Johnny Hayes (born March 10, 1939 or 1940) is an American radio personality and former DJ who worked at Los Angeles radio station KRLA. He began working as a disc jockey in 1961 with stints at major radio stations around the country including Atlanta, San Francisco, and San Diego.
A native of Macon, Georgia, he served in the Air Force after graduating from high school. To forge a career in radio, he determined to lose his Southern accent and eventually succeeded in doing so. [1]
He has been a disc jockey at major radio stations around the country since 1961, when he joined WAKE in Atlanta. Later gigs in San Francisco and San Diego led to him being hired in 1965 to Los Angeles #1 Top-40 station, KRLA, where he shared the mic with Casey Kasem, Dave Hull, Bob Eubanks, and Dick Biondi. [2] [3] He hosted the Big 11 Countdown Show, where he counted the top 11 songs from the Southern California charts, plus a few extras, and told stories behind the hits as well as the artists who performed the songs. He also shared the events that took place on that particular date. Towards the end of the show, he asked a trivia question for prizes, in which the first contestant, who called with the correct answer, would be guaranteed the prize. After a falling out with the KRLA Management in 1991, Hays left the station and became a disc jockey for KRTH101FM for several years. However, due to conflicts of interest policies, Hayes was not allowed to have a countdown show on that station. He retired in the 2000s.
Hayes was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 18, 2000. [4]
Rigdon Osmond Dees III, best known as Rick Dees, is an American entertainer, radio personality, comedian, actor, and voice artist, best known for his internationally syndicated radio show The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown and for the 1976 satirical novelty song "Disco Duck".
Bill Drake, born Philip Yarbrough, was an American radio programmer who co-developed the Boss Radio format with Gene Chenault via their company Drake-Chenault.
Don Steele was one of the most popular disc jockeys in the United States from the middle of the 1960s until his retirement in May 1997. He was better known as "The Real Don Steele," a name suggested by his program director, Steve Brown, at KOIL-AM in Omaha, Nebraska. Brown hoped the moniker would click with listeners and make him stand out from other radio personalities.
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts. There are several subcategories, dominantly focusing on rock, pop, or urban music. Used alone, CHR most often refers to the CHR-pop format. The term contemporary hit radio was coined in the early 1980s by Radio & Records magazine to designate Top 40 stations which continued to play hits from all musical genres as pop music splintered into Adult contemporary, Urban contemporary, Contemporary Christian and other formats.
James John Lange was an American game show host and disc jockey. He was known to listeners in the San Francisco and Los Angeles radio markets with stints at several stations in both markets, racking up over 45 years on the air. Lange was also known to television viewers as the host of several game shows, including The Dating Game.
KRDC is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles as a full-time simulcast of ESPN Radio affiliate KSPN 710 AM. The station is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company and is the only remaining radio property to be owned by the conglomerate under the ABC, Inc. subsidiary; a sale to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa is pending. As a simulcast of KSPN, KRDC is effectively programmed by Good Karma Brands, that station's owner.
KRLA "AM 870 The Answer" is a commercial radio station broadcasting a conservative talk radio format. Licensed to Glendale, California, it serves Greater Los Angeles and Southern California. The station is owned by Salem Media Group, which also owns 99.5 KKLA-FM which features a Christian talk and teaching format, and 95.9 KFSH-FM with a contemporary Christian music format. By day, KRLA transmits with 50,000 watts, the maximum for commercial AM stations. Since AM 870 is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A WWL New Orleans, KRLA must reduce power at sunset to 3,000 watts to reduce interference. It uses a directional antenna with a three-tower array. The transmitter is off El Reposo Drive in Los Angeles, near the Glendale Freeway.
KTIE is a commercial radio station licensed to San Bernardino, California. It is owned by the Salem Media Group, with studios on University Avenue in Riverside, California, and it airs a conservative talk radio format. The station serves the Inland Empire of California, including San Bernardino, Riverside, Redlands and Lake Arrowhead.
Arthur W. Ferguson, known professionally as Charlie Tuna, was a radio personality and television host based in Los Angeles, California.
Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue, was an American rock and roll radio disc jockey, record producer and concert promoter.
John Sanford Gilliland Jr. was an American radio broadcaster and documentarian best known for the Pop Chronicles music documentaries and as one of the original members of The Credibility Gap. He was born and died in his hometown of Quanah, Texas. He worked for a number of radio stations in Texas and California including KOGO in San Diego (1961–1965), KRLA 1110 in Los Angeles (1965–1970), and KSFO (AM) in San Francisco (1971–1978).
Richard Orlando Biondi was an American Top 40 and oldies disc jockey. Calling himself The Wild I-tralian, he was one of the original "screamers," known for his screaming delivery as well as wild antics on and off the air. In a 1988 interview, Biondi said he had been fired 23 times, with both fits of temper and jokes gone wrong part of the tally. Over many years and many frequencies, Dick's closing line was, "God bless, bye, bye, Duke. Thanks a million for dialing our way."
Susan M. Cappetta was an American pop musician. She was the writer of the top 40 hit "Dave Hull The Hullabalooer" in 1965, a song about Los Angeles radio personality Dave Hull. She was a member of the group, The Scuzzies and later worked in The Harrison & Tyler Show act. She had done work with Jimmy Ellis.
Richard James "Dick" Hugg was a radio disc jockey in Los Angeles, California.
B. Mitchel Reed was a successful and popular American disc Jockey on both Top 40 and album-oriented rock radio stations, working in New York and Los Angeles during his 25-year career.
Hudson & Landry were an American comedy team who wrote and recorded four gold albums on the Doré Records label in the 1970s: Hanging in There (1971), Losing Their Heads (1972), Right-Off! (1972), and The Weird Kingdom (1974). The vignette "Ajax Liquor Store" (1971) was nominated for a Grammy Award. They also wrote material for Jim Backus' 1974 Dore album The Dirty Old Man.
Al Anthony is an American former Los Angeles area radio personality and pioneer rock and roll DJ. Anthony was most well known as a disc jockey for KAFY 550 AM in Bakersfield, California during the 1950s and later at KFXM 590 AM and co-located sister station(KDUO-FM) in San Bernardino, California during the 1960s, where he was also the station's Director of Operations. Later, he was Executive Vice President of the Tullis & Hearne California chain of broadcasting stations. In late Fall of 1958 and early Winter of 1959, Anthony was the top rated DJ in the United States, by share of rated audience, not by market size.
Marion Elbridge Herrington, best known as Captain Mikey, was an American disc jockey; voice-over actor, who was the national voice for Sears; and innovative radio program director, who "pioneered album-oriented rock formats at San Jose's KOME and Los Angeles' KMET", and was described as "one of the very best programmers in Top 40 radio as well as what we called progressive rock on FM."
The Scuzzies were a mid-1960s recording and performing group of 5 teen cousins from the South Bay, Los Angeles area of California. The group gained notoriety for recording a song, written by group leader Suzie Cappetta, entitled "Dave Hull The Hullabalooer" in the winter of 1964. The song was a tribute to a popular Los Angeles Disc Jockey Dave Hull, AKA "The Hullabalooer" who worked at KRLA, a 50,000 watt AM radio station in South Pasadena, California. Hull was more recently named one of the top ten greatest broadcasters in Los Angeles radio history.
Thomas Joseph Irwin, known professionally as "Shotgun Tom" Kelly, is an American radio and television personality, two-time Emmy award winner, Billboard Air Personality of the Year winner and recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.