MUSIC TO MY EARS; AUTO DEALER FOUNDED RADIO STATION IN 1920S.Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer The love affair between Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. and the car radio has been hot and heavy for much of the century. The relationship can be traced back to 1922 when KFI KFI Key from Image KFI Key Facts Illustration (UK financial services) KFI Kraft Foods International KFI Korea Fire Equipment Inspection Corporation KFI Key Frame Interval KFI Kernel Function Instrumentation was founded by auto dealer and electrical engineer Earle C. Anthony. A distributor of Packard trucks and autos, Anthony launched the station as a hobby and service to his customers, who were mostly farmers listening on crystal sets. At the time, KFI broadcast music, news and farm reports with Anthony as chief announcer. ``Remember, Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for H. Gaylord Wilshire (1861-1927), an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. was still a dirt road dirt road n (US) → camino sin firme dirt road n → chemin non macadamisé or non revêtu dirt road dirt n at this time,'' says Arthur Landing, a San Gabriel-based radio historian and Anthony biographer. ``The station had no staff, no programming schedule and no idea where they were going.'' There were also no in-dash radios until the early '30s. By 1960, 50 million American cars - 60 percent - were radio-equipped. Today, there are 84 stations in the Los Angeles area - 37 AM and 47 FM - more than in any other large city. The primary target of all those broadcasters: motorists. ``More people listen to radio in the car than anywhere else,'' said radio analyst Allen Klein Allen Klein (born December 18, 1931) is an American businessman and record label executive. He is best known (and somewhat notorious) for his tenacious management of rock and roll performers in the 1960s, and the subsequent hostile acquisition and control of their works. of Encino-based Media Research Graphics Inc. ``But they spend less time listening in the car than they do listening at the office. The difference is, there's an involvement with the radio that people have in the car that they don't have anywhere else. That's why car listening is so important and valuable to advertisers.'' Car listening has been equally important to pop record producers then and now. ``All the famous L.A. pop stations of the '60s depended on car listening,'' said Hal Lifson, a Sherman Oaks musicologist mu·si·col·o·gy n. The historical and scientific study of music. mu  si·co·log and KIEV-AM (870) radio host. ``In fact, producers had to have the car culture in mind when cutting records. They tailored the way the finished mix would sound for a one-speaker audience - the radio speaker on the dash and the transistor radio kids carried around.'' One of the most famous voices to grace the local airwaves gave radio a guttural guttural /gut·tur·al/ (gut´er-il) faucial; pertaining to the throat. gut·tur·al adj. Of or relating to the throat. guttural pertaining to the throat. shriek shriek - exclamation mark . Wolfman Jack (real name: Robert Smith) got his start south of the border on radio stations with mega-million watts of power, which was an inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's ``American Graffiti.'' Because of the city's highly developed car culture of the '50s and beyond, Los Angeles is known as the historical home of such powerhouse Top 40 stations as KFWB, KRLA (where the shaggy-haired Wolfman worked from 1984 to 1987) and KHJ KHJ Katholische Hochschuljugend (German: Catholic University Youth) , remembered as Boss Radio. ``KFWB had incredible ratings back then, and it was due to so many car listeners,'' recalls ex-Boss Radio disc jockey ``Humble'' Harve, now heard at midnight Sundays on Glendale's KIEV. ``This was the place where they tried to count car-radio listening by standing on a street corner with a piece of equipment that registered the frequencies people were tuned to. It never worked.'' Harve recalled that at one point, KHJ dubbed itself ``car radio,'' with traffic reports every six minutes. ``It was very bizarre and it bombed badly, either because it wasn't done right or it was too out of this world,'' the