The voice of Dr. Don Rose is the soundtrack of my childhood, and he's still the ultimate DJ to me, at least in the sense of what a DJ used to be. A few other names from that era come to mind: Bobby Ocean, Don Sainte-Johnn, Jane Dornacker on traffic, and Father Harry and the God Squad. Good times and long ago.
As I mentioned on this blog some time ago, I had the personal good fortune to create a small portion of the written comedy material Dr. Don used on his show in the early- to mid-1980's.
If you look up "nice guy" in a dictionary, the postage stamp sized illustration accompanying the text should be a pen & ink drawing of Dr. Don. Despite physical challenges that fate threw his way, during his final years at KFRC, he was a generous, kind, gentle, unassuming man who brought smiles to the faces of countless morning listeners, for over 30 years. What a legacy!
The following link is to a YouTube video clip from his final show in 1986. It contains an audio collage of jingles from Don's KFRC years. The final audio clip of the collage brought a tear to my eye, just as it did to Dr. Don's. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=BHEz5pj-BUU
I know that I speak for many more people than myself when I say: DDR, you are truly missed!
This is torture Rich. We see how things used to be, then I tune in to KGO this afternoon and hear Mel Baker doing the news and Dave Weintraub producing Ryan Scott who says ”sucks” and ”talk to me” every other sentence and asks ”where are you AT?” Shouldn't basic English skills be a requirement to have a talk show?
@8:44 You must speak from personal experience. You repeatedly come to this forum to tell us to ”get over it” and ”get with the times dudes!”. Why do you get so defensive when we point out the subpar ”talent” on KGO? Are you Scott's girlfriend? Weintraub? Is it you Mel Baker? Funny I never heard of Baker in decades of listening to KGO and suddenly he emerges from the shadows to do news in such a pseudo friendly tone of voice. Where did they find this Ryan Scott character? He sounds like a reformed former skateboarding DUDE. Rich Walcoff must go home and disinfect himself after such train wrecks. No wonder every other guest brings in alcohol...
I have no connection to KGO, never listen, and am willing to believe what's been written here about the mediocrity of its current programming.
My question is, since you already know that the programming on KGO is abysmal, why did you tune it in yesterday afternoon and why were you surprised that you found Baker/Weintraub/Scott deficient? You already knew they "suck."
Are you going to tune into KGO again this afternoon?
As a matter of fact I did. I tuned in to Karel and he gave us 20 minutes of medical information on his recent dizzy spells. He said the room was spinning at the start of his show and he would not miss his upcoming red carpet appearance. He said he would crawl on the red carpet if needed. Listening to this craziness gave me vertigo and I tuned out. There is nothing wrong with tuning in from time to time to hear the lame hosts and reporting back...
Dr Don was a treasure not only for Bay Area listeners, but for listeners in Philly & Atlanta previously. He was the absolute best morning radio personality ever. #1 ratings at KFRC (actually was responsible for most of KFRC's success, #1 at WFIL Philly, & #1 at WQXI. Moreover he was a wonderful man.
Speaking of hosts and language choice - - - can't Monty on KGO find another word than 'friggin' for just about everything or does he think that it makes him sound young and cool? It doesn't - - just dumb and lacking class.
I remember those great interviews with Ross McGowan. That was a really solid morning show. I never understood why Ross didn't get to sit at the desk with Frank and Tori. They always made him stand.
Speaking of KTVU, I wonder if Frank Sommerville knows there's a picture of him taking down his daughter's braids on a celebrity gossip website called Bossip. There are close to 200 comments too.
Listened to the good Dr during my teenage years. Truly enjoyed his style, often corny but always genuine and the joy of broadcasting came through the radio.
My favorite drop: Female voice "Oh Doctor Don, you son of a b"
I miss him more than anything or anyone else in this world. Now, THAT is how radio is supposed to sound. It was fun, it was timely, and best of all, it was local.
Radio lacks the class and talent that we took for granted just 30 short years ago. I would give ANYTING to have Don Rose back. But now, God himself is enjoying Don's company.
Ironically, the current 610 AM engineer can't even keep the signal on the air. Not that anyone is listening to the barritone droning of he who has pants on fire...
Dr Don was creative, wonderfully original, humorous, and absolutely loved radio. He would be aghast at the dreck that passes for radio today, pawned off by the frauds at Cumulus, Clear Channel, Infinity, and Entercom (among others).
