as "Bob Morgan"; they would meet up again later along the radio road, at rival stations in Fresno and as teammates at Oakland's KEWB.
Bob Elliott as Bob Elliott at KYNO/Fresno, 1962
He worked as Bob Early at Sacramento's KXOA in 1964, then departed in January 1965 for a year at KEWB as K.O. Beachin. (His nom de radieux at KEWB is occasionally and incorrectly referenced as "Beecham.")
He moved to Drake-programmed KGB/San Diego in 1966, then crossed the country in 1967 to New York City's WOR-FM - yet another Drake station - once again as Bob Elliott at both stations.
In July 1968, he returned to the Bay Area at RKO's KFRC/610 - also programmed by Drake - working for the first time as K.O. Bayley; the name would stay with him on the air for the rest of his radio career.
He departed KFRC for afternoons at Detroit's WJBK in March 1969, then returned to San Diego at KCBQ in 1970 and KGB (programmed now by Ron Jacobs) in 1971, and moved on to KILT/Houston in 1972. In 1974, he appeared at KSEA/San Diego.
Bob Elliott was killed in an early-morning automobile accident near Mount Vernon, Illinois, in June 1978. He was 42 years old.
The Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame is proud to announce the first recipients of the Don Sherwood Award, signifying the "people's choice" for the favorite Bay Area radio personality from "back in the day," and the most popular Bay Area radio personality currently on the air. In the Sherwood…
Donnie Babe puts his vocal cords through some early-morning calisthenics. (Courtesy of Ben Fong-Torres)
As difficult as it may be to believe, Dr. Don Rose was not a licensed medical doctor.
"I studied medicine in Cairo," he explained to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1975, "I'm a chiropractor."
While at the Billboard convention to receive his award, Dr. Don encountered RKO Radio programming chief Paul Drew, who offered him a prized opportunity he couldn't resist. Within weeks, Rose had packed up his wife, kids and cowbell and headed for KFRC in San Francisco as the Big 610's new morning man in October 1973.
He remained at the station until 1986 - through the end of its days as a Top 40 station and its transition to the nostalgic "Magic 61" in August of that year - building a large and devoted following that could hardly consider waking up any other way than with Dr. Donald D. Rose.
His departure from KFRC was followed by a short stint at KKIS/Concord-Walnut Creek beginning in 1987, where his son, Jay, was chief engineer. (For audio from Dr. Don's first day on KKIS, scroll to the bottom of this page.)
With special guest Charlie Van Dyke, visiting from 93/KHJ in Los Angeles to pay off a World Series wager by pushing Dr. Don around Union Square in a wheelbarrow. Bobby Ocean also makes a brief appearance. About 12 minutes into the recording, Charlie takes a shot at his "third-favorite announcer" - leading into a Matthew's TV & Stereo spot featuring Tom Campbell, who also mentions that he is hosting "Super Bowling" on KPIX (Channel 5). Courtesy of Sam Gold.
https://bayarearadio.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/KFRC-1986-08-08-Dr-Don-Rose-was-Rose35.mp3
It is with great sorrow that the Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame notes the passing of John Mack Flanagan, one of the greatest voices in broadcasting and a member of BARHOF's Class of 2017. John passed away on Saturday (March 31) after bravely battling a [Read more…]
Job Titles:
- Member of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame
Ken Ackerman, an inaugural member of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame and co-founder of the Broadcast Legends organization, died on May 28, 2017, at 95 of natural causes. Ackerman's radio career began in his native Sacramento, where he "got the radio bug" while attending Grant Union [Read more…]
Don Chamberlain was a pioneer of the radio "sex talk" genre with his groundbreaking "California Girls" program on KNEW/910. The program, which debuted in 1972, was part of an explosion of talk shows that mixed healthy amounts of pop psychology and frank sexual discussion; Bill Ballance's "Feminine Forum" echoed "California Girls" on Los Angeles' airwaves.
Mr. Chamberlain left radio to earn his master's degree in psychotherapy in the 1980s and opened his own practice in Walnut Creek. He died of cancer at the age of 64 on February 26, 1992.
