Thursday, September 10, 2015

How 'Bout Some KDIA Oakland 'Lucky Thirteen'



{Ryan McCarthy}

47 comments:

  1. Mommy-o!
    Daddy-o!
    this is your astronaut
    ROSCO!!!

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    1. The next time I have the shakes from not drinkin', I'll stick a Conductor's Baton in my Ass & conduct some real music! Name That Tune! I can name it in one note! BREET!!!

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    2. "Voice Your Choice" - The Radiants WOW!

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  2. and then there was KSOL with Dr. Soul administering soul injections!
    AND
    the great SLY STONE holding sway in prime time!

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  3. and then, of course, there was KWBR 1450 with Good Rockin' Lucky!
    the blues center of the universe...Jimmy Reed, Howlin' Wolf, Bobby Bluebland,
    Muddy Waters...the funkiest R&B station ever on the planet!

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    1. You might be confusing that with KSAN which was 1450.

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    2. KWBR was at 1310 kc. in Oakland (Warner Brothers Radio), with studios near Lake Merritt; it became KDIA in 1959. KSAN and KSOL (now KEST) were at 1450 kc.

      http://bayarearadio.org/surveys/kwbr/kwbr_survey_mar-13-1959.shtml

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    3. thanks DavidFerrellJackson! just typing off the top of my head from childhood memories 55+ years ago...i remember whatever was 1450, Good Rockin' Lucky and the 5am morning show and (i forget the DJ's name) who started each 5am show with the sound of a rooster's loud crow! thanks for the history...will check out the helpful links that you provided...

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  4. then in L A we had Magnificent Montague who opened & closed his morning show with "wake up Los Angeles and BURN!!!" that was in '65 there were voices that accused him of inciting the Watts riot...no kidding!

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  5. Lots of history there, Chancey Bailey, Sylvester Stone (Steward).
    Frequency was so close to KYA that in some parts of the City (and with a bad radio), both stations would interfere with each other. Monaural, muffled AM music was great back then, we didn't know better.

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  6. One of the Crusin' records is KDIA in the mid 50s with Jumpin' George in fine fettle complete with spots for 30th And San Pablo Furniture Warehouse.
    The transmitter was right at the toll plaza for the bridge and at the toll plaza all you got was KDIA.
    And about Sly on KSOL, when the first Taj Mahal album came out he played it all shift long, right on AM.

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    1. Nope. The "Cruisin'" LP is a re-creation of a Jumpin' George Oxford show from KSAN (1450 kc.) from 1955:

      http://bayarearadio.org/audio/ksan/ksan-1450_george-oxford_1955.shtml

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  7. Jumpin' George... Listened to him in college. Never realized he was white!

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  8. Wow, check out the tunes: "Too Many Fish in the Sea" - Marvelettes
    "Blind Man" - Little Milton
    "I Want to Get Married" - The Delicates

    Nitty Gritty from the Inner City.

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  9. lots of fun listening to clips from bay area radio museum! funny, i can remember listening to these guys from 50+ yrs ago but i can't remember where i left my glasses this morning....

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  10. "Have Mercy Baby" -- James Brown was just before he hired an Eastman School of Music grad (whose name escapes me now) as a band arranger and saxophonist, they revamped the band, and he had a long string of monster hits.

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    1. Was it Maceo Parker? James Brown was VERY prolific back in those days. Seems like he had a new record out every week!

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    2. No, this was another sax player, besides Maceo Parker. He joined when they went back to King Records, and they came up with "Papas Got a Brand New Bag". Old age is keeping me from remembering his name right now. He was an arranger and was largely the personal responsible for the new sound, the funk that started about then. Maceo was the main sax star. This guy played sax more or less behind Maceo.

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    3. Yup, along with Royal Crown Hair Dressing.

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  11. Roscoe here on KDIA lucky 13. And heres jumpin, jumpin George, the token caucasian

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    1. Ol' Jumpin' was not the only "token" -- both KSAN/KSOL and KWBR/KDIA used white morning men exclusively for many years. Bouncin' Bill Doubleday, Charlie Brown and Mike Sheppard were all white guys.

