The Pioneer and Rock Radio

I have taken a few days to think about this post. I read that Gene Chenault had passed away last week. I have often spoken about the history of rock radio, especially in the Fresno, CA market. Fresno is famous in marketing for some of the products that were first tried and sold in its limited market. Remember, that markets were more isolated before the introduction of satellite and Internet marketing. Some day’s people were bringing products to your door so that you could try them and tell about how you felt before the product was actually put into the national market. This era lead to innovation in broadcasting and newspaper sales. One of the changes at that time was the introduction of rock and how it leads to a different type of radio. I remember when KYNO changed to rock and took over the local radio band. I never had the chance to meet either Gene Chenault or Bill
Drake who turned their company Drake-Chenault into the powerhouse of radio programming that it was to become. I was not completely happy with the changes at the time. I know that I was definitely in a minority, within my age group. I was more of a news fan even then. The “much more music” and “20-20 news” were dynamic changes that started in Fresno and went all over the world. My first visit to a rock radio station was at 2 am on a Sunday morning with a group of friends from Fresno City College. We had a charity event and after it was over we took the result to several local stations. The DJ at KYNO must have been bored that night, since he let us come in and watch him play non stop music. He told us that he had no more advertising to play, until 5 am that morning.
The effect of that station, was to actually eliminate one of the competitors. The station changed its call letters to HARM or KARM when the FCC would not allow the “H” prefix that George Harm wanted and made him stay with the normal, so KARM changed to a format of pop music. The last day of rock on that station was a 24 hour playing of one song. I think it was an Elvis song but as an old guy I do not remember all the details.
I had not known that Leo Goldman who started KYNO, is the father of Carl Goldman. He and his wife, own the local radio station in my town. KHTS is not a big station, but it is important to our local community. The news feed that they send me on the Internet, is ahead of everyone with local news. This is what local radio does best. It reminds me of KYNO and the era when local radio was the most important to us all. From the start it was local radio that brought in rock radio. Not all of it was as innocent as people thought, but I just want to remember what the people heard.
Let me just add that one of my big memories of growing up, was winning a contest that provided the food for a picnic in my backyard for 13 people and the appearance of one of the local DJ's. I picked the morning drive and Sam Schwan actually came. I was impressed. One contest was to find the remote broadcast and get a prize – well I had a head start because they were parked on the street outside of my house. I remember listening to the clue and thinking they had to be close. When I looked out the window and saw they were still on the air I knew I had won.
The fact is that I have always preferred the traditional style and was more into KMPC and Gary Owen then KHJ and the Real Don Steele in Los Angeles radio. In fact when I moved to Los Angeles, it seemed that it had followed me with the same format and even the same person doing the news.
Now that I have read the obit in the Los Angeles Times, it brings all these memories back to me and I thank Carla Rivera for it.