Those of us who loved and respected radio realize that it's demise has been totally unnecessary as congress is the chief culprit for its death after passing the ridiculous communications act of 1995 that effectively deregulated the industry.
This has allowed clowns such as Karel, frauds such as 'Monty the loudmouth,' and amateurs such as Kate Scott to work on the air on a regular basis.
Gary Radnich loves to work with people of this ilk because he isn't threatened by them, and knows that he sounds so much better than they do. But Radnich is whistling in the dark if he thinks he's going to last much longer in the local media. KRON will fire his sorry bloated red face soon enough to save money, and good old KNBR will do the same when they feel the need (probably by next year.)
Gary sold is soul to the devil for a few more years of working on a pathetic radio station that has become one of the jokes of the bay area radio scene. It's all very sad and makes some of us 'older' folks realize just how dumb and inconsequential much of the crap on stations such as 'Alice' and 'The Game' that passes for radio broadcasting really is.
But young people today could care less. They have no appreciation or knowledge of local radio history. They post on this blog with stupid, insensitive remarks such as "Get over it," and "that's just the way it is dude!" They have no respect for anyone (including themselves), and couldn't hold a conversation with anyone unless they were tweeting or texting hyphenated, misspelled words and incomplete sentences to their 'peeps.' The idea of a conversation? That's an arcane habit that they'll leave to the 'old folks.'
I fear for the future of our country if these are the type of people that are emerging from our Universities these days.
And when I look at some of the empty headed young nit wits who have been given positions of influence in our country and who are under the age of 35 I really shake my head in amazement!
Unfortunately, in an effort to get the 'young demographic' (which guess what folks, doesn't exist anymore, because young people DON'T LISTEN TO THE RADIO ANYMORE!) the broadcasting business has turned the industry into a playpen for screaming, egotistical, cynical, dysfunctional young fools!
The voice of Dr. Don Rose is the soundtrack of my childhood, and he's still the ultimate DJ to me, at least in the sense of what a DJ used to be. A few other names from that era come to mind: Bobby Ocean, Don Sainte-Johnn, Jane Dornacker on traffic, and Father Harry and the God Squad. Good times and long ago.
ReplyDeleteWow that brings back memories! Dr. Don is still missed.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned on this blog some time ago, I had the personal good fortune to create a small portion of the written comedy material Dr. Don used on his show in the early- to mid-1980's.
ReplyDeleteIf you look up "nice guy" in a dictionary, the postage stamp sized illustration accompanying the text should be a pen & ink drawing of Dr. Don. Despite physical challenges that fate threw his way, during his final years at KFRC, he was a generous, kind, gentle, unassuming man who brought smiles to the faces of countless morning listeners, for over 30 years. What a legacy!
The following link is to a YouTube video clip from his final show in 1986. It contains an audio collage of jingles from Don's KFRC years. The final audio clip of the collage brought a tear to my eye, just as it did to Dr. Don's.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=BHEz5pj-BUU
I know that I speak for many more people than myself when I say: DDR, you are truly missed!
This is torture Rich. We see how things used to be, then I tune in to KGO this afternoon and hear Mel Baker doing the news and Dave Weintraub producing Ryan Scott who says ”sucks” and ”talk to me” every other sentence and asks ”where are you AT?” Shouldn't basic English skills be a requirement to have a talk show?
ReplyDeleteWe all know things have changed so why do you keep tuning in to KGO?
DeleteEinstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
@8:44 You must speak from personal experience. You repeatedly come to this forum to tell us to ”get over it” and ”get with the times dudes!”. Why do you get so defensive when we point out the subpar ”talent” on KGO? Are you Scott's girlfriend? Weintraub? Is it you Mel Baker? Funny I never heard of Baker in decades of listening to KGO and suddenly he emerges from the shadows to do news in such a pseudo friendly tone of voice. Where did they find this Ryan Scott character? He sounds like a reformed former skateboarding DUDE. Rich Walcoff must go home and disinfect himself after such train wrecks. No wonder every other guest brings in alcohol...
Delete@5:14 and @10:31
DeleteI have no connection to KGO, never listen, and am willing to believe what's been written here about the mediocrity of its current programming.