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    2. the common denominator was SOUL! not color! as they used to say 'if it's in you, it has to come out'. accordingly, if it's NOT in you, you went to KYA or KEWB.

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  12. Lordt...Rich, you have taken me back to in the day...lolz! I listed to KDIA, but KSOL was my all time "fave," especially when Sly Stone was DJ-ing!

    But I remember that jiggle from one KDIA DJ..."Burt Bell the Ding Dong Daddy!" Oh boy those were the days!

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  13. These posts remind me how good Bay Area radio once was. The dial offered lots of options for music from stations that had local owners with radio in their blood. Now stations are run by corporate bean counters who could care less about the quality of the product. Radio, as an industry, is killing itself.

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    1. Gugli-Elmo "Just Call Me 'Elmo'" MarconiSeptember 11, 2015 at 9:44 AM

      The issue is, as you point out, quality but not options. There are far more options now, and that's a problem that relates to the lower quality. Now the pie is cut in so many ways, that no one station can afford the air quality product they once were able to afford.

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  14. I worked with a "newsman", Mel Knox, "Mel Knox KFRC 20/20 news, who also was a newscaster at KDIA. A wonderful guy who had a baritone newscaster's voice/

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  15. Rich, I'm a little late with this but thanks very much. The Boss Of The Bay!

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  16. Great to see the KDIA survey...some big music names and big DJ names. Does anyone recall what kind of ratings KDIA got back then? Being a young kid at the time, I primarily listened to KYA in those days, and then KFRC...but occasionally ran into KDIA.

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  17. I miss the commercials for Afro Sheen and Soul Glo.

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    1. and don't forget- "it's OK to owe Kay" (Kay Jewelers) :)

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  18. Stations like KDIA saved a lot of suburban white kids from having to listen to pabulum. Some of us preferred the R&B found on Top 40 stations, but we just tolerated the pop. We didn’t listen to the local black station because it wasn’t well-programmed, maybe distorted audio, and just poor quality. Then along come stations like KDIA with the same, slick professional programming as the Top 40s, and suddenly there was a great alternative. A personal friend of mine was once the head of National Young Republicans in Washington, D.C. He lived and worked there. In 1969 I visited him for about a week, and all during my visit the ONLY station he listened to was WOL, the Washington, D.C. version of KDIA (same owner, in fact). He never left 1450 in his car, at his house, and sometimes in his office. I think that maybe the availability of better broadcast equipment at lower prices allowed this to happen. Anyway, WOL was the bomb!

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  19. KDIA was the offspring of WDIA in Atlanta as i remember it...

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    1. WDIA was/is in Memphis. It was owned by the wonderfully-named Egmont Sonderling. Sonderling bought KWBR in 1959 and converted it to KDIA.

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  20. What got me on this playlist is the inclusion of the garage rock band, "The Kingsmen" of "Louie Louie" fame listed at the bottom of the charts.

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    1. White artists would show up from time to time. The Rolling Stones made frequent appearances, as did Elvis Presley and the Bee Gees. There were a few others as well.

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  21. Not that I only noticed the Kingsmen on the charts..but local TV personality Belva Davis, and basketball hall-of-famer Don Barksdale as KDIA radio disc-spinners.

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    1. Remember, this was Belva Davis BEFORE she became a local TV newscaster! Both Miss Davis and Big Daddy Don Barksdale are, rightfully, members of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame -- and both were inducted in the same year, 2007.

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  22. Don Barksdale was a pro basketball player (after being an olympic athlete) and started deejaying the same year he completed in the Olympics.

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  23. KDIA, Mel Knox is my Dad. A great news broadcaster in the Bay Area, interviewed so many celebrities, like Richard Pryor.

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  24. KDIA, Mel Knox is my Dad. A great news broadcaster in the Bay Area, interviewed so many celebrities, like Richard Pryor.

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  25. KDIA, Mel Knox is my Dad. A great news broadcaster in the Bay Area, interviewed so many celebrities, like Richard Pryor.

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