Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio Rewind

A Personal Journey

The rock ‘n’ roll radio history section of my website is entitled Boss Radio Forever. Welcome! It’s just you and me here. On a personal journey. We are going back in time.

Are we in Hollywood in 1965? What’s the story with that billboard on Sunset Boulevard? Are we are floating in the fog and the Redwood trees of Northern California. Oh yes, that’s where we are now.

You see the brilliant blue Pacific Ocean below and the unforgettably powerful scent of the lumber industry overtakes you. How did we get here together? Maybe you’re just sharing space in my head, locked in on my memories with me.

Just go with it and stick closely with me. We are back in 1975 together.

You watch me convince my communications professor at Humboldt State University to approve my idea to study Boss Radio, a 1965 rock and roll radio programming success story in Hollywood. Even though we are in 1975, and Boss Radio happened only 10 years before, my proposal to study what happened in Hollywood is very risky. No pressure. Skip this introduction and go directly to the contents page.

All I’ve got to do is convince an impressive group of radio industry heavyweights (who had never before–or since–been interviewed together for one publication) to share their thoughts and insights with me. Sure, that will work. I’m 25 and I’m going to succeed doing what nobody else before had ever done. The pressure on me is palpable. I am living in the pressure.

I keep playing that 1975 Joan Baez song “Diamonds and Rust” over and over and over. It’s an eerie song that teaches me the importance of memories because the passage of time can turn coal into diamonds and once shiny medal into mere rust.

Escape from Los Angeles

People go to Humboldt County, California to escape pressure. People escape from Los Angeles all the way up north to Humboldt because it is hundreds and hundreds of miles away from all the hustle and overcrowding that is Southern California. I did exact that. So, I know. I had worked in Hollywood until I lost my job at a rock and roll radio station. And then I had to come up with a plan for what I would do with my life and get over the hurt.

I chose to move to Humboldt so that I could get as far, far away from Hollywood as possible and still remain in the state of California. I had worked on Sunset Boulevard for the people who in 1965 had become legends in the radio programming industry with their Boss Radio format. But, now it was time to say goodbye to all that and I chose the California state university in Humboldt County to work towards my master’s degree in communications.

My communications professor at Humboldt approves my proposal to study Boss Radio because, even though I recently had chosen to leave Southern California and move all the way up to Humboldt, I still had connections to people down in Hollywood. Never burn bridges. Always stay connected. Today we call that networking. So, I interviewed people like Bill Drake and Ron Jacobs about their work in the radio business during the 1960s. I helped to preserve important memories, to defy the passage of time, and to make up for the significant losses caused by the passing of so many talent individuals. Now the memories of what was can be shared with you.

Thank you for visiting here today! Continue your journey here today.