My question is, since you already know that the programming on KGO is abysmal, why did you tune it in yesterday afternoon and why were you surprised that you found Baker/Weintraub/Scott deficient? You already knew they "suck."
Are you going to tune into KGO again this afternoon?
As a matter of fact I did. I tuned in to Karel and he gave us 20 minutes of medical information on his recent dizzy spells. He said the room was spinning at the start of his show and he would not miss his upcoming red carpet appearance. He said he would crawl on the red carpet if needed. Listening to this craziness gave me vertigo and I tuned out. There is nothing wrong with tuning in from time to time to hear the lame hosts and reporting back...
DeleteDr Don was a treasure not only for Bay Area listeners, but for listeners in Philly & Atlanta previously. He was the absolute best morning radio personality ever. #1 ratings at KFRC (actually was responsible for most of KFRC's success, #1 at WFIL Philly, & #1 at WQXI. Moreover he was a wonderful man.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of hosts and language choice - - - can't Monty on KGO find another word than 'friggin' for just about everything or does he think that it makes him sound young and cool? It doesn't - - just dumb and lacking class.
ReplyDeleteI remember those great interviews with Ross McGowan. That was a really solid morning show. I never understood why Ross didn't get to sit at the desk with Frank and Tori. They always made him stand.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of KTVU, I wonder if Frank Sommerville knows there's a picture of him taking down his daughter's braids on a celebrity gossip website called Bossip. There are close to 200 comments too.
ReplyDeleteListened to the good Dr during my teenage years. Truly enjoyed his style, often corny but always genuine and the joy of broadcasting came through the radio.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite drop: Female voice "Oh Doctor Don, you son of a b"
That's right that's right that's right that's right that's riiiiiiiight!
ReplyDeleteI miss him more than anything or anyone else in this world. Now, THAT is how radio is supposed to sound. It was fun, it was timely, and best of all, it was local.
ReplyDeleteRadio lacks the class and talent that we took for granted just 30 short years ago. I would give ANYTING to have Don Rose back. But now, God himself is enjoying Don's company.
Ironically, the current 610 AM engineer can't even keep the signal on the air. Not that anyone is listening to the barritone droning of he who has pants on fire...
He was good--also revered by other DJs, heard Don Geronimo up in Sacramento say some nice things about him.
ReplyDeleteDr Don was creative, wonderfully original, humorous, and absolutely loved radio. He would be aghast at the dreck that passes for radio today, pawned off by the frauds at Cumulus, Clear Channel, Infinity, and Entercom (among others).
ReplyDeleteThose of us who loved and respected radio realize that it's demise has been totally unnecessary as congress is the chief culprit for its death after passing the ridiculous communications act of 1995 that effectively deregulated the industry.
This has allowed clowns such as Karel, frauds such as 'Monty the loudmouth,' and amateurs such as Kate Scott to work on the air on a regular basis.
Gary Radnich loves to work with people of this ilk because he isn't threatened by them, and knows that he sounds so much better than they do. But Radnich is whistling in the dark if he thinks he's going to last much longer in the local media. KRON will fire his sorry bloated red face soon enough to save money, and good old KNBR will do the same when they feel the need (probably by next year.)
Gary sold is soul to the devil for a few more years of working on a pathetic radio station that has become one of the jokes of the bay area radio scene. It's all very sad and makes some of us 'older' folks realize just how dumb and inconsequential much of the crap on stations such as 'Alice' and 'The Game' that passes for radio broadcasting really is.
But young people today could care less. They have no appreciation or knowledge of local radio history. They post on this blog with stupid, insensitive remarks such as "Get over it," and "that's just the way it is dude!" They have no respect for anyone (including themselves), and couldn't hold a conversation with anyone unless they were tweeting or texting hyphenated, misspelled words and incomplete sentences to their 'peeps.' The idea of a conversation? That's an arcane habit that they'll leave to the 'old folks.'
I fear for the future of our country if these are the type of people that are emerging from our Universities these days.
And when I look at some of the
empty headed young nit wits who have been given positions of influence in our country and who are under the age of 35 I really shake my head in amazement!
Unfortunately, in an effort to get the 'young demographic' (which guess what folks, doesn't exist anymore, because young people DON'T LISTEN TO THE RADIO ANYMORE!) the broadcasting business has turned the industry into a playpen for screaming, egotistical, cynical, dysfunctional young fools!