Russ Syracuse, a/k/a "The Moose." Born Russell Siragusa at Rochester, N.Y., 1930; died April 18, 2000, at Sacramento, Calif. Served in Korean War and worked as a school teacher before embarking on a radio career. Early work at WNDR/Syracuse, N.Y., led to a successful stint at WKBW/Buffalo, owned by Clint Churchill, who offered Syracuse a transfer to co-owned KYA/San Francisco in August 1962, along with co-worker Tommy Saunders. Elected to Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame, 2008…
Russ Syracuse at WKBW in Buffalo. (Courtesy of Tom Syracuse)
If there was a record on he didn't like, he'd have his engineer hit a sound-effects cartridge of a bombing attack, and the record would soon grind to a pathetic halt. In a lilting, laughing voice, he got away with sayings like, "May the bird of paradise eat your face completely." He gleefully attacked sponsors. His biggest advertiser was Mayfair supermarkets, which used a jingle sung by "Bob and Penny Mayfair." One night, Syracuse bombed the bouncy couple.
A gifted singer, he imitated a trumpet and tooted along with Bert Kaempfert songs. When he read or heard something he didn't quite get, he'd quick-glide into a falsetto "whaaat?" that fans like me soon adapted into our daily lives. He had an imaginary crew and offered in-flight movies (he once announced "Exodus" and listed as its stars some DJs who'd left KYA). At 4 a.m., he had his imaginary flight attendants handing out "after-crash mints," and at 5:15, he delivered a farm report, doing the voices of Barnyard Benny and Cy Lo.
"You could hear tractors in the background knocking down the barn," he said. A DJ at another station told Syracuse that when he turned his radio on at 2 a.m., "Everything was so bland. Then I'd hit your show, and it was like punching into a circus."
All this was before FM and "underground radio." In fact, long before Tom Donahue hooked up with KMPX, Syracuse was a hero of what came to be known as the counterculture, and when some radio people talk about the true beginnings of free-form radio, they talk about the Moose.
But he wasn't what a lot of people thought he was. In 1965, when the Family Dog, the hippie commune turned production company, staged its first dance concert at Longshoreman's Hall, Syracuse was asked to emcee. Family Dog assumed he was part of the drug culture. When he got the invitation, he says, "I thought it'd be a record hop. I had no idea."
Syracuse described himself as "a family man. I was living with my wife, and I may have had my driftwood shop in the Village Fair. They used to think I was on drugs. I had hot chocolate! I was turned on by what I was doing. I mean, a cheeseburger used to turn me on when I was hungry. It'd answer my senses."
As part of the continuing "Jive Radio" series on San Francisco's KUSF (90.3 FM), host Ben Fong-Torres welcomes in Russ Syracuse and Tom Saunders to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of their arrival at KYA, presented in seven parts. Courtesy of Ben Fong-Torres.
I believe that was Susan Holmen, She met Don when she was working in public television in Redding in 68, 69 as a fresh out of college intern. After a stint in marketing with the Oakland Oaks basketball team, she reconnected with Don and worked with him on California Girls.
Sam Van Zandt on the air at San Francisco's KCBS-FM in 1975. A San Jose native, Sam has worked at several local stations, including K-101, KFRC and KBAY. He currently partners with Lissa Kreisler on 94.5 KBAY's morning show.
Via Facebook and Ronn Owens, we receive the news that Ted Wygant, longtime news anchor of KGO (810 AM) with Jim Dunbar, has passed away. He was 85 years old. Ted was elected to the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2009, and had been living in [Read more…]
Russ Syracuse at WNDR in Syracuse, N.Y., circa 1956.
Well, as Russ used to say, "Your wish is my command. Allll-most."
We met sometime in the late '60s, when television producer Tom Gericke, came up with an idea for a TV version of Russ' "All Night Flight." I wrote the proposal for the show. It never happened, but we became friends for life. He made pasta for me and Dianne at our home; I joined him and his radio pals Tommy Saunders and John Catchings for frequent lunches. When he had a stroke in 1997, we got to know his five children, whose photos I'd seen on display in his apartment.
I'd learned Russ' story many years earlier for a magazine article, and later for a radio show. Syracuse's show on KYA in San Francisco made me want to stay up, and that's the highest compliment I can think of for an all-night DJ.
His radio nickname is "The Moose," but in the mid-'60s, he was "Your Captain," pilot of the "All-Night Flight" on the "Super Freak 1260" (KYA's dial position), streaking madly toward that most frightening of destinations, "International Nowhere."
He flew directly into the headwinds of the '60s - protests, civil rights, free speech, long hair, war, drugs - with what seemed to be a perfect blend of silliness, surrealism and cynicism. Every night he played rock ‘n' roll and personified freedom.