veteran DJ said, adding that when he worked there, two actual car radios were installed on the mixing desk so promos and other material could be evaluated. ``When I was on Boss Radio, the whole idea was to visualize people listening in cars,'' Harve said. ``I would always mention something about automobiles and, of course, everything the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean ever recorded was car-related.'' The importance of the radio on wheels continues today in the high-stakes music world. Mike Simpson of the successful production team known as the Dust Brothers said when he and his partner were mixing the Beastie Boys' 1989 smash ``Paul's Boutique,'' they ran cables from the studio to a car radio outside. ``We've been doing that for years,'' Simpson said. ``Now that we can burn CDs in the studio, the key test is the car test. And often, an album can sound better in the car than it does in the studio.'' The play list ... Here's a list of cruisin' songs and highway hits inspired by the car culture that got its grip in Los Angeles during the '50s: ``Stick Shift,'' the Duals. ``Hot Rod Man,'' Tex Rubinowitz. ``Hotrod Gang,'' Stray Cats. ``Cruisin','' Gene Vincent & his Blue Caps. ``Radar Love,'' Golden Earring earring, a personal adornment, sometimes an amulet, worn attached to the ear lobe. Since prehistoric times the ear has been pierced for the insertion of the earring; certain primitive tribes distort the lobe with plugs several inches in diameter or with heavy stones. . ``Mercury Blues,'' David Lindley. ``Maybellene,'' Chuck Berry. ``Ballad of Thunder Road,'' Robert Mitchum with Orchestra. ``Forty Miles of Bad Road,'' Duane Eddy. ``SS 396,'' Paul Revere Revere, city (1990 pop. 42,786), Suffolk co., E Mass., a residential suburb of Boston, on Massachusetts Bay; settled c.1630, set off from Chelsea and named for Paul Revere 1871, inc. as a city 1914. & the Raiders. ``See the U.S.A. in Your Chevrolet,'' Dinah Shore. ``Little Deuce Coupe,'' the Beach Boys. ``Hot Rod,'' Collins Kids. ``Mr. Highway Man,'' Howlin' Wolf. ``Lost Highway,'' Hank Williams. ``Highway Patrol,'' Junior Brown. ``Heavy Traffic Ahead,'' Bill Monroe. ``Motorhead Baby,'' Johnny ``Guitar'' Watson. ``Rockin' Down the Highway,'' Doobie doo·bie n. Slang A marijuana cigarette. [Origin unknown.] Brothers. ``Hey Little Cobra,'' the Rip Chords. ``Hot Rod Queen,'' Deke Dickerson. ``Hot Rod Lincoln,'' Johnny Bond. ``Hot Rod Race,'' Ramblin' Jimmie Dolan. ``Dragster drag·ster n. 1. An automobile specially built or modified for drag racing. 2. A person who races such an automobile. ,'' Johnny Fortune. ``Race with the Devil,'' Gene Vincent & his Blue Caps. ``Devil in My Car,'' the B-52's. ``Rocket 88,'' Jackie Brenston & his Delta Cats. ``Key to the Highway,'' Little Walter. ``Low Rider,'' War. ``Whittier Blvd.,'' Midniters. ``Cadillac Assembly Line,'' Albert King. ``Pink Cadillac,'' Sammy Masters & his Rocking Rhythm. ``Crawling From the Wreckage,'' Dave Edmunds. ``Dead Man's Curve Dead Man's Curve is the unofficial but commonly used name given to hazardous curves on Interstate and other highways in the United States that have claimed lives due to accidents. ,'' Jan & Dean. ``On the Road Again,'' Canned Heat. ``Drive South,'' John Hiatt. ``I Gotta New Car,'' Big Boy Groves. ``No Money Down,'' Chuck Berry. ``Little Forty Ford,'' Leon Smith. ``Stolen Car,'' the Green Hornets. ``Road Runner,'' Bo Diddley. ``Pink Thunderbird thunderbird In North American Indian mythology, a powerful spirit in the form of a bird that watered the earth and made vegetation grow. Lightning was believed to flash from its eyes or beak, and the beating of its wings was thought to represent rolling thunder. ,'' Gene Vincent & his Blue Caps. ``Sting Ray,'' the Routers. ``Route 66 Theme,'' Nelson Riddle. ``Gas Money,'' Jan & Arnie. ``Gasoline Alley,'' Rod Stewart. ``Mustang Sally,'' Wilson Pickett. ``Wheels,'' Flying Burrito Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . - Fred Shuster CAPTION(S): Photo, Box Photo: Wolfman Jack got his start on powerful Mexican radio, broadcasting across the border to car lovers. Daily News archives Box: The play list ... (See text) |
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