{"id":3467,"date":"2026-06-11T13:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/?page_id=3467"},"modified":"2026-06-11T13:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:25:12","slug":"2026-0605","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/2026-0605\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio Waves: June 5, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

When radio made records<\/strong><\/h1>\n

As you may recall from a previous column, I am on a quest to fix some of the old electronics that have been waiting for some TLC. I started with a really cool Wards Airline wood radio as described back in April, followed by others for which I had not documented the repairs – an RCA pocket radio from about 1960 (note to self: those early transistor radios sound terrible), and then changed out some parts from a (working) Delco tube radio that had been a gift from my father to my mother some time around 1947.<\/p>\n

A local musician \u2014Ned Evett \u2014 was singing and playing the piano recently at Think Prime in San Pedro, and he gave me his recently-released vinyl album called \u201cStrange Kind of Freedom\u201d under the promise that I had a turntable to play it on. Of course I have a turntable, I told him, which is true. I\u2019ve had one since I was about 12. I just had not used it lately. As it turned out, it too needed a bit of repair, mainly cleaning and lubrication, and a new stylus. The album from Evett \u2014 who invented a fretless glass guitar \u2014 is quite good, and sounded great on the \u201crestored\u201d turntable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But turntables have nothing to do with radio, right? Well, you might be surprised. As I was looking through my record collection, I realized I had a few albums that were released by radio stations, from a long bygone era in which stations, often bigger than life, put their promotions departments to work creating special treats for listeners.<\/p>\n

These are not cheap productions. The quality of these match or surpass most of the commercial releases of the time. One even includes a game! And of course they include station information to help bond with listeners.<\/p>\n

The oldest I have is \u201cKFWB\u2019s Battle of the Surfing Bands,\u201d released in 1963. Filled with songs from various performers including\u00a0 <\/span>The Lively Ones, The Challengers, and Bruce Johnston, the cover features some photos of unknown surfers along with a photo of the KFWB (980 AM) DJs on a \u201csurfboard set\u201d- Joe Yokam, Gene Weed, Wink Martindale, Earl McDaniel, Elliot Field, Bill Ballance, Bobby Dale, and Roger Christian – all \u201csurfing\u201d on the same board.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I found out this was not specific to KFWB – there were versions from KPOI\/Honolulu and KYA\/San Francisco as well, with the exact same photos (each station had their own DJ\u2019s on the fake wave surfing), the same songs, and even the same quotes describing the album \u2026 but credited to each station\u2019s respective personalities.<\/p>\n

In 1965, KHJ (930 AM) released \u201cKHJ Boss Goldens Vol. 1,\u201d which is described as \u201cthe best of 1965,\u201d the same year that KHJ launched the Boss Radio top-40 format. It features a description of the station, photos of the DJs, and some really good songs: \u201cGloria\u201d by Them, \u201cLies\u201d by the Knickerbockers, and \u201cEve of Destruction\u201d by Barry McGuire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next up is the 93\/KHJ \u201c30 Boss Goldens.\u201d Released in 1967, this one is the real deal, with 30 popular songs including \u201cCherish\u201d by The Association, \u201c98.6\u201d by Keith, and \u201cThe Oogum Boogum Song\u201d by local boy (he attended San Pedro High and graduated from Compton High) Brenton Wood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This one is a slick, double album production, including \u201chippie\u201d art on the cover and DJ bios and station promotional photos on the inside.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

KHJ did it again in 1970 with the release of \u201cSound of the Sixties,\u201d 30 hits including \u201cHouse of the Rising Sun\u201d by The Animals, \u201cBrown Eyed Girl\u201d by Van Morrison, and \u201cVenus\u201d by The Shocking Blue. Shadoe Stevens\u2019 \u201cshoe print\u201d is on the cover, which is interesting since Stevens was only at the station six months! The inside of the cover features the aforementioned game complete with rules; unfortunately my album does not have all the pieces and cards needed to play. On the board there are \u201clandmarks\u201d that cause you to lose a turn (you have to vacation, after all)\u00a0 <\/span>if you land on them \u2014 MacArthur Park, The Queen Mary, Catalina Island, and Malibu. The player who first reaches the \u201cDisc Jockey of the Year\u201d star wins the game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

KHJ sister station KFRC\/San Francisco released albums as well, and they were their own. The one I have is from 1967: \u201c21 Golden Rocks,\u201d including \u201cHey Joe\u201d by Leaves, \u201cLittle Red Book\u201d by Love, and \u201cSolitary Man\u201d by Neil Diamond.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And finally, a while back, reader Richard Koenig of Torrance sent me a promotional album released by then AOR station K-WEST (now KPWR, 105.9 FM). This one was not actually designed to promote the station, but it did have local bands providing songs to help raise money for local public radio stations. The cost? $1.06, reflecting the station\u2019s frequency.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

These are but a few of the albums released by stations around the country, and they represent a time when stations put as much emphasis on marketing as they did programming. Budgets would most likely not allow it now, but wouldn\u2019t it be great for a station to at least try it once more? I\u2019d love an album of music from Go Country (KKGO, 105.1 FM), for example. Or maybe The So Cal Sound (KCSN, 99.5 FM) could make one as a fundraiser. Vinyl, of course.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When radio made records As you may recall from a previous column, I am on a quest to fix some of the old electronics that have been waiting for some TLC. I started with a really cool Wards Airline wood radio as described back in April, followed by others for which I had not documented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3467","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3484,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3467\/revisions\/3484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}